WEBVTT - Veolia's DiCroce on Getting Ahead of 'Sustainable' Curve(Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>Good afternoon, Charlie. Stocks are climbing today, with the Dow

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<v Speaker 1>ten on revenues of three point four nine billion, Live

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<v Speaker 1>from the First Baking newsdask on Bill Maloney, Charlie, all right,

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<v Speaker 1>thank you very much, Bill, and to hear live breaking

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<v Speaker 1>news over your Bloomberg Times squawk. Ask you a w

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<v Speaker 1>K on your terminal. I'm Charlie Pelos. That's a Bloomberg

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<v Speaker 1>business flash. You're listening to taking stock with Pim Box

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<v Speaker 1>and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Water we all take

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<v Speaker 1>it for granted, but it seems to be the one

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<v Speaker 1>commodity that is immune to the factor of supply and demand.

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<v Speaker 1>Here to tell us how water factors into so many

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<v Speaker 1>aspects of our life and business is built a crow Check.

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<v Speaker 1>He is the president and the chief executive of Veolia

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<v Speaker 1>North America. Bill, thank you very much for coming into

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<v Speaker 1>the studio. My pleasure. Now just tell people a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit about the Volia. It is a French company, you're

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<v Speaker 1>the head of the North American business, and you're moving

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<v Speaker 1>the headquarters of the company from Chicago to Boston home

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<v Speaker 1>to Bloomberg. Tell us about the company and the move. Sure, so, Violis,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a it's a Paris based company, but we're an

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<v Speaker 1>international company. Um long history and water goes back a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty years as a French water utility. Over

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<v Speaker 1>the last fifteen years though, from that long history of

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<v Speaker 1>being a Western European water company, we really moved into

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<v Speaker 1>a position to be the world's largest all environmental firm

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<v Speaker 1>and we focus on water, energy, and waste basically around

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<v Speaker 1>resource resource management it on all those fronts. Um and

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<v Speaker 1>fundamental to that premise is what we call the circular economy,

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<v Speaker 1>which is trying to take people from a mental people, businesses,

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<v Speaker 1>cities away from a mentality of buy use, throw away

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<v Speaker 1>to buy use, reuse, repurpose and then maybe as much

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<v Speaker 1>as little waste as possible. So really it's it's taking

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<v Speaker 1>it from a linear thought process to a circular thought process.

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<v Speaker 1>So what do you sell them, the people that you

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<v Speaker 1>want to go circular, what do you sell them? We

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<v Speaker 1>we sell them services generally, So give for you for

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<v Speaker 1>an example. This is outside of it. It stretches across

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<v Speaker 1>water ennygy ways. But I'll give an example in water.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're building a plant right now in Marcellus shale

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<v Speaker 1>field where um we will take the water that comes

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<v Speaker 1>out after a frack. We will treat it so that

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<v Speaker 1>it can be either reused for the next round of

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<v Speaker 1>FRACKINGE or it can be discharged in environmentally safe manner.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's a case where it's it's a circular reuse

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<v Speaker 1>type of situation. In other cases, in refineries, we take

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<v Speaker 1>oily residuals where there's water and oil and other solids

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<v Speaker 1>mixed into part of a refinery process. We purify that,

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<v Speaker 1>will recycle the water, send it back to the refinery

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<v Speaker 1>or will send it back to their own treatment system,

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<v Speaker 1>will take out the oily components, give them the oil

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<v Speaker 1>back so they can put it back into the refinery process.

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<v Speaker 1>And then finally the solids that are left over, we

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<v Speaker 1>reinject into what's called the coker, which is it's a

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<v Speaker 1>way to actually combust it within the refining process, so

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<v Speaker 1>the waste streams are minimized, reus is maximized. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>bottom line benefit, and it's a reduced environmental footprint for

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<v Speaker 1>the refinery. So those are a couple of examples. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>I started when I introduced to you by describing water

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<v Speaker 1>as a commodity where supply and demand don't necessarily have

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<v Speaker 1>any effect on the price. Tell us about this. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's one of the big challenges of dealing with water

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<v Speaker 1>scarcity and water resource management. Water is substantially underpriced, and

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<v Speaker 1>you know, it's a touchy issue because many folks believe

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<v Speaker 1>that it's a right as as a citizen of planet

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<v Speaker 1>Earth to have access to water. In reality, there's this

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<v Speaker 1>filla cost, whether it's through scarcity or just normal um

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<v Speaker 1>the cost of moving water around. So, for example, in California,

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<v Speaker 1>where's a scarcity issue, we still price water in a

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<v Speaker 1>very cheap fashion where people can overuse and there's really

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<v Speaker 1>no economic pinch. So there's a dissociation between the price

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<v Speaker 1>of water and it's fundamental cost of delivery and the

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<v Speaker 1>notion of scarcity. How much has the consciousness of businesses changed?

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<v Speaker 1>Is it dutiful now? Like oh, yeah, I guess you'd

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<v Speaker 1>better got on board with this. It's getting a lot

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<v Speaker 1>more popular. Is there some sense of it being their duty?

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<v Speaker 1>Is there some sense of it being a good business

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<v Speaker 1>strategy in terms of cost over the longer haul? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 1>I think when you when you look at this notion

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<v Speaker 1>again of circular economy and sustainable development, it's come a

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<v Speaker 1>long way. If you go back, you know, ten fifteen years,

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<v Speaker 1>it was looked out maybe maybe a little further, called

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<v Speaker 1>them tree huggers. It progressed into a phase where there

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<v Speaker 1>were new technologies, there was a new wonder standing, but

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<v Speaker 1>people were still applying green plaint in other words, a

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<v Speaker 1>facade that looked sustainable, not but not really into the

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<v Speaker 1>core of business processes. Today, what you see our businesses

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<v Speaker 1>either for the reason of satisfying both greens as I

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<v Speaker 1>call it, economics and environmental reasons. There's an underpinning for

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<v Speaker 1>for investment. So uh, for those examples that I just gave,

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<v Speaker 1>not only is there cleaner environmental footprint for the industry,

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<v Speaker 1>but their bottom line competitive improves. So that's just one

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<v Speaker 1>fundamental reason. Now that takes complexity, fully understanding value chains

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<v Speaker 1>and supply chains and really digging into processes and doing

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<v Speaker 1>them different differently and making investments. But companies are doing that.

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<v Speaker 1>I think the other thing worthy of note is companies

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<v Speaker 1>are also looking at this as a hedge. So for example,

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<v Speaker 1>you're at the forefront of something like organics to energy.

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<v Speaker 1>We know we waste too much food. We know it

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<v Speaker 1>was into landfills that creates methane, which is basically c

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<v Speaker 1>O two on steroids. When it comes to the to

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<v Speaker 1>the global impact, to the climate impact. Yet, although there's

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<v Speaker 1>many laws that limit the UH basically the disposal of

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<v Speaker 1>organics to landfills, there's not much enforcement yet. But companies

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<v Speaker 1>are understanding that they need to get ahead of the curve.

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<v Speaker 1>So you see some of the big food companies, the

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<v Speaker 1>high end um grocery store chains, other big box companies

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<v Speaker 1>that move a lot of food. They're getting out in

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<v Speaker 1>front of it. Bill the Crouchy, thank you so very much.

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you for getting out in front of our radio

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<v Speaker 1>audience here this afternoon on taking Stock. Fiells, President CEO

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<v Speaker 1>of Violia North America, based in Chicago, companies moving headquarters

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<v Speaker 1>to Boston. He's in New York for the second annual

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Fistainable Business Summit. This is Bloomberg. Bloomberg taking Stock

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