ESG performance and disclosure
Discover how Schneider Electric acts for a more sustainable and socially-equitable world
At Schneider Electric, sustainability has been at the core of our business strategy for the past 15 years. We create technologies and solutions to advance a more efficient, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive world for all. We work with customers, partners, governments, and suppliers to deploy these solutions and create a low-carbon future.
ESG FAQ
Sustainability strategy
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For Schneider Electric “Sustainability” is about creating system value. It encompasses continuous improvement of environmental, social, and ethical dimensions across an organization's entire value chain and stakeholders. This holistic approach to sustainability allows the Group to greatly mitigate risks and also brings tangible value added through a greater attractivity to customers, new talents, and investors while boosting innovation.
Sustainability is integrated in the processes and bodies that design and execute the Group’s strategy at the board (Human Resources and CSR Committee), executive (Group Sustainability Committee), and operational levels.
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Schneider Electric’s short-term sustainability roadmap for 2025 is built on a consultation process involving external and internal stakeholders, called a materiality assessment, as well as dedicated internal governance mechanisms involving the Sustainability team, employees, experts in the Group, the Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors, under the leadership of the Chief Sustainability Officer. In the medium (5-10 years) and long term (10-30 years), Schneider Electric aligns its strategy on key issues under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and global climate scenarios in coherence with its business model and global footprint.
The results of Schneider Electric’s materiality matrix showed that the most material topics for the Group are:
1. Leading climate action in our ecosystem with our partners;
2. Pioneering circular economy and being efficient with resources;
3. Ensuring a fair transition and guaranteeing high ethical, social, and environmental standards along more local value chains;
4. Leveraging digital in cybersecure solutions to boost positive impact.
To cover all these priorities, Schneider Electric defined 6 long-term commitments (Climate, Resources, Trust, Equal, Generations, and Local) and its 2021-2025 Schneider Sustainability Impact and Schneider Sustainability Essentials programs to measure progress against them.
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Each year, Schneider Electric performs risks, opportunities, and impact assessments, considering issues that can have direct positive or negative financial impacts for the Company in the short-term (3 – 5 years), medium-term (5 – 10 years), or long-term (10 – 30 years), as well as impacts the Company may have on people and the planet, directly or indirectly in its value chain. The assessments rely on a panel of both internal and external tools, take into account stakeholders’ expectations and is integrated in the ERM process. The Sustainability team, the Strategy team, the Group Risk Management function, and the Duty of Vigilance Committee especially play a key role. Other topic-specific committees contribute to the assessments and oversee the Group’s strategy on those issues, such as the Carbon Committee, Human Resources Committee, and the Ethics Committee.
In 2023, Schneider Electric performed its double materiality assessment in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as a first step to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This assessment involves the collaboration of various teams, especially the Sustainability team, the Group Risk Management function, and the Duty of Vigilance Committee.
The double materiality assessment leverages various internal analyses and external inputs, including stakeholders’ consultations, to determine the materiality of relevant sustainability topics for the Group, both from a financial and/or impact perspective. A third-party assurance provider is verifying the materiality assessment process. Material risks, impacts, and opportunities across the value chain were validated by the Company’s senior management and governance bodies. The results of this assessment will be disclosed in Schneider’s Universal Registration Document 2024.
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The Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) is a scorecard demonstrating that rapid, disruptive changes for a more sustainable world are possible across diverse, complex topics. We are committed to taking urgent action to co-create a brighter future aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 objectives, and measuring our impact with transparency. The SDGs are about protecting the planet, alleviating poverty, and achieving worldwide peace and justice.
Since 2005, we have updated our SSI every three years. By tracking our sustainability performance and publishing quarterly results, we uphold our commitments to the SDGs and industry leadership in corporate social responsibility. Beyond our SSI, we also instill a culture around sustainability through performance incentives for employees and leadership.
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As part of its Extra-Financial Performance Declaration, the Group presents the main risks and opportunities identified with respect to major societal challenges. To compile the list of risks for the Group every year, a panel of both internal and external tools is used to address the expectations of its stakeholders as best as possible. The Group Sustainability team leads the evaluation, working in close collaboration with the Strategy team, the Group Risk Management function, and with the Duty of Vigilance Committee.
The Group’s corporate governance bodies supervise the development of internal control and risk management systems. The Audit & Risks Committee has particular responsibility for following up on the efficiency of internal control and risk management systems and reports to the Board of Directors.Internal tools:
- An internal and external stakeholder consultation (materiality assessment), focused on analyzing key stakeholders' expectations, is performed prior to each SSI program launch every three to five years (the last exercise was done in 2020).
- The Group risk matrix, led by the Group Risk Management function, is updated every year.
- The Vigilance risks matrix focuses on the potential adverse impacts the Group may have on people or the planet, directly or indirectly in its value chain through its business relationships.
- Other specific risk mappings are conducted regularly, dedicated among others to Ethics & Compliance (including AntiCorruption and Conflicts of Interest), Climate, Water and Biodiversity, supplier, and cybersecurity risks.
- Regulatory frameworks: the key topics listed under Article R. 225-105 of the French Commercial Code (ExtraFinancial Performance Declaration), the European Taxonomy Regulation or European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
- International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability.
- International institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and peer working groups and initiatives.
- Analysis of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) rating agencies' expectations.
- Specific requests from investors and customers.
- Recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and various other frameworks (SASB, GRI, etc.).
Overall, the different governance bodies involved in the definition and monitoring of our Sustainability roadmap and programs (Schneider Sustainability Impact) are in charge of defining strategic mitigation programs in response to the risks and opportunities identified. Strategic programs defined at Group level are then cascaded into business divisions down to the sites for implementation. Each program of the SSI has a dedicated pilot in charge of driving the transformation and is sponsored at the Senior Vice President and Executive level to ensure management control and oversight.
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Schneider Electric uses a hybrid risk management model with central functions and experts that are independent of any business lines to oversee setting risk management mechanisms, establishing policies, and other activities, while the ownership of the risks belongs to the Business Units, Operating Divisions, or Global Functions who are responsible for deploying the central framework to manage their risks.
A list of Key Risks, managed by different risk owners, is consolidated by the Risk Management Function and reviewed every year by the Audit & Risk Committee for disclosure, where the committee would have several dedicated sessions over each reporting year to ensure full details are examined.
Finalized results of ERM process are published each year in the Universal Registration Document and awareness promoting risk management is also promoted within the Group.
The Group has launched various trainings and campaigns targeting the board and all employees in order to further raise awareness on our risk management mechanisms. For the Board of Directors, the Group has started an initiative to enhance risk culture education across board members to ensure understanding of the Enterprise Risk Management framework. While for other employees, training sessions were organized to raise the maturity of risk owners and risk overseers through various communities. General employee awareness was also raised through videos and social media campaigns that communicates our risk management mechanisms.
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As a world corporate leader in sustainability, we believe that what makes Schneider Electric stand out today and tomorrow is that it is an Impact company through 2 guiding principles:
1. Do well to do good and vice versa.
Performance: Our sustainability and business impacts converge to act for a climate-positive and socially equitable world.
Business: we have integrated sustainability at the heart of our business strategy to be the digital partner for sustainability and efficiency for all partners.
All ESG: to deliver sustainability in our entire value chain, we must combine a solid profitability with leading practice on all Environmental, Social, and Governance dimensions.
2. Bring everyone along.
Model & Culture: the company’s operating model is set up to impact on all of the above at global and local levels. Our culture builds on strong and practiced values with the right talent and processes to be a leading purpose-led company.
All stakeholders: we seek to address the needs of all stakeholders in its ecosystem, from employees to supply chain partners, and customers, as well as local communities, and institutions.
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Schneider Impact revenues are defined as offers that bring energy, climate, or resource efficiency to our customers. Schneider Electric’s Impact revenues are split into four categories described thereafter. Activities included are:
- Energy efficiency architectures bringing energy and/or resource efficiency to customers.
- Grid reinforcement and smart grid architectures contributing to electrification and decarbonization.
- Products with differentiating green performance, flagged thanks to our Green PremiumTM program.
- Services that bring benefits for circularity (prolonged asset lifetime and uptime, optimized maintenance operations, repair, and refurbish) and energy efficiency (to maintain operational performance of equipment and avoid a decrease of energy efficiency over time).
Revenues derived from activities with fossil sectors and others are excluded, including Oil & Gas, coal mining, and fossil-power generation, in line with prevailing corporate responsibility reporting and sustainable finance practices, even though Schneider Electric’s technologies deliver resources and carbon efficiency in such sectors as well. In line with Schneider Electric’s strategy to phase out SF6 from offers, SF6-containing switchgear for medium voltage applications are also excluded. In addition, neutral technologies such as signaling, racks and enclosures, access control, or emergency lighting are excluded.
All revenues consolidated in financial accounts are taken into account. The calculation is based on revenues per line of business. The exclusion of fossil revenues is based on orders per customers’ end segment, with extrapolation to estimate the destination of transactional sales.
This indicator is audited annually by an external third party.
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Schneider Electric has been an early adopter of transparent disclosures on sustainable revenues and created its own methodology of “Impact revenues” in 2019, covering offers that bring environmental efficiency to its customers, and excluding revenues from carbon-intensive segments.
The European Union (EU) has shown international leadership by being the first to develop a Regulation and Taxonomy aiming at driving investments towards environmentally sustainable activities, which the Group applauds.
Schneider Impact Revenues is a multi-criteria indicator, supporting climate and resources efficiency. The EU Taxonomy reporting on the 2023 financial year, covers all six environmental objectives defined in the regulation, however, the list of enabling technologies is incomplete. Notably for Schneider’s business, the EU Taxonomy includes only partially digital solutions and energy efficiency technologies for industry.
The applicability of some Technical Screening Criteria and Do Not Significantly Harm checks are a challenge for global industrial companies. Schneider Electric will continue active involvement with the Commission to speed up the completion of the framework with missing sustainable technologies; and improve the usability and practical implementation of the technical screening criteria.
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The methodology for calculating Taxonomy-eligible turnover, Capital Expenditure, and Operational Expenditure is detailed in the Group’s annual report.
In a nutshell, regarding revenues, two combined approaches are used:
- An offer-based approach (i.e., by nature of technology), whereby each line of business offers are reviewed against the definition of economic activities of the EU Climate and Environmental Delegated Acts.
- An end-segment approach, whereby the amount of revenues generated from offers fitting with the economic activities description sold to Taxonomy-eligible end-segments (Green Transport and Renewables) is reviewed.
There is no double-counting between the two approaches.
ESG performance and disclosure
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The execution of the Group’s 2021-2025 sustainability strategy is tracked through quantitative Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), under two complementary tools: Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) and Schneider Sustainability Essentials (SSE).
Another tool called the Schneider Sustainability External and Relative Index (SSERI) measures the Group’s performance in 4 independent ESG ratings.The numerous awards received and the Group’s leadership in the main ESG indices (e.g. Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, Euronext Vigeo Eiris World 120, etc.), confirm that Schneider Electric is headed in the right direction.
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The SSI is the translation of our 6 long-term commitments into a selection of 11 highly transformative and innovative programs. Program results are published quarterly, audited annually, and linked to short-term incentive plans for the managers of the Group. A notable addition to the SSI in 2021 is the local aspect, aiming to deploy local actions in the 100+ markets where the Group operates in order to better empower all leaders and collaborators to unlock meaningful local impacts.
The SSE brings balance between the innovative transformation plans of the SSI and the need to keep progressing on other long-lasting programs. In that spirit of continuous improvement, and in a holistic vision of sustainability, the SSE tracks annual progress with 25 quantitative KPIs, and some additional qualitative programs. Collectively, the SSI 11 Global Impacts and its Local Impact, as well as the 25 SSE programs, are the Group’s short-term sustainability roadmap and our contribution to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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Schneider Electric policies and commitments are aligned with international environmental standards and frameworks and reports accordingly to the UN Global Compact and SDGs, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Labour Organization (ILO).
See more about our Key external frameworks p.103 of the URD 2023.
You can find more details in our reports, and our TCFD correspondence table on pages 296 to 301 of our 2023 Universal Registration Document. Likewise, a SASB correspondence table is provided on pages 294 to 295.
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Schneider Electric is regularly top-ranked by many ESG rating agencies. For instance, in 2023 the Group obtained a CDP Climate Change A rating and was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, both for the 13th year in a row. The Group is also part of Euronext Vigeo World 120, Europe 120, Eurozone 120, and France 20 indices. Schneider Electric obtained an Ecovadis Platinum medal (top 1%), is rated AAA by MSCI, and Low risk by Sustainalytics. In January 2023, Schneider Electric has also been named the #7th World Most Sustainable Corporation according to Corporate Knights Global 100, and 1st in its peer group.
Know more about our ESG ratings performance in our Disclosure Dashboard.
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Yes, annual short-term incentives for the Group’s executives and about 71,000 eligible employees are linked to the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) performance since 2011. From 2019, the weight of the SSI criteria has increased from 6% to 20% in the collective part of the annual incentive, highlighting further the importance of ESG on Schneider Electric’s business agenda. In France, since 2012, the SSI has also been included in the profit-sharing incentive plan for the French entities, Schneider Electric Industries, and Schneider Electric France. The reduction in the occupational accidents severity rate is also considered in the profit-sharing incentive plans of 24 other French entities.
Universal Registration Document 2023 - Pages 236 to 237
Schneider Electric’s long-term incentive plan offers share ownership opportunities to the Group’s key talents and critical roles to align their rewards with the interests and experience of Schneider Electric shareholders. Similar to the short-term incentive, a portion of the award under the long-term incentive plan is subject to the achievement of sustainability objectives. From 2020, the long-term sustainability performance is measured through the Schneider Sustainability External & Relative Index (SSERI), which accounts for 25%, a combination of external indices which cover a range of environmental, social, and governance indicators wider than and different from the SSI criteria included in the annual incentive plan.
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The Schneider Sustainability External and Relative Index (SSERI) measures the long-term sustainability performance of the Group in terms of relative performance, through a combination of external indices which cover a range of environmental, social, and governance indicators wider than and different from the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI). The SSERI weighs 25% of the long-term incentives (LTI) performance criteria for about 3,000 Group leaders. Using external indices ensures that the sustainability priorities governing the assessment of the long-term sustainability performance of the Group are at all times those which matter the most to the stakeholders. As their content is dynamic and includes new and more relevant topics as they emerge, it forces participants to constantly anticipate the most demanding trends in global sustainability. The Board has selected some of the most challenging external indices which are objective, recognized, and independent, covering main geographies in line with the Group’s global footprint and which complement each other as they cover different sustainability dimensions:
- DJSI World covers three dimensions: economic, environmental, and social.
- Euronext Vigeo which covers environment, community involvement, business behavior, human rights, corporate governance, and human resources.
- EcoVadis covers four dimensions: environment, labor and human rights, sustainable procurement, and ethics.
- CDP Climate Change represents a major reference for climate change leadership globally.
A revised compensation policy was voted during the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the Group, whereby Scopes 1, 2, and 3 (upstream) CO2 emissions reduction targets are used instead of SSERI to calculate 25% of Long Term Incentive Plans starting in 2024, in order to align executive remuneration with the Group's climate transition commitments.
Our long-term commitment is to act for a climate positive world, by continuously investing in and developing innovative solutions that deliver immediate and lasting decarbonization in line with our Net-Zero commitment
GHG footprint and Net-Zero Strategy
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Schneider Electric updates its Scopes 1 & 2 carbon footprint annually, and Scope 3 emissions annually or every three years (depending on the source of emission). Each year, an independent third-party verifier provides a limited assurance on all Scopes 1, 2, and 3 CO2 figures disclosed by the Group.
Thanks to Schneider Electric’s energy efficiency and renewable strategies, the Group has achieved significant CO2 emissions reduction in absolute terms in 2023 versus 2017 baseline: Scopes 1 & 2 operational emissions have reduced from 699,079 tCO2e to 202,232 tCO2e, which is an absolute reduction of 496,847 tCO2e, and a -71% decrease. Scope 3 emissions represent around 90% of the Group’s industrial carbon footprint (i.e. Scopes 1, 2, and 3 upstream, as per the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, excluding use and end-of-life of products sold), mainly from the purchase of raw materials, equipment, and services to its suppliers.
Emissions produced, saved and avoided by Schneider Electric’s products and services during their use phase and end-of-life are also quantified.
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Schneider Electric is a signatory of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C initiative aimed at setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets in line with the global effort to limit warming to 1.5°C. Schneider Electric has four key milestones leading to Net-Zero by 2050.
2025: Through its Schneider Sustainability Impact program, Schneider Electric has committed to help its customers and partners save and avoid 800 million tonnes of CO2 emissions thanks to its EcoStruxure solutions. Moreover, Schneider Electric operations (scopes 1 and 2) will be carbon-neutral by 2025 (including CO2 offsets).
2030: The Group has committed to reduce its absolute carbon emissions across its value chain by 25% from the 2021 baseline. Schneider has also committed to have “net-zero ready” operations (scopes 1 and 2), meaning the Group commits to reduce its operational carbon footprint by at least 90% (compared to the 2017 base year) and will remove residual emissions. This 2030 target is validated by the SBTi as part of a 1.5°C ambition and their Net-Zero Corporate Standard. To achieve these carbon reductions, the Group is actively engaging its suppliers to accelerate their climate strategy, sourcing lower-carbon materials, as well as improving the energy efficiency of its offers.
2040: The Group has committed to reach carbon neutrality across its full end-to-end footprint by 2040 (scopes 1, 2, and 3).
2050: Schneider Electric has committed to reach net-zero emissions across its value chain. This target was approved by the Science-Based Target initiative under the “Net-Zero Corporate Standard”. The Group will need to reduce absolute scopes 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions by at least 90% from a 2021 base year and remove residual emissions.
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The Company aims to achieve a 25% absolute reduction in carbon emissions across its entire value chain by 2030 and Net-Zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2050. This means that all Schneider upstream suppliers need to transition towards clean energy. Reaching this ambitious target is a long-term transformative process. As a first step and to onboard the suppliers, Schneider Electric launched The Zero Carbon Project in 2021, which aims to cut 50% of operational carbon emissions from the top 1,000 suppliers by 2025 (SSI #3). At the end of 2023, SSI #3 achieved a 27% performance and has laid the ground to accelerate decarbonization in the coming years.
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Schneider Electric has defined short and medium-term financial investment priorities in order to set the course towards its SBTi-validated Net-Zero commitment, and more broadly to meet its long-term commitments for climate, and to preserve natural resources. These investments include decarbonization of the Group’s own operations, by investing progressively in energy efficiency, site electrification, renewable energies, and electric chargers for company vehicles.
Thus, for the past years, the Group has invested between EUR 5 million and EUR 15 million each year in energy efficiency, deploying its own solutions in its sites, which enabled equivalent savings on energy costs, and for the purchase of renewable energy certificates, to a reduction of 71% of Scopes 1 and 2 CO2 emissions compared to 2017. The last miles in Schneider’s journey to be “Net-Zero ready” in 2030, achieving 90% CO2 reductions vs. 2017, will be the hardest.
To support this objective, it is estimated that around EUR 400 million will be invested by 2030, in technologies such as heat pumps to substitute comfort gas or such as EV chargers. Such investments are usually not linear year-on-year as large projects may take a few years to design and implement, and opportunities at a given time depend on the local economic and regulatory context.
Delivering a climate impact through efficiency and digitization
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Our mission is to be the digital partner of our customers for sustainability and efficiency allowing them to reduce their CO2 emissions in buildings, in data centers, across smart grids, industries, and in homes. For years, we have continuously developed and reinforced a full offer for an all-digital, all-electric world. By combining digital and electric solutions and services, we deliver a unique efficiency value proposition based on four dimensions of integration:
- We enable the integration of energy and automation for energy and resource efficiency.
- We connect everything from the end-point to the cloud, making every installation transparent and the data available to all those who need it, from operators to the control room.
- Based on a fully integrated suite of software and digital twins, we enable the integration of an installation’s life cycle across all phases, from design and build, to operate and maintain.
- Digitization allows us to connect and manage companies across sites to reach new levels of enterprise-wide efficiency.
Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Business (SB) helps the world’s leading companies on climate, from strategy setting to execution:
- Strategize: SB consultants help companies measure their environmental impacts, create a decarbonization roadmap, structure their program & governance, and communicate on commitments.
- Digitize: Creating a single source-of-truth for energy and resource data management requires monitoring of resource usage and emissions, identifying saving opportunities, and reporting on benchmark progress. This is achieved with Schneider’s digital platform and services (EcoStruxure™ Resource Advisor and Neo Network™).
- Decarbonize: Execute a decarbonization strategy using four key levers: electrification of operations, reduction of energy use, replacing energy sources, and engaging the whole value chain. Schneider Electric’s robust portfolio of end-to-end net-zero solutions supports clients to deliver those levers. SB's global team of experts helps our customers deploy these solutions to systematically achieve their decarbonization aspirations.
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As a global specialist in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, the Group places its expertise and solutions at the service of its customers to ensure that energy is safe, reliable, efficient, connected, and sustainable. The Group proposes an integrated offering of technologies and market-leading solutions tailored to customer needs, promoting the transition towards more electric, digital, decarbonized, and decentralized energy. Due to its business model, Schneider Electric is therefore uniquely positioned among the 1,000+ companies taking action for climate change because it acts on both sides of the equation:
- The solutions Schneider Electric brings to the market are directly linked to activities to mitigate, adapt, and improve humanity’s resilience to climate change.
- At the same time, Schneider Electric acts to reduce its end-to-end CO2 supply chain by 2050, with precise steps for 2025, 2030, and 2040.
To demonstrate this positive impact, a Schneider Sustainability Impact indicator was launched in 2018 to quantify CO2 savings delivered to customers through the use of Schneider offers. The Group is committed to helping customers save and avoid 800 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025 and already achieved 553 million tonnes of CO2 in 2023.
Detailed calculation rules are defined per offer, leveraging sales data, market expertise, and technical knowledge. The methodology is designed to become a shared industry standard; its principles are applicable across capital goods and consumer durables sectors. The methodology is public and was developed with an expert CO2 accounting consulting company, Carbone 4, and the calculation is audited every year as part of the extra-financial audit.
Governance
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The process for designing a Schneider Sustainability Impact program (SSI) includes a sustainability risks and opportunities assessment (including climate), which leads to the design of concrete transformation initiatives to align the company on the challenges identified. The risks and opportunities are then monitored and managed on a continuous basis. Several governance bodies are involved in this process, in particular the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, the SSI Steering Committee, and the Sustainability Department.
A dedicated Carbon Committee is in charge of continuously assessing climate-related risks and opportunities, steering the Group's Net-Zero commitment, and proposing a strategy and management plan to the Function Committee.
Additionally, environmental transformations are driven by a network of leading experts in various environmental fields such as eco-design, energy efficiency, circular economy, or CO2. Environment leaders coordinate a network of more than 600 managers responsible for the environmental management of sites, countries, product design, and marketing.
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Since 2018, Schneider Electric has built a scenario planning function and roadmap. This exercise led to the creation of several scenarios leading to 2040, developed following an inductive methodology approach. These scenarios include critical reviews of the geopolitical landscape, commodity and resources availability, economic and financial evolutions, climate sensitivity and evolving policies, energy transition pathways, and technology developments, among others.
The consequences of the energy transition are quantified, looking at 10 regions and a number of sectors individually, framing the business landscape in which Schneider Electric operates. Key findings are regularly cross-checked with new publications, particularly the ones from the International Energy Agency, among others, on a regular basis. Governance is in place, under the leadership of the Chief Sustainability Officer, and this exercise is shared internally and used to inform strategic priorities across the business and operations.
Across all scenarios, a key takeaway is the dominant role of:
- Efficiency: a critical enabler for decarbonization, resiliency, and security.
- Electrification: the world is becoming more electric, with 2x growth against other sources of energy.
- Digitization: with the increase in connectivity, complemented by real-time information and competitive computing capabilities, digital technologies play a major role in reaching decarbonization targets while augmenting economic productivity.
Based on these inputs and findings, and by estimating the financial impact such scenarios may have on the Group’s business (as risks or as opportunities), key development areas have been identified that allow to actively contribute to the low-carbon transition. These scenarios therefore heavily drive Schneider Electric's business strategy in terms of investments (R&D, incubation, efficiency), and enable it to develop its sustainability portfolio of offers.
Our long-term commitment is to be efficient with resources, by behaving responsibly and making the most of digital technology to preserve our planet.
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The goal of circularity is to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems. It proposes a framework in which outputs from every stage of the lifecycle become inputs to another, offsetting the need for new materials and energy-intensive manufacturing activities. A circular economy is also a non-negotiable for a net-zero, nature-positive future. Schneider’s circularity vision is to decouple business growth from the extraction of natural resources while meeting its net-zero, nature-positive target.
Our approach:
Vision: Decouple business growth from the extraction of natural resources while meeting our net-zero and nature-positive targets.
Mission: Adopt end-to-end circularity to:
1) drive circularity concepts as a core part of offer creation, product design, and manufacturing.
2) keep products, parts, and materials in circulation at their highest functional value for as long as possible.Strategic layers:
- Design innovation consists of two levers:
2) business innovation to offer development e.g. deciding a go-to-market strategy between transactional sales to as a service.- Use better is about sourcing the best in class sustainable materials and manufacturing products efficiently. Example measures include sourcing materials with high recycled content and minimizing manufacturing scrap.
- Use longer involves providing services to keep products in use for as long as possible. On-site repair and maintenance, as well as equipment modernization services.
- Use again relates to recirculating products, parts, and materials in the economy. For example, take back, refurbishment, and resale of retired assets.
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A sustainable future for people and economies will only be possible if nature, climate, and people are valued in an integrated way. Climate change is among the main drivers of biodiversity loss, while nature is part of the climate solution. If the limit of warming of 1.5°C becomes impossible to reach, climate change will likely become the dominant cause of biodiversity loss in the coming decades. In 2021, Schneider Electric committed to no net biodiversity loss in its own operations by 2030. This was underpinned by the following five actionable commitments:
1. Quantify and regularly publish the assessment of the Group’s impacts on biodiversity.
2. Commit to reducing Schneider’s impacts and align biodiversity objectives with science.
3. Develop solutions and technologies that contribute to the preservation of biodiversity.
4. Engage and transform the value chain.
5. Act locally, engaging employees and partners.As part of its Group’s Biodiversity Pledge, Schneider Electric committed to act locally, engaging employees and partners to deploy biodiversity conservation and restoration programs in 100% of sites (>2000 SQM). To meet this target, 400 Schneider sites have to define and deploy a Biodiversity program that aims to eliminate single-use plastics (relating to non-production such as office and catering) and includes at least one local action which addresses locally-specific ecological risks, and incorporates structured governance and wider stakeholder involvement.
Our long-term commitment is to live up to our principles of Trust, by upholding ourselves and all around us to high social, governance, and ethical standards.
Ethics
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The Trust Charter sets out the expectations of how we work at Schneider and equips teams to confront any unethical behavior they might encounter.
To live up to the highest standards of corporate governance, the Trust Charter acts as our Code of Conduct and demonstrates our commitment to ethics, safety, sustainability, quality, and cybersecurity. Schneider Electric believes that trust is a foundational value. It is earned, it serves as a compass, showing the true north in an ever more complex world and Schneider Electric considers it to be core to its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments.
As trust fuels empowerment, each section of the charter states clear do’s and don’ts and provides clear references to relevant policies and procedures, which are adapted to meet local legal requirements when necessary. This Code of Conduct applies to everyone working at Schneider or any of Schneider’s subsidiaries.
It is both an individual and collective responsibility to comply with and respect laws and regulations, to apply Schneider Electric policies, and to uphold strong ethical principles to earn trust at all times.
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Schneider Electric seeks to be a role model in its interactions with customers, partners, suppliers, and communities when it comes to ethics and the respect and promotion of human rights. The Group strives to have a positive impact on the planet and the environment by contributing to finding solutions to limit climate change. The Group’s vigilance plan reflects this ambition. It also complies with the provisions of 2017 French law on the Corporate duty of vigilance. The plan includes:
- A risk analysis specific to vigilance: risks that Schneider Electric poses on the ecosystem and environment.
- A review of the key actions implemented to remediate or mitigate these risks.
- An alert system.
- Governance specific to vigilance.
In its Registration document, Schneider Electric reviews the risk matrix analysis, and some of the actions to mitigate these risks are described. For more comprehensive and complete information, the full vigilance plan of the Group is available as a standalone document and can be downloaded from Schneider Electric’s website.
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Schneider Electric’s human rights approach is articulated around three principles:
- First, Schneider Electric is committed to fully respecting and applying laws and regulations in all countries where it operates.
- Second, Schneider Electric is committed to fostering and promoting human rights throughout all its operational sites and subsidiaries worldwide.
- Third, Schneider Electric wishes to support human rights beyond its borders, leveraging its large network of partners and stakeholders to promote the implementation of actions that will ensure the respect of people’s rights.
At the end of 2022, Schneider published the second version of its Global Human Rights Policy. The Company intends to increase its commitments by making clear its position on new challenges such as migrant workers and artificial intelligence. It confirms the Group’s engagement to strive for the respect of all internationally recognized Human Rights and to ensure that Human Rights are respected for everyone, everywhere, at all times.
The new policy includes eight new topics: respect and dignity, human rights in cyberspace, migrant workers, conflicts minerals, intergenerational solidarity, human rights activities within the Group’s supply chain, civic space and human rights defenders, and access to a healthy environment.
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As stated in our Trust Charter and Anti-Corruption Policy, Schneider Electric is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations, such as the OECD’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act, and the French Sapin II law.
Schneider Electric applies a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and other unethical business practices and considers that “doing things right” is a key value-creation driver for all its stakeholders. We count on our employees and third parties to promote business integrity. To do so, we must provide them with the tools to encourage them to act right.
To operationalize the behavior rules of the Anti-Corruption Policy, Schneider Electric has created a set of additional policies and procedures related to Conflict of Interest, Business Agents, Gifts & Hospitality, Philanthropy and Sponsorship and revised anticorruption accounting controls program. Moreover, the risks associated with onboarding new acquisition targets are numerous and consequently, Merger and Acquisition (M&A) guidelines have been published to identify, manage, and mitigate those risks at the earliest possible stage. These same rules also apply when Schneider Electric decides to make a divestiture with a step-by-step approach to managing the transition.
Anti-corruption awareness is one component of the compliance program. We want to ensure that country leaders, managers, employees, and third parties are aware of our Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct. In 2020 and 2021, a set of anti-corruption e-learnings was built, providing guidance on real-life risk scenarios and is mandatory for 40,000 targeted employees exposed to corruption risks. In 2022, those e-learnings were rolled out to more than 40,000 employees, with a completion rate of 97%. Ad hoc anti-corruption learnings were also delivered to all employees and managers as part of the Trust Month, and specific communication campaigns dedicated to the new policies for Gifts & Hospitality, Philanthropy, and Sponsorship were deployed globally.
To allow specific alerts to be reported with a high level of confidentiality and to be dealt with at a high level, Schneider Electric relies on an online system called Trust Line available at all times. Employees and external stakeholders (suppliers, subcontractors, customers, business agents, etc.) can directly access the whistleblowing system through the Trust Line portal, which provides support to people if they are a victim/witness to a potential violation of the Trust Charter.
Note that the Anti-Corruption Compliance program is part of the Ethics & Compliance program.
Safety
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Schneider Electric's ambition is to provide a safe and healthy environment for all its employees and contractors, so they can perform to their full potential, positively impact the safety of our customers, and return home safely.
Schneider Electric is committed to investing in its people and its workplace as stated in its Group Health and Safety Policy, which is reviewed each year and is fully aligned with ISO 45001 standard.
The Group Health and Safety Policy is applicable to the company's entire operations, its customers, its employees, and temporary workers, as well as suppliers, contractors, and partners, under the company’s supervision.
The Medical Incident Rate (MIR) performance has reduced to 0.51 in 2023, meaning that we are 2% off target, which represents a 68% progress of the 2021- 2025 program. 2023 was the best performance ever showing a MIR reduction of 12% compared to 2022, this translates to 154 medical incidents, of which 2 were classified as serious, without any employee fatalities.
Cybersecurity
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Schneider Electric is exposed to the risk of cyberattacks and data privacy breaches. The Energy Management and Industrial Automation sectors, in particular, are becoming more digital with pervasive Internet of Things (IoT) usage and augmented data being major accelerators for mobility, the cloud, pervasive sensing, big data, and analytics.
As an industrial and technology company, the Group has IT and Operational Technology (OT) activities spread over dozens of R&D sites, and more than 200 production and logistic units expanding the overall attack surface.
The digitalization of products is increasing the exposure to cybersecurity risk, connected products and digital offers could be used as a gateway for malicious cyberattacks. Additionally, the service-oriented business model with software and augmented data naturally increases cybersecurity risks, such as data breaches and intellectual property theft.
To mitigate the risk of Schneider Electric’s connected products being used as a gateway to attack Group’s customers and partners, the Product & Systems Security Office (PSO) is reinforced with a strong mandate of developing products and securing the ecosystem in conformity with cybersecurity standards (such as the ISO 27000 suite and IEC 62443). Schneider Electric follows a Secure Development Lifecycle process to build cybersecurity into its products, even before the design stage. In 2019, security and privacy design were enhanced with a new Secure Development Lifecycle and certified to IEC 62443-4-1.
Schneider Electric enforces digital security and privacy conformance for products, systems, software, platforms, applications, and digital offers through security reviews and, when applicable, the Digital Certification process. Schneider Electric addresses cybersecurity vulnerabilities affecting products, software, and systems to support the security and safety of our customers. Schneider Electric works collaboratively with researchers, Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and asset owners to ensure that accurate information is provided in a timely fashion to adequately protect customer installations. In case of a cyber incident, a process of response, connecting, and debriefing is organized with partners and customers.
Sustainable Supply Chain
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Since 2004, the Group has been encouraging its suppliers to commit to a sustainable development initiative. Since 2012, Schneider Electric has been requiring them to make progress according to the ISO 26000 – Social Responsibility guidelines.
This approach is strengthened by the General Procurement Terms and Conditions which all suppliers must abide by: each supplier undertakes to apply the principles and guidelines of the ISO 26000 international standard, the rules defined in the ISO 14001 – Environmental Management standard. Sustainability is considered as part of the selection criteria.
To mitigate risks with suppliers, the 2021–2025 plan is to deploy on-site and remote audits for 4,000 suppliers: 1,000 identified in 'high risk' level (by a third-party methodology, RBA, or other) with on-site audits, and 3,000 others through remote self-declarative assessment.
Most on-site audits are executed by trained internal auditors. In some countries, the Group has developed partnerships with third-party auditors to support and execute part of the plan. Globally, approximately one-third of audits are performed by these independent auditors. The rationale for developing the internal capacity for auditing is that it allows us to build experience internally, raise teams' awareness, and facilitate the transmission of this experience to onboarding employees or team members via training.
The 212 on-site audits performed in 2023 have allowed Schneider to raise 2,100+ non-conformances. Out of these non-conformances, 110+ are assessed as “top priority” and are given very specific attention during the re-audits of the suppliers. Schneider Electric’s objective is to close 100% of all types of non-conformances identified, whatever their priority level.
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To qualify new and legacy suppliers for a continued business association, Schneider Electric deploys a multi-step process including a supplier qualification process (SAM) and a supplier performance process (SPM).
- The SAM process has a dedicated evaluation on environment, labor, ethics, and occupational health and safety, among other elements. For all new suppliers, it is mandatory to undergo this evaluation and only approved partners can proceed to the next stage of functional and technical audits required for business qualification.
- During the commercial stage, different functional teams evaluate different performance parameters as part of SPM, including sustainability as one of the pillars, and the overall performance has an impact on the nature of the business relationship (strategic or non-strategic).
The Group regularly reviews its purchasing practices towards suppliers to ensure ESG requirements are met.
In order to reinforce the coordination between Schneider Electric teams and suppliers on vigilance topics, specific training programs have been implemented. The primary target audience is the Schneider Electric Procurement team, and the training modules aim to increase their knowledge on the nature of risks, so they can integrate these topics early in the discussions with suppliers. These trainings combine in-class experience with e-learning sessions. Additionally, the group has also launched a sustainability course dedicated to the procurement team in Schneider Electric’s Sustainability School.
To raise suppliers’ awareness, improve their ability to identify risks earlier, and implement mitigation solutions, Schneider Electric organized face-to-face workshops dedicated to vigilance subjects. At the end of 2022, approximately 1,000 supplier team members had attended these events. These sessions include in-class face-to-face workshops and digital webinars.
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The Group has set out to engage its strategic suppliers in a process of continuous improvement in sustainability. These include high-volume suppliers, suppliers of critical components, and non-substitutable suppliers for which the company intends to maximize and concentrate business, leveraging high-level relationships. At the end of 2023, there were around 1,000 strategic suppliers, which represented circa 56% of Schneider Electric’s purchases volume.
Strategic suppliers are identified based on several criteria, including their performance on ISO 26000 – Corporate Social Responsibility standards (assessed through EcoVadis), covering Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects. This process allows the highest-performing suppliers to become and remain our “strategic” suppliers. The results of the assessment are an integral part of the business reviews scheduled between buyers and strategic suppliers. The goal is to share with suppliers all improvement plans to put in place before the next assessment, in order to improve all aspects of their sustainability posture, based on facts and clear recommendations. Consistent with a continuous improvement effort, these suppliers have achieved on average a +6.3 points increase between 2018 and 2020, and an increase of +1.6 points in both 2022 and 2023 to reach an average score of 61.9 at the end of 2022.
In 2018, the Group took on the ambitious target of achieving +5 points out of 100 in the average ISO 26000 assessment score of its strategic suppliers up to end of 2020 as part of the SSI. At the end of 2020, +6.3 points were achieved, with an average of 57.4 points. The new ambition for 2021 – 2025 is to raise the bar even higher to achieve an average of 65 points within 5 years. Both in 2022 and 2023, targets were achieved with an increase of 1.6 points each year, ending 2023 with 61.9 points as result. Overall, since the end 2017, the average ISO 26000 score of Schneider’s strategic suppliers has increased by almost 11 points. This process allows suppliers to understand their ESG performance against other corporates based on their EcoVadis score relative to that of others.
The Group develops capacity building and works hand in hand with its strategic suppliers on key sustainability initiatives, especially on its SSI #3 Reduce CO2 emissions from top 1,000 suppliers’ operations by 50%, SSI #5 100% of our primary and secondary packaging is free from single-use plastic and uses recycled cardboard, and SSI #6 100% of our strategic suppliers provide decent work to their employees 2021-2025 programs.
Our long-term commitment is to create equal opportunities, by ensuring all employees are uniquely valued and work in an inclusive environment to develop and contribute their best.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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In 2021, Schneider Electric renewed its commitment to gender balance with the 2021 – 2025 SSI gender balance KPI, 50/40/30 – women representing 50% of all new hires, 40% of frontline managers, and 30% of senior leadership by 2025. As of the end of 2023, women made up 41% of the hiring, 28% of the front-line management, and 29% of leadership teams.
At the leadership level, we focus on 30% representation because research has shown that 30% is the tipping point for diversity to have a real impact on teams. This approach is informed by critical mass theory, which takes its roots in physics, where a minimum ‘critical mass’ is needed to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. When it comes to diversity in teams, 30% has been identified as the critical mass number. To get to that level of representation in leadership, we need to build a strong pipeline for female talents to grow within the organization and access senior levels. This starts with a strong commitment to reaching gender balance in hiring and continues with efforts to promote and develop women internally.
Schneider Electric is also committed to removing the structural and social barriers hindering women’s career progression through a holistic strategy promoting gender equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) within the organization, and through targeted career development initiatives.
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Well-being has been a strategic priority since 2015. Schneider Electric’s well-being ambition is to create an environment where employees are empowered to manage their unique lives and work by making the most of their energy.
The holistic view of well-being (physical, mental, emotional, and social) and the joint effort between the Company, leaders, and employees, are key to the success of the program. The current strategy tackles three areas of impact: overall well-being, mental health, and new ways of working. 2021 has shown how the expertise in well-being, gained in the past six years, has evolved and translated into an increase in internal demand for consulting to leaders’ teams to sustain and boost their performance.
Awareness and training are essential for this transformation. Back in 2020, Schneider Electric achieved its goal of reaching 90% of employees having access to a comprehensive well-being at work program (including access to medical coverage and well-being training).
Employees have access to training in different topics such as new and smarter ways of working, the upside of stress, how to work in a hybrid world, mindfulness at work, energizing our people to perform, spotting the signs of mental health challenges, and using strengths to prevent burnout. For instance, in 2021, a global mental health campaign was organized during the month of October using the tagline “Mental Health Matters” with more than 10,000 employees worldwide participating in different activities and training and 300,000 people reached on social media with testimonies from our leaders.
In 2023, the group also refreshed its Global Family Leave Policy, allowing its employees to enjoy extra time off to better take care of not only themselves but also their loved ones. With Global Family Leave Policy 2.0, the number of paid times increased for parental and care leave, compared to when it was first launched in 2017:
- Primary Parental Leave: Increased from 12 weeks to 20 weeks paid.
- Secondary Parental Leave: Increased from 2 weeks to 4 weeks paid.
- Care Leave: Increased from 1 week to 2 weeks paid.
The Group also fosters a supportive culture for parents. For example, in France, Schneider Electric has offered employees several nursery places since 2005. Other examples include having a nursing mothers’ room and a complimentary mail service for shipping breast milk home when traveling in some of the Group’s offices.
Compensation and Benefits
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At Schneider Electric, the basic foundational principles of fairness, equity, ethics, and transparency are fully embedded in our values. Through reward policies and processes, employees are compensated fairly and equitably for the skill set they possess and value contributions as a business imperative. Over the past five years, proactive actions have been taken to not only close gender pay gaps, but to prevent new gaps from being created.
To ensure accountability and transparency, Schneider Electric conducts quarterly reviews of compensation, both at country and global levels, leveraging analysis from HR data, which covers all key drivers of the employee lifecycle from hiring, performance assessment, and salary adjustment to career moves. Focusing on this Pay Equity Ecosystem allows Schneider Electric to proactively create offers for new hires and promotions that do not create pay gaps. The global pay equity framework was implemented in all countries by the end of 2020, covering 99.6% of Schneider Electric’s total workforce.
Given the progress made on pay equity and to support our inclusion philosophy, starting in 2021 the focus on pay equity has gone beyond gender. The ambition to attain and maintain a pay gap below 1% by 2025 for both females and males has been included as part of the SSE #18 for 2021 – 2025. Our baseline as of the end of 2020 is -1.73% and +1.00% for females and males respectively.
As of the end of 2023, the pay gap was -1.00% for females and 0.67% for males, on track with the target. Note that this measurement will differ from Country figures that may be required to be reported due to statutory requirements. -
Schneider Electric believes earning a living wage is a basic human right and a key element of decent work. Schneider Electric is committed to paying all employees at or above the living wage to meet their families’ basic needs. The Group considers basic needs to include food, housing, sanitation, education, healthcare, plus discretionary income for a given local standard of living. This is guided by our Human Rights Policy and Trust Charter. All permanent direct employees of Schneider Electric with open-ended contracts or fixed term contracts that are above 1 year are in the scope of the annual gap analysis. Third parties such as suppliers, contractors, or interns are out of scope.
In 2018, Schneider Electric started working with an independent advisor – Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) – to implement its living wage commitment as part of its fair and equitable policies. Schneider Electric has initiated a global process to analyze wage levels and employment practices against local living wage standards set by BSR. Moving forward into 2020, the COVID-19 crisis highlighted even more strongly the need for a safety net to guarantee a minimum income level for employees. Given the complexity of evaluating and mitigating the macroeconomic impact of the crisis, the Group did not run a gap analysis that year. In 2021, the new gap analysis covered 63 countries (representing over 99% of Schneider Electric footprint globally). As of 31 December 2022, 100% of in-scope employees, i.e. all Schneider employees treated as permanent workforce, were paid at least a living wage. Where living wage gaps were identified, corrective actions were taken to ensure that all employees are paid a living wage and no new gaps are created. In addition to guaranteeing that all in-scope employees are paid at least a living wage, Schneider continues to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations regarding minimum wage requirements.
In 2023, Schneider Electric received the certification of Global Living Wage Employer, guaranteeing that all employees of the company are paid at or above the Living Wage threshold as defined by the Fair Wage Network.
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Schneider ensures that all employee benefits are locally and globally compliant, as well as market-relevant. Because employee benefit plans vary significantly between countries due to different levels of social, tax, and legal regulations, Schneider Electric’s benefits portfolio is primarily country-driven and aims at providing similar benefits within a country territory.
Schneider Electric regularly reviews compliance with its global benefit policies and principles to ensure that its inclusive global benefit standards are delivered for everyone, everywhere.
One of Schneider Electric’s underlying benefit objectives is to ensure all its employees are equipped to manage their basic health and well-being and to provide adequate security to employees and their dependents. Health and well-being are embedded in Schneider Electric's strategic people priorities and contribute to its sustainability mission. The Group is committed to providing its employees access to well-being at work program – translated into a dual standard of access to healthcare and well-being training programs. It also provides access to an inclusive and comprehensive standard of healthcare coverage (outpatient, hospitalization, key health risks/ chronic conditions, maternity, children) defined by local regulations and employment agreements. Schneider also supports its employees with personal time off at critical life stages and this is fully deployed in 100% of countries as detailed below. In addition, the Group commits to provide financial security to employee dependents, in the event of an employee’s death, in the form of a minimum standard of life assurance coverage of at least a multiple equivalent to one year’s salary.
Schneider Global benefit standards cover healthcare, family leave, and life cover. They include:
- The Global Family Leave Policy, all employees eligible for benefits have access to this global policy.
- Employee Share Ownership, with the Worldwide Employee Share Ownership Plan (WESOP), one of the Group’s recurring key annual reward programs, offering employees across the world an opportunity to become owners of the Company, at preferred conditions.
Access to Energy
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Schneider Electric launched its Access to Energy program in 2009, with a unique approach combining three dimensions that enrich each other:
- A training & entrepreneurship program aimed at developing skills in the electricity trades and supporting entrepreneurs in this area, in particular women, in order to promote sustainable and inclusive local development.
- A social and inclusive business, with products and solutions for rural electrification (collective and individual, such as solar lanterns, solar home systems including Pay As You Go feature, solar water pumping systems, microgrids including plug and play containerized solutions, etc.), creating local jobs in distribution, energy services, agriculture, etc., and promoting in particular women’s empowerment.
- Impact investment funds to support local economies in gaining access to energy and reducing energy poverty.
The ambition of the Access to Energy social business is to connect to green and reliable electricity 50 million people between 2021 and 2025, and 100 million by 2030. More than 46 million people have already benefited from the Schneider energy access solutions between 2009 and 2023.
Our long-term commitment is to harness the power of all generations, by fostering learning, upskilling, and development for each generation, paving the way for the next.
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Providing opportunities for the next generation is a key part of the strategy to harness the power of a multi-generational workforce, having five generations working side by side. As part of SSI #10, the five-year ambition is to achieve a doubling of growth in the early-career pipeline. This involves leveraging traditional approaches today but migrating to more digital, borderless, and self-paced offers, ensuring the Company can de-bias practices and create a more equal playing field for those interested in Schneider and sustainability. This will be achieved through flagship global programs and partnerships, supplemented by country-specific initiatives:
- Schneider Global Virtual Student Experience: completely digital experience designed to provide students with a way to engage with Schneider Electric through eLearning modules and on-project simulations.
- Schneider Go Green: an annual global competition for business and Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) students around the world to find innovative solutions for energy management and automation. In 2023, Schneider Go Green had over 19,500 student registrations submitting ideas from all key regions.
- Development programs around the world that are structured to help support the acceleration of early career talent through a robust training and development path including graduate programs, internships, apprenticeships, and co-ops.
- Sponsorship initiatives, virtual Careers Fairs, office/site tours, Innovation Summit tours, digital and face-to-face speaking engagements and networking opportunities, and mentoring relationships.
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The key challenge of training in the energy sector is to provide the youth with the knowledge and skills to be able to carry out a trade in a safe and responsible way, providing them and their families with the means for satisfactory subsistence. It will also give them the ability, should they wish, to sell and maintain energy access offerings and to create their own small business in time. Furthermore, they are a vital and indispensable element for all responsible and sustainable rural electrification policies.
Schneider Electric’s strategy, backed by its Foundation, under the aegis of Fondation de France, for training people in the energy sector, includes three key priorities:
- Basic training over a few months, which is free and accessible to many people and adapted as much as possible to the local situation. These training courses lead to the issuing of a certificate of competence by Schneider Electric.
- Single or multi-year training leading to qualifications and a diploma, in partnership with local Ministries of Education, or even under bilateral agreements.
- The training of trainers to support the effective and quality rollout of training down the line.
Encouraged by the achievements of its training courses, the Training & Entrepreneurship program is going further by providing informal entrepreneurs and those trained in the electricity sector with support in setting up their own businesses. Employment markets in emerging economies are characterized by high proportions of informal sectors, underemployment, and people holding multiple jobs to make ends meet. In addition to specific skills training, entrepreneurs need business startup support and access to funding, both being key factors in the creation of long-lasting businesses.
The actions are always implemented in partnership with local players and/or national or international non-profit organizations (NGOs, governments, etc.) and with Schneider Electric’s local subsidiary.
The program has supported the training of more than 550,000 people across Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East since 2010. More than 8,500 trainers and 8,200 entrepreneurs have also been supported. We are committed to go further and faster by reaching one million people trained by 2025, 10,000 entrepreneurs supported, and 10,000 trainers trained.
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For all employees, the Group ensures there are tools and processes in place to set individual performance and development goals, and access learning and development opportunities for their current and future roles.
The Group’s robust process of setting individual performance and development goals annually, with regular reviews during the year, provides everyone with a clear roadmap to deliver with impact based on individual goals, behaviors, and contributions to others' success.
The new features introduced from 2021 in the goal-setting process make it more meaningful and support the new ways of working to collaborate and achieve together:
- FAST goals (Frequently discussed, Ambitious, Specific, Transparent) to support our desire to move to a more agile and regular way of reviewing and re-prioritizing goals. Managers are accountable to ensure employee goals are aligned with the agreed priorities throughout the year.
- Share Goals: Employees can share goals with anyone in the organization to create transparency and boost collaboration across teams (optional).
- Team Goals: Managers can set team goals to drive collaboration and to achieve together based on collective team priority (optional).
The Group’s robust process of setting goals annually with regular reviews during the year provides everyone with a clear roadmap to deliver with impact.
The Group has built-in reminders to check hidden biases and mitigate them through inclusive tips in our major human resource programs, including performance and salary review processes.
Our long-term commitment is to empower local communities, by promoting local initiatives and enabling individuals and partners to make sustainability a reality for all.
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We are one of the most local of the global companies. Our people live and work in the regions where we operate and are close to our customers. Our model reflects our decentralized governance model and empowers our people where they need it – close to the customers.
Our multi-hub approach continues to be a key part of Schneider Electric’s strategy. It enables improved resiliency, agility, and proximity with our customers and our network of suppliers.
As today’s world is increasingly divided by politics, conflict, trade, and regulatory differences, this characteristic of Schneider Electric’s model has proven its strategic value.
Four hubs serve our different markets (China, Europe, India, and North America). Each hub has its own capabilities, while coordinating globally to meet customer needs.
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As part of its 2021 – 2025 Schneider Sustainability Impact, Schneider Electric promote local initiatives and enable individuals and partners to make sustainability a reality for everyone, everywhere. 100% of Schneider Electric’s Country and Zone Presidents have defined three local commitments that impact their communities in line with our sustainability transformations. Close to 200 local programs have been deployed since 2021.
Every quarter, the company highlights local commitments achievements in its Schneider Sustainability Impact publications.
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For more than 20 years, training and entrepreneurship have been the historical mission of the Schneider Electric Foundation, under the aegis of Fondation de France. With the support of NGO partners, more than 550,000 young people around the world have received professional training in energy-related professions. The Group’s ambition is to train one million people by 2025. Passing on skills to young people and giving them the means to support their families will improve their quality of life and create sustainable jobs.
To do this, the Schneider Electric Foundation draws on a network of around 80 volunteer employees (or delegates) across 80 countries. Their role is to select local partners in vocational training and entrepreneurship in the energy sector and to raise sustainability awareness. The Foundation also leverages its VolunteerIn organization to empower employees to be actors and ambassadors of the Group’s societal commitments wherever they are based. They are the link between Schneider, the Foundation, and the supported organizations.
In 2023, the EUR 4 million annual budget of the Schneider Electric Foundation was invested in more than 140 projects, supporting 180,845 youth with a key engagement of the Schneider Electric community, contributing 17,083 days of volunteering. This commitment is being amplified with an additional EUR 21 million from Schneider Electric’s entities and employees giving back to their communities. In total, more than EUR 25 million has been invested to help local communities worldwide.
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Since its creation in 1998, the Schneider Electric Foundation has proposed 22 specific emergency and rebuilding campaigns. It acts as a relay and amplifies the mobilizations of local Schneider Electric entities following natural disasters or emergency situations in the concerned countries.
In 2023, through the Tomorrow Rising Fund, Schneider Electric employees supported campaigns following the earthquake in Türkiye, Syria, and Morocco, with a first priority on emergency help and a strong focus on youth education.