Veolia’s school outreach program engages record 55,000 students in water education

Veolia’s Municipal Water division reached more than 55,000 students during the 2024–2025 school year through its school outreach program, the largest number since the initiative began.

The free classes, designed to complement existing curricula, were delivered in 2,060 sessions across Veolia’s Municipal Water service territories in North America. The program also extended to educational tours of water and wastewater treatment facilities operated by the company, along with participation in environmental outreach events such as Earth Day activities and STEM nights.

Karine Rougé, CEO of Veolia’s Municipal Water division in North America, said the effort helps inspire the next generation of water professionals.

“Veolia’s school outreach program is an incubator for the next generation to find their roles conserving and replenishing water resources – operating infrastructure, protecting biodiversity, creating new technological breakthroughs and building a circular economy for water,” Rougé said in a press release. “Getting students interested in water plants the seeds to continue learning in these areas, discovering their careers and their futures in the science we need to provide environmental security to a changing planet. Some of those kindergarteners will be the next generation of our workforce in a blink of an eye, and all of them will benefit from the sparks we light in our educational programs.”

Teachers and students provide feedback on the programming at the end of each year, which helps refine the material to better fit lesson plans. Patricia O’Brien, a science teacher at Park Avenue Elementary School in Port Chester, N.Y., said the sessions provide her students with a deeper perspective.

“Veolia’s programs provide our students with hands-on experience and a different perspective. Teaching them about where water comes from, how it’s cleaned and how to conserve, gives them a lot to reflect on about the importance of water on our planet,” O’Brien said in a press release.

Jonathan Grossman, dean of students at the Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical High School in Groton, Conn., said the outreach is also shaping workforce awareness.

“Veolia’s school and community outreach programs have opened doors for students by exposing them to water career pathways they never knew existed,” Grossman said in a press release.

Veolia’s Municipal Water division provides water, wastewater and biosolids services to 20.7 million people in the U.S. The outreach program is part of the company’s global GreenUp strategy, which emphasizes depolluting, decarbonizing and regenerating resources as part of a broader ecological transformation.