After Exceeding Its 2020 Sustainability Targets, Schneider Electric Increases Its Commitments to Promote Circular Economy and Tackle Climate Change

Electrification and digitization are presenting the world with the opportunity to make energy more decarbonized and more decentralized. In the other hand, by 2040, global energy consumption will grow by over 25 percent, while global CO2 emissions must drop by 45 percent by 2030, to avoid a 1.5 ˚C temperature rise. At the same time, keeping the current pace, by 2030 more than 700 million people will still lack access to energy.  Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation shows on its recent launched Sustainability Report how these trends can also be opportunities to work toward a just energy transition and energy access for all.

The company has established 21 goals to be reached globally by 2020 around critical themes for sustainability. Thru a dashboard called Schneider Sustainability Impact, the company has followed a clear action plan for nearly 15 years. This plan is based on a long-term 2050 vision, with tangible deliverables updated every three years, which results are announced with the financial results in a quarterly basis by the CEO and the CFO.  The group with 25.7 billion euros revenue in 2018 and a workforce of more than 130,000 employees worldwide pleased its shareholders with strong financial results and a consistent sustainability results.

"In 2018, we performed well on the 21 objectives of the Schneider Sustainability Impact. As a result of our success, we decided to raise our goals and accelerate our work on key challenges, including climate change, biodiversity, development, and health” said Gilles Vermot Desroches, Chief Sustainability Officer, Schneider Electric.

Highlights Sustainability Report 2018-19

Going beyond its gates, Schneider also highlights in the Sustainability Report, how the company initiatives can also benefit its customers to build a business case for sustainability. For instance, Schneider is taking urgent climate action with its core offer — the EcoStruxure™ platform, which helps thousands of our customers worldwide drastically reduce their energy use and it is an essential part of the company promise to reduce our customers’ CO2 emissions by 120 million metric tons by 2020. The readers of the report can also download case studies hardwired worldwide with proven results using such technology or even, learn how the circular economy affects return on investment.

Creating a culture to shift Sustainability for short-term impacts in a long-term view

The results of sustainability performance impacts compensation of employees and leadership. These incentives encourage leaders to prioritize decisions that improve sustainability performance and uphold the SDGs. Up to 20 percent of the variable portion of our leadership’s performance shares depend on achieving Schneider Sustainability Impact targets.

According to a survey led by Schneider Electric and GreenBiz, more than 50% of the companies responding have made public commitments to reduce resource consumption and improve sustainability. Of those companies making a commitment, about half have also set measurable goals with a third-party such as the Science-Based Targets Initiative, thus implementing rigorous and externally audited standards. The research shows that companies with public commitments are also more successful at securing funds and building business cases for their projects.

 Key messages:

• We want our business to do more to tackle climate change: We are now committed to save 120M tons of CO2 for our customers thanks to EcoStruxure offers
• Our commitments to Circular Economy now are even more bold: +20K tons of avoided resources thanks to our take-back programs means prolong lifespan of our products
• For our employees: we aim to reduce even more the medical accidents per million hours worked and want to increase the number of hours that employees spend in training from 12 to 15 hours per year
• For the society, we aim to train 400,000 people in energy management: It means 50,000 more underprivileged people qualified to get a job and help us to lead the energy digital transformation
• Also, we are increasing our goal for volunteering working with 3,000 hours: How big is the impact of our volunteering activities in the communities we serve?

Climate:

• Impact #1: 80% of our company powered by renewable electricity
• Impact #2: 120 million metric tons saved CO₂ on our customers’ end thanks to our EcoStruxure offers

Circular economy:

• Impact #3: 45.70% of our sales fall under our new Green Premium program
• Impact #4: 43,572 metric tons of avoided primary resource consumption through ecoFit, recycling, and take-back programs
• Impact #5: 200 sites labeled toward zero waste to landfill
•  

Ethics:  Launching of our new PoR (Principles of Responsibility)

Health & Equity

• Impact #11: 90% of employees have access to a comprehensive well-being at work program
• Impact #12: 100% of employees are working in countries that have fully deployed our family leave policy

Development:

• Impact #20: 400,000 underprivileged people trained in energy management