Veolia entered the Chinese waste management market in the 1990s. The Group brought its expertise in waste management to China and started to develop sustainable waste management in China. The scope of Veolia's waste management business in China covers hazardous waste, landfill, landfill gas to power, waste-to-energy and resource recovery projects.
Several of the company's projects have been groundbreaking examples of waste disposal on the mainland, and in 2003, the French group Vivendi, the predecessor of Veolia, was awarded a contract to design, build and operate a comprehensive hazardous waste management facility in Tianjin. This was the first official project in China to cooperate with a foreign company in the field of hazardous waste treatment, and it is the first modern comprehensive hazardous waste treatment and disposal center in China that integrates incineration, physical treatment, safe landfill, and resource utilization; Guangzhou Xingfeng Sanitary Domestic Waste Landfill, China's first landfill designed and operated by multinationals through an international bidding process; and Hangzhou Tianziling Landfill Gas Power Plant, the first landfill gas power plant in mainland China. The first landfill gas power plant in mainland China. Throughout the country, Veolia serves municipal and industrial clients to help them better respond to their growing needs for water infrastructure.
Veolia's first water contract in China is for 20 years at the Lingzhuang Water Treatment Plant in southwest Tianjin. Veolia is responsible for renovating the plant and providing high quality drinking water to a population of 2.35 million. In 2002, Veolia won a 50-year full-service contract for the Pudong district of Shanghai to provide water treatment, water delivery and customer follow-up services. This was the first time that a private company was allowed to participate in a full water business in China. Since then, Veolia's full service contracts have been signed in Shenzhen, Kunming, Changzhou, Liuzhou, Lanzhou, Haikou and Tianjin. In the industrial market, Veolia provides water treatment services to customers in China's major industries ranging from oil refining, chemicals, steel production to food and beverage. In 2004, Veolia entered the Chinese energy management market. Veolia's energy business in China focuses on 3 areas: district energy supply (heating and cooling networks), industrial utilities and building energy efficiency. 2006, Veolia was awarded a contract for an energy production plant for a real estate project in Chongqing, and in 2007, Dalkia (later renamed Veolia) was awarded the first concession contract for a district heating network in China. Since then, Veolia has been providing heating services to Jiamusi, a city in the northeast of China with harsh winters.
In 2007, Veolia was awarded the contract to build and operate the Harbin Thermal Power Plant to heat the city of Harbin. Veolia completed the first phase of the heating network infrastructure within the same year and started its first heating season . By 2016, the city was heated by Veolia over an area of 190,000 square meters. Veolia maintains its strategic positioning as an operator, sharing and ****co-developing its operational experience in its areas of expertise with local companies. Antoine Frérot, Veolia's President and CEO, has emphasized Veolia's triangular partnership strategy for water projects, which consists of a targeted government, a professional operator and an efficient financial institution. Veolia has positioned itself as an operator to realize the connection between the government and the financial institution.
Veolia's strength is the combination of technology and experience, known as "interface technology". "The more complex the project system, the more Veolia's strengths are reflected" Antoine Frérot, Veolia's president and CEO, has expressed Veolia's preference for the project model. At its core, it is about giving specialized operating companies a central dominant position.
Veolia's management experience is also applicable to BOT and TOT projects, where operations are relatively simple to manage, because of the importance of the operations themselves. Veolia's subsidiary, Tianjin Hejia Veolia Hazardous Waste Disposal Center, was involved in the emergency response to the environmental pollution of the 8-12 Tianjin Binhai New Area explosion
. Under the command of the Emergency Response Headquarters, Tianjin Hejia Veolia sent professional emergency personnel with professional equipment to the scene in an emergency, actively cooperated closely with other scientific research teams and environmental protection departments, entered the site of the core area of the explosion on August 14, 2015, and worked continuously for several months to carry out the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of cyanide-containing wastewater and hazardous solid wastes in the core area to ensure the safe and harmless disposal of cyanide-containing wastewater, the safe disposal of solid wastewater at the site and the safe disposal of cyanide-containing wastewater. Safe and harmless disposal of wastewater and cleanup of solid waste at the site were scientifically and efficiently ensured. Because of the outstanding performance of this emergency response work, Tianjin Hejia Veolia has won the full affirmation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the local government and has been recognized many times.