Fergus Elebert on Sustainability Leadership and Veolia’s Role at the Green Awards 2025

Fergus Elebert, Regional Director at Veolia Ireland, is leading the charge in shaping a more sustainable future for Ireland’s environmental services. Veolia sets the standard for green initiatives with over 700 employees and a focus on innovative solutions. 

In this Q&A, Fergus discusses the company’s approach to sustainability, the evolving industry landscape, and the critical role the Green Awards 2025 plays in driving real change across Irish businesses.


How has your leadership approach evolved in response to the growing emphasis on sustainability, and what key lessons have you learned from managing large teams in such a dynamic industry?

The growing emphasis on sustainability is great to see. It is really important that we look at the impact we have on our communities and on the environment. That’s where I’ve seen a significant change in thinking. At Veolia, we consider the impact of our decisions on five different stakeholder groups. We work with our customers to co-develop solutions that meet their needs. We also look at how we can help our employees to develop, at our impact on the environment, at the benefit to the communities we work and live in as well as our own commercial requirements. This is what being truly sustainable means.

I mentioned our employees as being one of our key stakeholder groups. Veolia is a people driven organisation. Every one of our colleagues contributes to our purpose of ecological transformation. By having the right people with the right skills we can deliver the best, most sustainable solutions. 

Having large teams - Veolia has over 700 employees in Ireland - spread across numerous different customer sites is challenging but also rewarding. We have such a diverse workforce with a vast amount of skills and experience. Every year we hire an increasing number of apprentices and we recently celebrated over 50 people who have been working for Veolia for 20 years or more. To me this shows that you can build a long term career with Veolia. I really enjoy visiting our site teams, listening to what they have to say, seeing what they are doing and encouraging them to look at all of the opportunities that are available to them.

With increasing regulations and consumer expectations around sustainability, how do you see Ireland’s environmental services industry evolving over the next five years, and what role will Veolia play in shaping that future?

All of our customers are asking us how they can become more sustainable and are challenging us to come up with solutions to help them meet their sustainability targets. 

There is going to be a continued focus on energy, both in terms of decarbonisation and security of supply. The most sustainable solutions will reduce the use of fossil fuels and avoid dependence on one single source of supply; integrating a series of renewable energy sources in a planned way. Whether it is the impact of storms or of geopolitical developments we will need to make sure we have a stable, secure supply of energy.

Water management and water quality will be a major issue for the next five years. Given how much rain we get in Ireland it can seem funny to talk about having to manage our water supply but, as demand continues to grow, that’s what we will have to do. Veolia's teams are working on water management and treatment solutions that will help future proof our water supplies.

What are the biggest barriers preventing Ireland from fully embracing circular economy principles, and how can businesses and policymakers work together to overcome them?

The biggest barrier to being more sustainable is mindset. We can all sometimes be resistant to change and being more sustainable requires a change in mindset. Organisations need to have a specific, enterprise-wide plan to meet their sustainability objectives rather than working on a project by project basis. The Energy Performance Contracts we are delivering for the Mater and St James’s hospitals in Dublin are a great example of these in action.

Government can help to encourage this way of working by making sure that their funding and other support programmes actively encourage this type of approach.

What are some of the most promising innovations Veolia is implementing to help businesses and communities meet their environmental goals?

The key thing with innovative solutions is to pick those that match your organisation’s needs. That’s how we work with our customers. A few examples of recent innovations include:

• Implementing a Veolia solution called Color X to deliver chemical free water treatment to communities in Donegal. Our engineering team made use of the site's location and geography to utilise gravity rather than electric pumps in the treatment process to reduce energy usage.
  
• Delivering an energy self-sufficient sludge treatment hub using biogas created through Anaerobic Digestion to power a Combined Heat and Power engine.
  
• Using our network of waste treatment facilities to come up with the most sustainable solutions for complex waste streams.
  
• Providing real-time reporting through our Hubgrade Smart Monitoring system to aid decision making
  
  

Veolia is a sponsor of the Green Awards 2025, which celebrates sustainability achievements. From your perspective, what makes these awards important for driving real change, and how do they help businesses stay accountable for their environmental commitments?

Irish businesses are doing a lot of really good work when it comes to improving their environmental performance. It can often feel like we are not making progress as a country so the Green Awards has an important role to play in celebrating success and encouraging businesses to do more.

Veolia is very happy to support the Life Sciences category as this sector is one of the most dynamic in Ireland and is very focused on environmental performance.

Fergus Elebert’s insights highlight how sustainability leadership shapes the future of Ireland’s environmental services. As Veolia continues to lead by example, the Green Awards 2025 is a crucial platform for celebrating and driving meaningful change. Discover more about the awards and how businesses are stepping up their environmental game at the Green Awards 2025. Click here.