French giant Veolia Environnement is the world leader in environmental services, with 270,000 employees operating in 75 countries worldwide. And as part of a significant re-branding exercise, the company's four divisions - water, waste management, energy services and transportation - have been brought together under a single name: Veolia.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the company and one which provides us with a vast array of challenges, " said Morgan Toner, managing director of Veolia Environmental Services Ireland.

"Veolia Environmental Services has the potential to become a very strong brand here in Ireland, and we hope that the fine efforts that have been put into raising awareness of the Onyx - Ipodec name these past 16 years can be transposed to driving forward the new name."

Under this rebranding, Onyx's sister companies within the Veolia Environnement Group - Connex, Dalkia and its water business - will also be renamed. Thus, clients will now have to get used to calling Connex "Veolia Transport", while Dalkia will also soon change its name.

However, from a Limerick perspective, the most important change will be to Veolia Environmental Services. Currently employing about 60 in its city centre depot, Veolia is the biggest name in commercial and industrial waste solutions in Limerick - so much so that it can list practically all of Limerick's key private companies and public bodies among its clients.

This list includes Dell, Wyeth, Aughinish Alumina, Dunnes Stores (with whom it has a regional contract) and a number of companies working in the construction sector, as well as Shannon Foynes Port Company, ESB and the South Western Health Board.

The fact that Veolia Environmental Services is currently experiencing a significant growth phase is down to a large extent to its innovative approach to waste management. Of the 60,000 tonnes collected each year, almost half of that figure is recycled - a figure which representatives of Veolia Environmental Services hopes will rise into the near future.

"We work in partnership with our key clients to minimise waste and maximise on recycling, " said HuguesGerald Barthelemy, regional manager for Veolia environmental Services in Munster.

"The key is to add value, so we work with our partners at production level, to divert as much waste as possible from the landfill."

This partnership approach is best evidenced by Veolia Environmental Services' work with its key client Dell - indeed, so successful has this partnership been that between 90% and 95% of Dell's waste in Limerick is currently diverted from landfill, with 100% diversion a real possibility, according to Barthelemy.

"There are two dimensions to keeping as much waste as possible away from landfill, " he said. "The first is the EU legislation, or at least the Irish interpretation of this legislation. But in addition to this, the cost of landfilling waste is very high. So if our package can both include recycling, and save companies on landfill costs, then it will be a very attractive proposition for Irish businesses."

This innovative partnership approach to waste management is the main reason why Veolia Environmental Services is such an important part of the overall group.

Not only is it one of the Ireland's leading waste management companies, operating across all of the industry sectors, it is also a global leader in waste management throughout the world, employing 71,000 people and servicing more than 50 million inhabitants across 34 countries. And with this sort of scale and history, the change of a name should make little difference in Veolia Environmental Services becoming a benchmark worldwide for trust, reliability and expertise in environmental solutions.