LONDON – Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, has been awarded ‘Sustainable Infrastructure Vendor of the Year’ at the CRN Tech Impact Awards 2021. The award recognises the company’s leadership in developing sustainable and energy efficient technologies for data centres and edge computing environments, and its proven track record in helping partners and customers deliver solutions that address the crucial issues of sustainability and the circular economy. Launched in March 2021, the CRN Tech Impact Awards honours the vendors, distributors, IT resellers and MSPs leading the way in addressing their own environmental and social impact, and that of their technologies, solutions and services.
At Schneider Electric, sustainability is part of our DNA. Our purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and our resources, and work with our channel community to bring progress and sustainability through digitization and electrification to a wide range of industries including data centres, energy grids, buildings, and industrial facilities. Named as Corporate Knights’ ‘Most Sustainable Corporation in the World’ in 2021, Schneider Electric has a history of driving digital transformation globally and today it works with both channel partners and customers to reduce their environmental impact through technological innovation and sustainable business strategies.
The company’s Green Premium products, for example, offer sustainable performance by design and accounted for more than 76% of sales in 2020. Its ECOFITâ„¢ and Trade-UPS, recycle and take-back programs address the circular economy and ensure the responsible disposal of discarded infrastructure technologies such as MV equipment and UPSs. Further, its EcoStruxureâ„¢ solutions and Energy & Sustainability Services directly enable customers to reduce their CO2Â footprint and deliver an average of 20% reduced carbon emissions.
The company is also no stranger to Net Zero and has worked tirelessly to address the impact of scope-3 emissions on the environment by creating strategies to minimise CO2 in its supply chain and throughout its partner ecosystem. Today its public commitments include:
- Accelerating its 2030 goal of carbon neutrality in its extended ecosystem by five years to 2025;
- Removing gas and ensuring the end of SF6 by the end of 2025;
- Reaching net-zero operational emissions by 2030 as part of validated SBT target;
- Achieving a net-zero supply chain by 2050.
In 2020, Schneider Electric announced it was accelerating its sustainability commitments and promised to help customers save/ avoid 800M tonnes of carbon emissions by 2025. Just a short time into that program, it has helped to reduce CO2 by 320 million tonnes. Further, it has launched The Zero Carbon Project, an initiative to halve the carbon emissions of its top supply chain partners by 2025, and a call to action already joined by 91% of them.
Sustainable technologies for the channel
Data centre and edge computing energy demands are increasing exponentially and a new report from Schneider Electric found that IT Energy Demands could increase 50% by 2030.  To help partners design, build and deploy sustainable data centres from the cloud to the edge, Schneider has created an industry-leading portfolio of solutions to address the issues of sustainability and energy efficiency. They include:
- EcoStruxure Data Center Solutions – bringing together power, cooling, racks and management to support sustainable IT in edge applications and data centres.
- EcoStruxure IT – The industry’s first vendor-agnostic, open, interoperable remote monitoring software platform enabling partners to gain data driven insights that drive sustainable decision-making and digital services.
- Single and three-phase lithium-ion uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) – such as its Galaxy series; a Green Premium UPS providing up to 99% efficiency when operated in ECOnversion mode.
- Uniflair Cooling – free cooling system offering 25% more efficiency and sustainability than comparable systems.
- Liquid cooling technologies – offering 14% lower CapEx and up to 30% energy reduction compared to air-cooling.
- EcoStruxure Micro Data Centers– pre-integrated, energy efficient edge computing systems combining power, cooling, security, IT and software.
- SF6-free switchgear – utilising pure air instead of SF6 gas, which has a high Global Warming Potential (GWP).
Further, its EcoStruxure Micro Data Centres offer partners the ability to design, build, and deploy edge facilities sustainably. These systems are used by Alliance Partners such as Cisco, Dell, and HPE to create a standardised, repeatable approach to edge computing, essential to reducing emissions at the edge.
“Climate change has become the greatest challenge of our time, and the role of channel partners has never been more crucial,” said Karlton Gray, Channel Director, Schneider Electric, UK and Ireland. “No single company can reduce its environmental impact alone, and only through greater collaboration, digitization and transparency, can we make Net Zero a reality. At Schneider, our mission is to be your partner for efficiency and sustainability, and we’re truly delighted to have been named the CRN Tech Impact Sustainable Infrastructure Vendor of the Year.”
