Schneider Electric to Help its Top 1,000 Suppliers in Cutting their 50% CO2 Footprint by 2025

Schneider Electric has launched the ‘Zero Carbon Project’ initiative, under which the company will partner with its top 1,000 suppliers - which represent 70 per cent of its carbon emissions - to halve their operations’ CO₂ emissions by 2025.

The initiative is part of the company’s 2021-2025 sustainability goals, and is a concrete step towards limiting the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5°C or less by 2100, as targeted by the Paris Agreement.

Under the program, the company will provide tools and resources to program participants to help them set and achieve their own carbon reduction targets.

Further, the suppliers will be first encouraged to quantify their CO₂ emissions using the company’s digital tools. They will then use that data to set goals and strategies for emissions reduction. They will also work towards their goals through decarbonization initiatives such as energy efficiency or renewables.

The Zero Carbon Project will enable best practice exchange with peers and partners to access other innovative solutions for decarbonization.

“The challenges posed by climate change are something we urgently need to tackle together,” said Olivier Blum, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer. “Schneider aims to reduce scope 3 emissions by 35% by 2030 but we can’t make this journey alone and we encourage suppliers to join us as they are an integral part of our ecosystem. We offer to share our expertise and experience with them on how they can decarbonize their operations leveraging our range of Sustainability Consulting Services and digital EcoStruxure^TM or other third-party solutions.”

“We’ve been actively reducing the carbon footprint of our supply chain. Through the use of our EcoStruxure^TM platform, we managed to reduce energy consumption in our plants and distribution centers by more than 10% every 3 years for the past 12 years. We currently operate 30 zero emission sites, and more than 120 others will be added to the list in the next 5 years,” said Mourad Tamoud, Schneider Electric’s Chief Supply Chain Officer. “Our entire supplier network accounts for emissions of over 7 million CO₂ tons per year, and we need them to take an active role, in partnership with us, if we are to make a meaningful reduction in our carbon footprint.”

“India is an important local manufacturing center for Schneider Electric. We have a large supplier network in India to meet growing customer demands,” said Javed Ahmad, Senior Vice President for GSC International region. “Reducing the carbon footprint in partnership with our suppliers is more crucial than ever as we accelerate our journey towards a climate positive world.”