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Have you ever met an executive from the CAC 40?
This is going to be a great opportunity. You know Veolia, I imagine. You studied up a little. What does Veolia do?
Water and waste. Exactly. World number one in water, number two in waste. It's a French company, and she's one of the rare women leading a CAC 40 company. Do you know how many women are in her position? Three, almost five, four.
It's not many, so girls, the next generation is you.
Very well, thank you for having me.
I'm delighted to be here. Ready for your masterclass. I present her — she's here just for you. Let's applaud her.
No, no. Stay, stay a little bit.
I should mention that Estelle Brachlianoff doesn't know your questions, so for her it will obviously be a surprise. We agree, right? We can ask all the questions we want, that's the great thing. Here we go.
All the answers I want. Yes.
Let's go for the masterclass with Estelle Brachlianoff, the CEO of Veolia. You can settle in comfortably.
And yes, in real life, students and top executives obviously never meet. That's normal, everyone is focused on their own tasks. The students are concentrating on their studies and degrees, and the bosses of big groups and multinationals are managing their companies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That's true too, isn't it?
Not entirely. We do rest a little from time to time. We're human, myself included of course.
Well, on Public Sénat we want every month for people to be able to meet and talk freely about the subjects that our youth considers priorities. And as always at the start of the show, whoever asks the most relevant question will receive at the end of the show — drum roll please — a lifetime free subscription for unlimited water consumption.
Well yes, that said, it's less expensive than a mobile phone or energy subscription.
I see you've watched the other shows, that's nice. The average water bill in France is €500. It's less than 1% of household budgets.
So in reality, it's always too much for those who can't make it to the end of the month, of course, but the price of water is not a major issue today. However, we have a lot of work to do to ensure it remains affordable in the coming years, despite climate and quality challenges. So our job is to make sure it continues to be affordable for nearly everyone. Few French people know the price of water — we know the bill, the amount, but the price per cubic meter is €4.
Oh yes, he studied. He studied.
And that means it's roughly 1,000 times less expensive than a bottle of water you buy at the supermarket.
So will the price of water increase in the coming years? Is it inevitable?
That's what I tried to say at the beginning. If we do nothing and just wait foolishly, it could increase significantly, because we have major challenges in terms of quantity and quality. Quantity, because we see repeated droughts, and we need to ensure there's always water from the tap 24 hours a day — not just from the tap, but for watering gardens, taking showers. And quality, because there are more and more pollutants being discovered — endocrine disruptors, pesticide residues — that we need to treat because water is very closely monitored. However, if we continue to advance innovation, technologies, and leverage the scale of a major global company like Veolia, then I can guarantee you that we will keep water below 1% of household budgets for the next 10 years. Whatever challenges come up, we'll find it and we'll say, I have no problem with that.
I'll come back in 10 years then. And before that, I hope. We have a photo of you, Estelle, that we're going to see, taken in 2014 in Scotland.
That's right to mention. It was taken at an oil platform decommissioning site. I wasn't on vacation. It's a place where they were dismantling end-of-life oil platforms to try to do something else with them rather than just destroying them. And what I love is that these guys, who all found their job very easy — it was quite fascinating. I was there thinking it was a bit rough, winter in the Shetland Islands, dismantling oil platforms on a dock. They said, 'No, no, Madame Brachlianoff — or Estelle, people usually call me Estelle — it's much easier than my previous job. I was in a coal mine in northern England or something like that.' These guys told me stories behind this photo. And then they said, 'It's great, now I'm in the circular economy.' So imagine these men, these tough guys who've experienced things I haven't experienced and perhaps you haven't either, telling me 'It's great, I'm in the circular economy.' In cases like that, you say we've accomplished something.
Now it's time for our student friends to ask you questions. They all have different backgrounds, but they're all engaged since they did civic service or volunteering. Thanks to the Institut d'Engagement for connecting us. You'll be able to exchange with them on their areas of interest. And a first question from Lilia.
I'm delighted to be here. My name is Lilia Twil. I'm a law student specializing in international law and digital rights, and founding president of the Willga association. It's a pleasure to be here, and my question is this: We often say, and rightly it seems to me, that the cost of inaction will be higher than that of ecological transformation. Concretely, how does Veolia balance short-term economic pressure against the need to invest now to adapt sustainably? Thank you.
That's a real question. That's the question, really. So it's a great question. There are two questions within it. The cost of inaction — economists tell you it's roughly eight times more expensive to wait and solve a problem once you're in a crisis situation than to anticipate it. For example, I was talking about droughts earlier — solving the problem of water leaks, finding new water sources, reusing wastewater, or even one day desalinating — it costs eight times less than waiting until suddenly for two months there's no water at all and you have to tell farmers they can no longer irrigate, or tell industries their factory will have to close for a month. That's one example, but it's factual. It's obvious for a company like Veolia because it's essentially our business. The question is sharing this logic with other stakeholders — investors who sometimes have a tendency to focus more on the short term, or politicians who look at the next election. So the issue is managing short-term, medium-term, and long-term at the same time, because it's not one versus the other. Investors also ensure that these will be someone's retirement savings or someone's savings. So it's not about good or bad — it's about maintaining these time scales simultaneously. And for me, in a way, if I were to describe my job and the difficulty, that's precisely it — doing short-term, medium-term, and long-term at the same time. Not just long-term, because if we don't produce results right away, we can't afford to pay for the future, for innovation — the thing that earns nothing for three years but may one day be intelligent. If we don't win right away, we can't afford that freedom. Earning money now gives you that freedom. But at the same time, it's not at all enough to give you direction or to know where you're going. So for me, it's the fuel in the machine — it doesn't give you direction, but it's needed, because otherwise the machine stops.
Hello, I'm delighted to be here. I'm a master's student and I also host a podcast called Éclaire-Mavoie that deals with educational guidance. My question is: What advice would you give to young women aspiring to leadership positions in technical or industrial fields?
For anyone, for me, man, woman, or whatever — if you want to do it, go for it. What you truly believe in doesn't come from there, it comes from here or from here. And I think that's advice that's valid for everyone. Don't let yourself get carried away by 'I'm supposed to do this or that, and especially not that or that.' Or 'I'm supposed to do things in order,' these kinds of career paths all neatly ordered — I've never been able to do that, it doesn't come naturally to me. But this, I believe in it, I want it, I feel it — go for it fully. The specific issue for women is even more so about believing in your desire, because there are even more injunctions — 'you're supposed to do this and that,' maybe for men, or 'this isn't for you,' or 'wait to have children if you want to have children,' or I don't even know what contradictory social or family injunctions. Forget all that even more, because there are even more injunctions for women starting in business. We're all human beings, and frankly, the biggest mistakes I've made at work were when I didn't follow my intuition — when my brain took over and I felt it wouldn't work, but the reasoning said it should.
There are fewer obstacles today for women who want to reach the top. What has really progressed is that we have more examples of what it looks like, but also more critical mass. I was the first woman on Veolia's executive committee in the company's history — ever. I felt quite alone. When you start to be 30%, 40%, 25% — even if it's not enough — it changes everything, because you're no longer just the one who gets showcased. You don't feel completely alone anymore. And I think that has progressed, because even 30% compared to the 8% I experienced makes quite a difference.
Now, a question from Mohamed.
I'm Bouchief Mohamed, I'm in my final year of engineering school at IMT Nord Europe. My question is: Estelle, let's say you're 25 in 2026 and you've just finished your studies — where do you start, what do you do? I'd really like to know what you'd do first and above all, what skill you would make sure to develop, given today's challenges, to build a career as successful as the one you've had.
I'm not sure I've built a career — I've rather sensed things and let myself be surprised, seizing opportunities. So the real advice I'd give to myself at 25 would be to do that. I have a daughter who's a bit younger but still studying, and I'm trying to — well, parents are the worst advisors for their children, so I think she'll listen to absolutely nothing I'd want to tell her, and that's great. But really, it would be that. I joined Veolia almost by accident — I didn't dream of it while sending out resumes. I was in a job I liked but I could feel it wouldn't please me much longer. I wanted to change. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I met lots of people. That's the first thing I did — meet lots of people. I had the luxury of being employed with a salary, so I could take my time. I met people and realized some things weren't for me. I discovered I needed something with tangible, human material — factories, things like that. I wouldn't have liked to be in something too abstract, in finance or in that kind of world. I ended up at Veolia because I met people. I was hired in the waste division. When I went for the interview with the head of the waste division who would become my boss — I have a spoiler about the end of the story — I walked into his office thinking, 'Estelle, you have an interview, be nice, be polite. But waste, really?' And after about an hour, I left his office thinking, 'If he offers me a job, I'm taking it immediately.' There was adventure, it moved fast, I wouldn't be bored, and I liked the guy.
