Schneider Electric demonstrates the importance of sustainability
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date in the year by when humanity will have consumed more from the planet, including food, fibres, timber, and absorption capacity for carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning than the planet’s ecosystems can renew in the entire year. Schneider Electric, believes that adoption of energy efficient and renewable technologies such as its IoT enabled EcoStruxure platform, could move the date back by 21 days through retrofitting of existing building, industry and datacenter infrastructure and upgrading electricity production alone.
To demonstrate how this can be done and to promote new approaches to sustainable business thinking, the company has partnered with Global Footprint Network, the international research organization that is changing how the world manages its natural resources and responds to climate change. Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint accounts enable to calculate Earth Overshoot Day.
Schneider Electric believes this situation is reversible. The company has calculated that if 100% of existing building, industry and datacenter infrastructure was equipped with active energy efficiency technologies that are readily available and the electric grid was upgraded with renewable capacities, the world could move the date back by at least 21 days.
“Operating on a planet with finite resources requires creativity and innovation, said Xavier Houot, Schneider Electric’s SVP Global Environment. We team-up with our customers and partners to unlock the potential to retrofit existing infrastructure, adopting circular business models, and we measure how much this helps save resources and CO2. We work to see our growth path through the lens of the growing need of living within the means of our one planet.”
“Schneider Electric’s business case is aligned with moving humanity out of ecological overshoot, said Global Footprint Network CEO Mathis Wackernagel. Leading companies like Schneider Electric are rising to the challenge of managing natural resources differently, measuring them more accurately, and developing products and processes that use them not only more efficiently, but also reduce their overall use.”