Schneider Electric announced at Climate Week NYC 2019 that it is drastically stepping up its commitment to carbon neutrality with three new actions: (1) accelerating its 2030 goal of carbon neutrality in its extended ecosystem by five years to 2025, (2) setting net-zero operational emissions by 2030 as part of validated SBT target and (3) net-zero supply chain by 2050. These targets are expected to contribute to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) goal of capping global temperature increase at 1.5°C. Schneider Electric is also calling on other companies to reduce emissions, offering support through products and services to help businesses streamline and find efficiencies within their own operations.
In the move towards carbon neutrality, Schneider Electric has established several safety nets to ensure communities are not negatively impacted during the transition. The company’s Access to Energy program will provide electricity to 80 million by 2030 and train more than one million underprivileged people by 2025.
The company has two impact investing vehicles aimed to support inclusive startups, which activity contributes to SDG7 (clean and affordable energy), through equity investments. The expected outcomes of these vehicles are to increase the number of households and small and medium enterprises connected to the grid in remote areas (Africa, India and South East Asia), and to decrease the number of households facing energy poverty in Europe.
Collaborating for Carbon Neutrality
For the past 15 years, Schneider Electric has been committed to decarbonizing itself and its customers through innovative offers and strategic alignments. The success of these initiatives will allow the company to move up its carbon neutral goal to 2025 and work towards a net-zero supply chain by 2050.
Schneider Electric takes a collaborative approach to carbon and environmental solutions with products, solutions and services that can be utilized by companies at all stages in their sustainability journey. The company’s internal Smart Factory Program, for example, applies Schneider’s EcoStruxure solutions across its global supply chain. The program demonstrates that EcoStruxure is one of the best in class solution to drive operational and energy efficiencies, while Schneider’s Energy & Sustainability Services (ESS) helps customers quantify their CO2 emissions to track progress. The company’s recently launched Schneider Electric Exchange also provides a crowdsourcing platform for new innovative ideas to address challenges in the energy ecosystem.
