Corporate Knights Ranks Schneider Electric World's Most Sustainable Corporation

Schneider Electric has been ranked the world’s most sustainable corporation by Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based media and research company, in its annual ranking on corporate sustainability performance.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric, Jean-Pascal Tricoire said in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday that the recognition coincided with the announcement of the company’s accelerated sustainability programme, and marked a big jump from 29th place the previous year.

Tricoire said it represented a high-profile external acknowledgement of the company’s long-standing commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.

He added that the award was a reflection of the company’s drive towards sustainability and making the world greener and more inclusive.

“We are honoured and grateful to be ranked number one by Corporate Knights. It is a major encouragement for our teams and partners, and a great recognition of more than 15 years of engagement to make our company and the world greener and more inclusive.

“Sustainability is a journey that we accomplish with our people, partners, suppliers, customers and communities where we operate. This recognition goes also to all of them,” he said.

He said that Corporate Knights’ 2021 ranking was based on an assessment of 8,080 companies with more than 1 billion dollars in revenues and performance indicators, including evaluations of how much renewable energy and waste companies generated.

He added that the company identified Schneider Electric’s steady shift towards products and services that helped customers manage their energy needs more efficiently and safely.

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Also, the CEO of Corporate Knights, Mr Toby Heaps, said in recent decades, Schneider Electric had shifted its focus to data centres; storage and other distributed energy resources; and smart solutions that advanced electrification, energy efficiency and renewability.

“It now earns 70 per cent of its revenue from and directs 73 per cent of its investments toward, sustainable solutions.

“Schneider Electric also performs strongly in racial and gender diversity and in resource productivity and safety,” he said.

In another development, General Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Process Automation, Schneider Electric, Mr Ajibola Akindele, called on stakeholders of Nigeria’s power sector to augment investment in the power sector to enable the country to achieve its industrialisation goal.

Akindele averred that the country needed to create the necessary framework for private sector investments.

“The sector needs investments in order to accelerate GDP growth and create jobs,” Akindele said.

He further noted that based on general consensus by experts in the power sector, the country needed to spend between 3-5 billion dollars annually over the next 15 years to achieve industrialisation.

He said while these were huge amounts, he expected that some funding could come from the government, international development agencies and the private sector.

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“All available funding options must be explored and investors should be given the necessary incentives and where necessary guarantees to ensure they can make a decent return on their investments,” he said.