With our services, we ensure the disposal of wastewater, the thermal utilisation of sewage sludge and the supply of clean drinking water for millions of inhabitants of different countries. On the other hand, we give people career prospects, improve their working conditions and promote their health.
Particularly through our diverse commitment to young talent, we make an important contribution to a sustainable circular economy and further expansion of our international partnerships
Access to clean and safe water is a human right – but the extent to which this right can be exercised in individual countries depends not least on the technical solutions for water supply and treatment on site. With our activities, we create modern and environmentally friendly infrastructures and enable our customers to increase the quantity of treated wastewater and achieve a higher water quality.
On behalf of cities, municipalities, councils, as well as states, WTE Wassertechnik fulfils the obligation to dispose of wastewater, thereby performing an important public-service task, namely the protection of the environment and the provision of healthcare. Depending on the local conditions, we start by building a sewer network, such as in Umm Al Hayman, Kuwait – an essential prerequisite for regulated wastewater disposal and the supply of treated wastewater to industry and agriculture.
We also promote security of supply through the sensible use of energy and further use of renewable energies. Especially through the treatment of wastewater, a continuous energy source with extremely high priority for the independent energy supply of the treatment plants themselves, but and also of the municipalities involved.
Through our solutions for water supply and wastewater treatment, we contribute to ensuring that increasingly more people have access to clean water and sustainable energy sources – two elementary prerequisites for a sustainably high quality of life.
The WTE Group’s plants are based on 360-degree concepts that are consistently geared towards sustainability. Three goals are taken into account:
Our holistic approach supports the cycle that the water goes through: The groundwater or surface water from rivers and lakes is used by humans. It enters the wastewater treatment plants as wastewater. After cleaning, it is used in agriculture to irrigate fields or discharged into natural ecosystems such as rivers and lakes. Via the soil, it returns to the groundwater, or it evaporates and returns to the rivers and lakes as rain.
In doing so we take into account all influencing factors that contribute to meeting objectives: to protect the environment and water as a resource, to ensure the high quality of water and provide people with sufficient quantities of clean drinking water.
Directive 2000/60/EC, which entered into force in 2000, aims at the sustainable and environmentally sound use of water. Accordingly, among other things, wastewater treatment must correspond to the best available technologies. A clear incentive for the WTE Group to set these standards higher and higher through optimisation measures and further developments – for the benefit of a higher quality of life for people in the European Union and beyond.
We see ourselves as a future-oriented employer with a focus on people. That is why we create optimal working conditions and give our employees the opportunity to get involved in our company and personally develop. The know-how of our staff is the basis of our added value – a valuable asset that we are expanding through a variety of measures. This also includes the support of pupils and students, the next generation of experts, whom we want to empower today for the challenges of tomorrow.
At WTE, new employees are integrated into our corporate culture and work processes from day one. Our sponsorship system provides them with a contact person who accompanies them on their first steps. In addition, our proven onboarding processes ensure a successful start at WTE. These structures are regularly reviewed and, if necessary, optimised – for good co-operation right from the start.
WTE Wassertechnik GmbH
HQ Essen
WTE Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
All sites
We plan our apprenticeships conscientiously with the aim of offering trainees a perspective after their apprenticeship. The relatively small number of junior staff benefits from all the more intensive training and guidance.
We support former trainees in their further development, for example, by offering specialist courses and practical support through their studies.
WTE Wassertechnik GmbH
Essen site
The standard at our headquarter location in Essen includes the offer of several language courses: we offer our employees from backgrounds outside of Germany a German course, and we offer various English courses for all employees. These range from communication courses for beginners or professionals specialist courses for engineers.
In addition, we inquire at least once a year with our employees whether additional further training offers are desired or needed – including general further training, for example, to learn new systems. In the Group’s own EVN Summer School, we intensively prepare prospective managers for their future tasks.
We also support our employees in a targeted manner in order to qualify them for certain positions. In recent years, for example, we have made it possible for some employees to undergo special further training in the academic field. Two employees have already completed their doctorates in this way, and another is currently working towards doing so. In addition, there is the support of four employees who aspire to or have already obtained a Master of Business Administration degree. In this way, WTE combines the wishes of its employees with the needs of the company.
WTE maintains contact with various universities throughout Germany – including the Duisburg-Essen and Bochum Universities. As a result, we can regularly offer Bachelor theses for students of process and civil engineering. We are also currently supervising two student interns from North Macedonia who are participating in a programme run by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Our support ranges from finding accommodation to teaching practical knowledge, all the way to issuing a certificate recognised in the home country. During their three-month internship, they get to know the technical areas of WTE in particular.
The WTE Group’s commitment to young talent also extends to the support and promotion of pupils – partly within the framework of long-term co-operation. For example, WTE Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (WTEB) entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Börde-Schule in Oschersleben back in in 2009. As a sponsoring company, the WTEB contributes to the human, (everyday) practical and financial assistance and support for school pupils. Donations were used, for example, to make school trips possible and to promote the digitalisation of the school.
The success of the WTE Group is based not least on the co-operation of people from different countries. In order to promote this dialogue at an early stage, since its foundation in 2009, we have been the Golden Sponsor of the IWA Eastern European Young Water Professionals Conference for the twelfth time. In 2021 it took place for the first time on a digital platform under the title ‘Water Research and Innovations in Digital Era’.
Worldwide exchange between talents
The conference series is primarily aimed at young professionals in topics ranging from water and wastewater treatment to sludge treatment and operational optimisation. Through sponsoring and active participation with specialist lectures, the WTE Group makes its contribution to providing young talent in particular with ideas and solutions to solve the global challenges surrounding the supply of clean water and the environmentally friendly disposal of wastewater.
To appreciate and motivate our employees, we create good working conditions and a healthy working atmosphere. In order to implement the numerous measures via which we create these basic prerequisite for successful and considerate work, we use more than just established guidelines: in addition, we have developed in-house standards for co-operation in the sense of sustainability, with which we go beyond the legal requirements and set standards.
Out of responsibility towards employees and shareholders, the WTE Group has established preventive healthcare as the basis of occupational safety management. Hazard detection, risks assessment and monitoring as well as comprehensive training and instruction form the basis for our employees’ performance.
We also achieve improvements in working conditions on a continuous basis: To this end, we keep the legal and regulatory requirements in the respective projects up to date and sensitise our employees to comply with them within the scope of their activities.
In every country in which we operate, we want to meet the highest possible health and safety requirements, take into account all potential stakeholders, including construction site residents and local farmers, and deal conscientiously with cultural heritage finds.
The Equator Principles serve as the basis for the implementation of these and other project-related goals: ten guidelines based on the environmental standards of the World Bank and the social standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and used across industries to meet corresponding targets.
The aim of our health management is to deal with the needs of our employees more closely and to enhance their health, as well as increase their satisfaction. This includes, among other things, minimising stress factors, but also facilitating access to information and programmes for stress management as well as other health-related topics. In principle, employees should be made more aware of health issues and awareness of physical and mental health should be sharpened.
Our commitment to good working conditions and satisfied employees extends to all companies of the WTE Group – including Zagrebačke Otpadne Vode, which operates the central wastewater treatment plant in the Croatian capital city, Zagreb.:
WTE Wassertechnik GmbH
Essen site
The co-operation of people from various countries are the guarantee for sustainability, quality and occupational safety in the WTE Group.
Volker Hessenbruch, WTE Wassertechnik GmbH, Head of Quality, Environmental and Health & Safety Management
Comprehensive physical health includes relaxation, exercise and a healthy diet. But even supposedly taboo topics such as stress and addiction management should not be ignored. For this reason, we regularly offer our employees workshops on the subject of health, courses such as back fit or meditation courses, health checks and health campaigns. These and other measures of our company health management are constantly monitored, controlled and improved by qualified health management officers.
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WTE Sustainability Report 2022Phone: +49 201 8968 500
Email: sustainability@wte.de