The "Romania Unfolds" platform, supported by Veolia Romania, has launched the third episode of the first documentary mini-series dedicated to sustainability in Romania. This episode explores the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 12, which promotes responsible consumption and production patterns.
In 2020, Romania consumed more than twice as many material resources to generate one unit of GDP as the European Union average. Additionally, each Romanian produced an average of 7.3 tons of waste, well above the European average of 5.2 tons per inhabitant. Given this scenario, it is crucial to adopt effective measures to reduce waste and implement the principles of a circular economy to achieve ambitious sustainable development objectives.
Episode 3 of the "Romania Unfolds" mini-series, initiated by Veolia Romania in 2023, showcases local businesses and sustainable initiatives aimed at reducing plastic consumption and single-use packaging, minimizing waste in production and supply chains, promoting sustainable local production (Ferma Cățean), and regenerative agriculture (Sol și Suflet). These examples promote sustainable behaviours by utilizing eco-friendly solutions.
The real-world examples featured in the third episode illustrate new consumption habits promoted by ROMO, a community network with over 36,000 active members, facilitating the direct exchange of food products between agricultural producers and urban consumers through an online platform. At the same time, we discovered R-Create, an innovative circular economy product and the first B2B digital platform that connects e-commerce, couriers, and postal services, providing customers access to reusable packaging made from durable materials. Depending on the model, one R-Create package can save between 30 and 100 cardboard packages used daily. Only 1.4% of the materials used in Romania were recycled and reintegrated into the production process in 2021, significantly below the 23.4% target set by the European Union for 2030.
The solutions presented in these two examples address communities' aspirations to reduce waste and encourage the adoption of a lifestyle based on responsible consumption, transparency, and local production. The primary goal is to reduce the negative impact of unsustainable consumption and promote behaviours that foster adopting a sustainable lifestyle.
"Through the initiatives supported within 'Romania Unfolds,' Veolia contributes to encouraging and developing responsible behaviours to protect the environment and ensure a sustainable future for future generations. It is essential to combine innovation with responsibility to create a real and positive impact in our communities,", said Mădălin Mihailovici, CEO of Veolia Romania.
We invite you to discover sustainable local business models by accessing the full episode. It provides a detailed insight into successful initiatives in Romania, presenting captivating stories behind dozens of hours of filming and offering practical solutions to current challenges related to sustainable consumption and production.
ABOUT VEOLIA
Veolia group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 213,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2023, the Veolia group provided 113 million inhabitants with drinking water and 103 million with sanitation, produced 42 million megawatt hours of energy and recovered 63 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 45.3 billion euros in 2023. www.veolia.ro