Schneider Electric Summit Highlights Mission, New HQ

The Schneider Electric Influencer Summit, held last week in Andover, Mass., was a showcase for both the company and its new North American headquarters. The R&D center is built to house around 750 employees across all of Schneider Electric’s business segments, and incorporates approximately $8 million of the company’s own products and solutions. (Click here for more on the facility.)

It will also house the office of Laurent Vernerey, President and CEO of Schneider Electric’s North America Operations, who spoke on Thursday. During his speech, he explained the company’s commitment to its core mission of safety, security and efficiency. According to Vernerey, the company’s priorities for their U.S. business include:

• Enhancing the customer experience
• Excelling in Services and Software
• Differentiating with segment expertise
• Innovating with new business

John Hoekstra, Director of Sustainability (Americas), elaborated on some of the ways the company is working with customers to meet efficiency goals, and the tools they offer to pull “Broad Data” together across a disparate set of systems. One client he discussed was VF Corp., a global apparel company, which has spent the last few years establishing data and management systems, and measuring the footprint of their entire chain. VF has created scorecards that covered sustainability and energy footprints for their facilities, procurement, product, supply chain and retail operations.

Similarly, Schneider Electric has worked with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition on the Higg Index, a suite of sustainability assessment tools for apparel and footwear products. Facilities can self-report data and intelligence on how they measure energy, their management systems, and more, which can then be compared with others. According to Hoekstra, hundreds of brands and thousands of facilities are now on board.

Todd Isherwood, Energy Efficiency Project Manager for the city of Boston, was also on hand to discuss how the municipality is collaborating with Schneider Electric on its efficiency efforts. As part of the “Greenovate Boston” effort, the city has built partnerships to reduce energy use in over 12 million square feet of municipal buildings.

For more information on Schneider Electric, click here.