Our strategic plan

By relying on our long-standing strengths – proven technological solutions, a culture of partnership and deep local roots – along with our innovation capabilities and the commitment of our 40,000 staff members, our strategy charts a clear course in terms of meeting those challenges: becoming the trusted partner for circular solutions in water and waste by 2027.

We are focusing on our core businesses, i.e., the water and waste value chains, along with related services. These business areas give us a dynamic, diversified and balanced portfolio.

In geographical terms, we are concentrating on our main markets. They are a combination of mature, resilient and innovation-focused markets, and high-growth emerging markets. This strategy will enable us to increase the proportion of our revenue coming from international markets to 40% by 2027.

Challenges include cutting carbon, improving the energy performance and resilience of infrastructure, and using digital technologies in networks. To help our customers meet those challenges, we are increasing our investment capacity: over the course of our strategic plan, we will invest €860 million more than in the previous period.

We are also strengthening our innovation and R&D capabilities in order to design circular solutions in water and waste. Our research and development budget will increase by 50% between 2023 and 2027 as we seek to explore cutting-edge technologies in areas such as treating micropollutants (such as PFAS), producing sustainable energy from waste, recycling, and preserving water resources.

Building on our leadership in connected solutions, we are continuing to invest in digital and other technologies that play a key role in preserving resources, with the aim of doubling revenue from those activities within five years.

For our shareholders, our strategy aims to increase profits at a faster pace than revenue.

For our employees, our actions are part of a clear policy of participation. In accordance with our shareholders’ commitment to increasing the proportion of SUEZ’s capital held by our workforce to 10% by 2027-2029, we launched an employee share ownership plan in late 2022. This allowed us to hit our target of having 3% of our shares held by employees in 2022. Our Board of Directors includes three directors representing employees, including one representing employee-shareholders.

Our broader contribution to society is enshrined in our ambitious ESG policy, which is an integral part of our strategy. It includes 24 operational commitments as part of our 2023-2027 sustainable development roadmap, in three categories: climate, nature and social. These commitments will enable us to maintain our leadership in terms of sustainability. We report on our progress in these areas every year.

We also take action through the Fondation SUEZ, which supports projects to give access to essential services (water, wastewater and waste) in emerging and developing countries, along with social inclusion projects in France. We also pursue our commitment to inclusion through our dedicated subsidiary Rebond Insertion. Since 2003, more than 12,000 people have received support from Rebond Insertion, which plays a major role in integrating people into the workforce in the environmental services sector.

We firmly believe that through our water and waste activities we can play an important role in improving the quality of life wherever we operate. Our purpose, developed through consultation with our stakeholders, employees, customers and partners, is our North Star. In pursuing that purpose, we have concrete, quantitative targets in all of our business areas.