francine: waste is an inevitable part of our lives and in every growing problem.

the world bank warns of a dramatic increase by 2050. so finding new ways to manage our trash and waterways has become all the more urgent. on this episode of leaders with laqua goes green, i speak with the chief executive of the world's largest environmental services company. estelle brachlianoff says waste management has become fashionable. as the effects of climate change become more extreme and governments and companies round up efforts to curb the pollution. thank you so much for joining us on leaders with laqua. if somebody met you on the street and they say, what do you do for a living, how would you describe your job? estelle: good question. i would say i'm here to transform industries and cities so that they produce less carbon, consume less water and consume less materials. to have the plan to be greener. that's what i do for a living.

francine: it's a big job and you work with water, energy and waste. how different are they to manage. estelle: another way of saying it is the market. its decarbonization, of course, but decontamination or de-pollution if you want. we are moving pollutants so i can protect your health, mine and everybody else's, same with recycling and the economy. that's the market. it's a huge 1, 2 .5 trillion euros every year. at its fast growing and faster every day. in a way, you can see it both ways. the more the planet warms, and it is, the more you have -- but the good part of it is, we have solutions. my job is to implement, duplicate, scale up the solution and to be quicker because the planet won't wait and we won't

wait, the human on this planet as well. francine: these are solutions you find there is focus on innovation. where do you fit in that supply chain of delivering innovation to be greener in the future? estelle: we considered that to solve the big problem i've said we already have half of the solution in my priority is to scale them up, to deploy them in as many places as i can. the other half you have to invent them and that's great innovation takes place. we are having a lot of patents every single day. and we can do stuff now, which five years ago was considered crazy. recycle things like electrical batteries. which five euros we thought, wow, we will never be able to do that. we are able to recycle water almost infinitely. we are able to remove pollutants in water, things which five or 10 years ago we didn't know how to do, and you will discover

that we found ways for other stuff as well. francine: is bigger better? estelle: yes, it is. but let's not forget another competent is that it has to be -- another component, it has to be affordable. efficiency is a way to make all those solutions good not only for the planet, but for everybody's capacity of purchasing power. as well as to protect your health, so i guess i'm not here to save anything, but to protect health, to protect quality of living, to protect purchasing power. francine: have you seen a shift in appetite and actually talking about the green agenda or green issues, with investors but also with cities? estelle: what's interesting is each time we can see a kind of a shock of discovering solutions, which are scalable here and now.

when the general playbook discovers that we have a check off of demand. that was ok for recycling. plastic recycling has been booming, that's the case of all the solution we have to tackle water quality now. that's not by chance. he came after summers of droughts in countries where we thought we would never be lacking water. it may happen. so i guess you have moments of taking off. that's more the way i would see that. so on energy, as in the ability to produce energy locally, as opposed to import fossil fuel. i'm talking about bio energy you can produce from wastewater, from heat, from water ways. that has taken off more in ukraine because people thought, instead of importing photos -- fossil fuel, what about we tap

into the reservoir under our feet and a part of our communities. francine: it feels like it's a crisis being dealt with one at a time. recycling was a big thing three, four years ago. i don't know if you are seeing a back step in recycling less being less decisive with recycling or is it just that this keeps going ahead and we talk about it less? estelle: i guess it is more the latter. there is no failing backward in treating pollutants in the water, there is no way back roots in producing global energy. but you are right, the trends at times of what you're talking may be different from run -- from one crisis to the next. my job is to go beyond crisis, to anticipate innovation. we knew we could do recycling of plastics. for years, nobody was really interested in that. and suddenly it takes off.

but we found a solution in the meantime. in the wake -- in a way, my job as the chief exec's to deal with the short-term and deal with essential services in the time of crisis as well as to see the long-term. francine: as you take out the nasty stuff from water products, do you see more of them being added? i know there's a number of studies on micro plastics and wherever we find them, especially in the brain, in the water, do you see the amount of some of the things that is harmful being used more, and so does it make your job more difficult to purify that? estelle: the way i would see it as science progresses and makes progress. we discover more things. doesn't mean that they are new, but we may be don't have the knowledge about them. again, the good news is to anticipate so we are able to treat them as we discover their existing in the problem associated with it. we are able to treat it and to

end solution, whatever type we have. francine: what's your biggest challenge to become more scalable, is he getting money from governments or cities or building them fast enough? estelle: how could i speed up, in a way it's a question i constantly ask myself. scan up and speed up. it's fair to say that i'm quite demanding to my team in terms of, can we go faster because, again, fellow citizens are craving for us bringing the solution. and more veolia's good news for all of us. what do we need to be efficient? we need money, we usually can find it, and we have money available in many places. we need a clear, let's say, legal framework. so stability of the legislation is key.

we need the citizens to be on board and to understand, the general public to understand that we have conveyed a survey across 25 countries and 25,000 people across the globe in many, many countries, and this is clear. now, the general public does understand that the cost of inaction will be higher than the cost of action. so they are asking for those types of solutions. then you need people like us to invent dissolution and to have the scale to be able to deploy them, and to invest in innovation as well. francine: it seems like politics gets in the way of green technologies, but not always in, for example, health stories. estelle: i guess in an ideal world, to be able to go quicker, what do you need from a

politician, stability and constant framework. this is absolutely key. francine: which we don't always have. estelle: you're the one trying to find the best technology possible to be able to deliver in the most efficient and affordable way possible. but we need a framework, so we need everybody on board. politician, general public in the financial system as well. everybody has a role to play in this. francine: coming up, estelle brachlianoff on artificial intelligence as both a tool in an obstacle to a more sustainable future. ♪

francine: innovation is central to waste management. without technology the world

would simply be overwhelmed by trash. artificial intelligence as part of the solution but it's also part of the problem is data centers put energy and water supplies at risk. i could see the conversation with the veolia chief executive. to achieve a lot of your targets, and we talk about innovation, you have to identify the problem, does ai help? estelle: ai can be part of the solution and is a problem at the same time. ai data centers consume a lot of energy and they need a lot. so we are providing services to the companies which are doing ai and its grow market. on the others ai can benefit a political transformation in saving water, energy. in making veolia more efficient. we are doing quite a lot on ai.

what was testing are ways to be optimizing downtime in our plot by being more efficient in tracking where the problem is. and actually helps you save an enormous time. with everything with core centers has been very helpful. we already have a lot of digital tools that's happened with the company. but the next generation we are having -- and what i say that we know it will work. the question we ask ourselves is, is it worth it? we are trying to quantify the benefit in euros. again, the costs in euros and the cost in negative impact on water and everything. we probably will have a few words super interesting. francine: does the cost automatically come down and years to come were not necessarily? estelle: the type of solution

i'm talking about, the cost of the solution will come down if we deploy ourselves. the scale will be important. if i have a tool which works for only two plants, there is a big bet it won't work. if i could deploy it into 2000 units across the globe, then there may be a business case for it. it's a case for energy efficiency. you realize that in 80% of the case, when you install it on a building and you monitor live and you optimize it, ai can help. you could save 50 -- you can save 15% to 20% of energy. francine: it's an upfront cost. estelle: it should be an upfront cost so there has to be a business return. francine: are we underestimating how much energy ai needs? estelle: in the u.s. it's at the

forefront of a lot of people's agenda. water is not yet, but it's starting to go up because ai needs a lot of energy as well as water activity to cool down the data centers. but the good news is we can recycle water and we can use their wasted heat and we are providing those type of services as well. so there is a solution pretty much to other things. francine: are you excited about ai? estelle: i'm excited as long as you pick the right opportunities and don't go for a on -- ain everything when you don't need it. neither in the ai denial. as long as he picked the right battles, i think it can bring a lot of value, including to savor water energy. francine: as we all become

greener and waste less, is there anything in your personal life that you do differently now than five years ago? estelle: interesting questions. probably flying only when i need. i'm going more for, like everybody else, i guess for when you can. nothing replaces the real contact or real visit. at times you can do with it. that's an obvious one. and of course, if you think about water, you have a lot of things at home, which you are very much more careful when you know that if you have your tap open, 12 liters per minute. that's enormous. if you realize that, you will think differently about your

daily life as well. francine: so turn the tap off when you brush your teeth. estelle: exactly. francine: coming up, veolia on why she believes she has the dream job -- estelle brachlianoffn why she believes she has the dream job. ♪

francine: estelle brachlianoff has been at veolia for almost two decades in the top job for almost two years. she now talks about her own journey and why she's optimistic about the future policy of veolia. you love your job. what you love most about it? estelle: i love the veolia, it's a great company for a lot of reasons. the work we do, the job we do, the business we are in is wonderful. we are part of the solution so i cannot dream of a better company to work for. everybody tries to help the solution. i love the vibration of excitement. i love the variety of it.

where you would be from one day with -- national wide with a blue-collar worker who is a technician and it's very varied. and it's fair to say i tried to set ambitious goals. at times you feel like you have the head in the sky of the stars, but very much grounded at the same time. try to say you have to manage both. francine: and this is very important to you that whatever you say you want to stick to, is that because of personality or is that something required in business? estelle: i won't listen to anyone, this is the way i am, probably. i'm more like, let's do something together and i would roll up my sleeves myself and

fight the battles we have to fight, but together. ever feel like we can limit where the -- rather than say ok, we should and that i go into another room. mites -- it's probably my style of management as well. francine: you have an industry not considered very sexy at it's crucial to changing our economies. estelle: used to be not very sexy but we have a lot of incoming calls from people wanting to join the company because they feel like, you're in the good part of trying to deliver solution. francine: you look at 2024, 2025 and beyond, do leaders and ceos have to have a conscience? estelle: they do have a conscience so who am i to say they should. the way i think of it myself would be more, i'm the same human being at home that i'm what i am the chief executive at veolia. this is the same person.

i'm not saying i have a sweet estelle, that's the way i would say it. i'm proud of what we do. it's tough, i'm a fighter. i think, i never give up. but in the end we are all super proud about what we do. francine: francine: where did you learn to fight or never give up? estelle: i probably had it in me. but i'm also, where there is a will, there's a way type of lady. and love to be with a team as well. so, i guess love this team, fear of everybody has a view and you have a diverse view on things. i learned from that. and then you go beyond what you would have imagined before. i was appointed two years ago. you know what, it's even better than what i thought. francine: what did you think it

would be like? estelle: you never exactly know what it's going to be like, but i guess it's even better. we've achieved stuff. we have been able to deal with, would you think about the number of crisis, when you think about what we deal with in the last two years, why it's constantly delivering results which are growing quarter after quarter. francine: but we all have bad days in the office. what does an estelle bad day look like? estelle: failure. that won't be necessarily a bad day. it's more of what do you do with it. what can i go next differently so that it works better. the frustration that things don't move may be as fast as i think it should, would be probably, let's rest a little bit and go on.

that would be probably one. in its, maybe what i don't have the right mixture of the blue sky and the ground. when i have too much of the theory or too much daily, i need a little bit of a boost. francine: every time you speak to a chief executive they say your first 3, 6 months in the job, that's when he can make changes. shorter meetings, longer meetings, more travel, less travel, work life balance, whatever it is, what was your northstar? estelle: what's interesting for me as i've been chief executive for two years. i've been in the company for almost 20 years. so there was already a lot of things that i've done being in the company before, so on and so forth. so it's more going even further than on and off for other types

of situations. i guess the target i still have will be to try a free time on my agenda to be able to let the dust settled a bit and think a little bit ahead of people without having to be efficient as indirectly deliver on that specific item. that something i haven't achieved properly, fully yet. that's something. but i've changed a lot of things. the company is more international than it used to be. it's probably more inclusive of people coming from different backgrounds. francine: another question we like asking our chief executives is, would you hire a climate denier in 2024? estelle: i'm not so sure there are that many, if i may.

you can see people saying, ok, i know there is a problem, but it's too late. there is nothing to do so let's not do anything. i think we've moved from the climate denier to the doom and gloom. there's nothing we could do about it so let's not do anything. in my opinion, on the vast majority. i guess trying to attract those people and convince them is always interesting. i do like challenges. francine: what's the best piece of advice you've ever received? estelle: there would be the one. and trust your gut feel would be another one. go from the brain and thinking too, ok, i feel like we could go there. francine: if i speak to you in

five years, where would you be? estelle: hopefully i will have the same enthusiasm, energy and excitement about running this wonderful company, which will be even bigger and more successful in five years and it is already now. and have the impression that i've had an impact with my team. impact on co2, and water, and may impact on the vision of what used to be a non-sexy company. and say, ok. maybe that will be it. francine: thank you so much for your time. estelle: thank you, francine. ♪

it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people.

jason: so jay is a multi-it. this is a guy that was a superstar star college athlete, has a massive accident that takes them out of the nba and