Dalkia

Dalkia offers its customers all services that are not directly linked to their core activity. Our ambition is to create and maintain an ideal living environment for our customers, so that lasting co-operation is developed as a result. All of this occurs in the ideological context of energy-related efficiency, respect for the environment, attention to quality and a situation where people's health and safety are a priority concern. Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) (later Vivendi, then Veolia Environment) is founded. Compagnie Generale des Eaux (CGE), was one of France's first privately owned industrial giants, formed in 1852 under a government then headed by Napoleon III. CGE and its founding shareholders--including members of the Rothschild, Lafitte, and de Morny families--had recognized the emerging market for water supply services as part of the country's early industrialization effort. Lyons became the first city to award its water services contract to CGE in 1853, followed by the city of Paris in 1860. By the turn of the 20th century, CGE was not only one of France's major water suppliers, it was also one of its largest industrial concerns, with a strong international component as well. By the time of its 100th anniversary, CGE had become a French institution, serving more than eight million customers across a 10,000-kilometer water supply network. CGE began to diversify in the 1960s. In the end, that diversification process was to result in the company's transformation into the giant globally operating conglomerate Vivendi Universal, one of the world's largest companies entering the 21st century. If Vivendi ultimately became as well known for its media interests, including Time Warner, Universal Music, Havas, and AOL, its initial diversification remained closer to its core as a utilities operator. One of the CGE's first moves toward diversifying its base came in 1967, when it acquired a stake in Compagnie Générale de Chauffe. That company traced its origins to 1935, when Léon Dewailly created Chauffage Service, one of the earliest specialists in developing and installing heating and air conditioning systems in France. Compagnie Générale de Chauffe (CGC) was itself founded in 1944 to provide heating and air-conditioning systems to the industrial sector. Both companies grew strongly in the aftermath of World War II as France launched a massive reconstruction effort to rebuild its industrial infrastructure. In 1958, CGC extended its business to include facilities management when it was awarded the heating management and facilities maintenance contract for all of the United States' NATO military bases in France. Chauffage Services and CGC merged in 1960, becoming a French leader in its sector under the CGC name. The company then joined the international market, entering the United Kingdom in 1966 as a founding shareholder of Associated Heat Services (AHS) in partnership with that country's National Coal Board (NCB). CGC later acquired full control of AHS after NCB's exit in 1982. CGC in the meantime continued its growth, backed by the CGE as its primary shareholder. In 1970, CGC acquired two other heating services specialists, Armand, founded in 1913, and Interchauffage, founded in 1960. The two companies were then merged together under the Armand-Interchauffage name. CGC expanded again in 1976 with the purchase of two new companies, Capelier, a company founded in 1919, and EGCS, which had been founded in 1945. CGC also emerged as an important innovator in the energy services market, especially during the oil crisis of the early 1970s. In response to the soaring price of oil, CGC began developing energy recovery systems and heating systems based on geothermal energy sources in 1973. By the early 1980s, CGE increased its stake in CGC to 80 percent before later acquiring full control of the company. This move was made as part of CGE's larger consolidation effort, a process that resulted in the creation of a dedicated en