With Sustainable Development Goals being made mandatory by the Indian government, it is now important for all companies and states to follow and achieve these 17 goals. It is here that Schneider Electric India believes that it has an edge over others, as it has several industry leading brands in its portfolio. Schneider Electric India had launched an innovative marketing campaign ‘60 Years Innovation Yatra’ in October 2023, with the aim of increasing awareness about sustainability and celebrating 60 years of glorious presence in the country.
In a conversation with BrandWagon Online, Chris Leong, global chief marketing officer, Schneider Electric, talks about the company’s USP and sustainability strategies.
What are the opportunities that India opens for a company like Schneider when it comes to sustainable development goals? What is the strategy you plan to deploy?
We specialise in selling sustainability technology and solutions. Hence, we prioritise integrating sustainability into our own DNA and operations, as we need to practice what we communicate to our customers and stakeholders. Over the past 18-20 years, we’ve established sustainability milestones for the group and our latest target comprises 21 actions across five categories, all crucially tied to employee bonus payouts, underscoring our commitment to reaching these goals.
As a responsible brand, we are prioritising our commitment to achieve net zero and carbon neutrality in our operations while empowering our customers and partners in their own sustainability journey. We are transitioning our transportation infrastructure to renewable energy and electric fleets with the aim of optimizing our resources, improving energy efficiency across our sites. Our digital solutions allow our customers to experience strong energy savings and through campaigns like Green Yodha (Impact Makers) our aim is to drive a sense of urgency within diverse stakeholders to accelerate actions against climate change. Globally, our goal is to enable our customers to avoid 800 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2 emissions), in both upstream and downstream. For example, we have launched a new initiative requiring our top 1,000 suppliers to reduce their carbon emissions by >50% within the next three years. Our business decisions are guided by integrity – we want to do what is best for the business and planet.
Placing a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion, we are committed to hiring 50% women in the workforce, 40% in frontline management, and 30% in senior leadership roles. Additionally, we prioritise empowering every generation of our workforce, including long-term employees. We encourage sharing, learning, and life-long individual development at every career stage, irrespective of age.
We take pride in being the most local of the global companies, deeply rooted in local communities. India, serves as one of our four global hubs, housing over 30 factories and employing more than 37,000 individuals. Our strong focus on R&D in this country has led to successful business portfolio transformation and innovation acceleration.
Recognising the reality of climate change, we believe technology plays a crucial role in addressing it. We offer a three-step approach—strategise, digitise, and decarbonise—to help companies bridge their sustainability ambitions with action. Our support includes expertise on carbon offsets and renewable energy markets, setting up reporting aligned with industry frameworks (like SBTi, CDP, GRESB) and implementing decarbonisation strategies across organisations through assessments, roadmaps, and supplier engagement programs.
How do you ensure your business keeps growing despite India being a price-sensitive market?
At Schneider Electric, we employ a multi-brand strategy, and majority of our portfolios revolve around sophisticated technologies like integrated IoT (Internet of Things) solutions and cloud-based AI machinery, among others. One of our businesses ‘L&T Electric and Automation’, that we acquired in 2020, has a deep-rooted presence including in the Agriculture Segment and MSME industries including irrigation, farming, sugar mills, and rice mills.
We want to accelerate our contribution in expanding India’s progress, which is propelled by mobility, infrastructure, digitalisation, amongst other factors. Mobility plays a pivotal role in accelerating progress. And I am proud to share that we have a strong footprint in mobility through our solutions powering most of the airports, railways, and metro network in the country. Our portfolio is underpinned by technology, and our solutions are user-friendly, easily configurable, and commissionable, all while upholding innovation.
Amidst the progress towards sustainability, what are the challenges you face?
Firstly, there is a lack of awareness about the various aspects of sustainability. Whenever energy transition and sustainability are discussed, the common association of sustainability is with ‘solar panels’.
There is an immediate need to integrate sustainability practices into the journey of demand and supply. While most of the actions are focused on supply side, we must address the demand (consumption) side, which represents the other half of the coin and presents a significant opportunity to accelerate.
To illustrate, in addressing our own consumption needs sustainably, we have created IntenCity, a fully digital, sustainable, and people-centric flagship office building located in Grenoble, France, perfectly embodying our vision of Buildings of the Future. The building consumes 37 kWh per m2 per year, which is 10 times less energy than the average European buildings.
Therefore, I would assert that the most significant challenge lies in awareness, and our marketing teams across the globe are strongly focused on tackling this challenge.
What does AI mean to Schneider? Where do you see AI being implemented? How do you use it and for how long have you been using it?
We have been leveraging AI and Machine Learning (ML) for industrial processes for a considerable period of time. Notably the Internet of Things (IOT) existed even before the term got coined.
Around six to eight years ago, we began fervently promoting AI and ML. Our innovation hubs and flagship innovation summit events showcase how we utilise Smart IOT Devices for augmentation, diagnosis, remote monitoring, and predictive analysis. Many of our predictive applications rely on AI and ML. Utilising design tools, we are developing new factories, process plants, and airports- followed by employing AI simulations for modeling and design. Hence, we apply AI on two fronts: within all products & solutions and to enhance our operational process efficiencies.
In Marketing, we deploy AI for various purposes, including content creation, enhancing customer service, understanding customer preferences, and optimising our customer value proposition. AI holds the potential to profoundly impact how brands can serve their customers better and we will continue to see the popularity of these tools going up every year!