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Green Transition How Can Big Players Make a Difference
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00:00Nous allons parler de la transition de green, mais juste avant de commencer, je voudrais que chacun d'entre vous
00:07introducez-vous en quelques mots, et puis nous allons continuer.
00:12Go ahead, Gwenaëlle.
00:13Hello, je suis Gwenaëlle Evisouet.
00:17Je suis en charge de l'entreprise européenne pour Schneider Electric.
00:21Et nous allons parler beaucoup de ce qu'il est, mais en quelques mots,
00:26et bien sûr, on est en train de faire énergie, industrielle automation, et tout est très bien connecté à la
00:32sustainability.
00:33Je suis Rachel Delacour, je suis le CEO et co-founder de SWEEP.
00:37SWEEP est une plateforme de SaaS, qui permet les entreprises de streamlines
00:41de leur data de carbon et ESG dans un seul lieu,
00:44pour aider à les attirer, acte et discuter.
00:48Bonjour, je suis Gwenaëlle.
00:50Je suis de l'Ella MacArthur Foundation.
00:52Et notre mission est d'accelerate le transition de la circular economy.
00:56Hopefully, nous allons parler un peu plus de la circular economy dans ce panel.
01:00Et mon rôle, là, est de manager notre business network.
01:02Donc, nous travaillons avec plus de 200 large multinationaux,
01:05en train de bringe ce sujet à la réalité.
01:08Bonjour.
01:09Je suis Destana.
01:11Je travaille avec Regeneration.bc,
01:14un early-stage venture capital fund,
01:17investis dans la technologie climatique.
01:19Je suis heureux de partager en plus de détails.
01:20Et on my side,
01:23quickly,
01:23I've got a few hats,
01:24because I'm leading a live-o-sphere,
01:27but it's helping companies,
01:28in fact,
01:29in CSRD,
01:30and we're going to talk about it,
01:31but also,
01:31in finding how to mitigate environmental impact,
01:35and also to find ways to be resilient
01:39with adapting change,
01:40well, climate change.
01:42I've read also,
01:43I've written also a book,
01:44which is called 2050 Crash or Renaissance.
01:48Well, I'm optimistic,
01:50so I hope that we'll get out of this one day or another.
01:54And after all, also,
01:55I'm a spokesperson of an association,
01:58which is called The Shifters,
01:59that is linked to The Shift Project,
02:02which is led by Jean-Marc Jancovici,
02:03so it makes pretty much sense that I'm here.
02:08Before I just make a little introduction,
02:12the discussion here is about green transition,
02:14and some may think it is just greenwashing.
02:18Others think it is vital,
02:20not only for companies,
02:22but also for societies.
02:24To counter the risk of greenwashing,
02:27there is a certain number of regulatory measures,
02:30particularly the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive,
02:34with its acronym which is CSRD,
02:38are urging companies to be transparent
02:40about their current state,
02:42the future trajectory,
02:44pace of progress,
02:46and action plan in environmental and social spheres.
02:49These regulations set increasingly higher
02:52environmental targets for companies to achieve
02:56and can be pretty cumbersome,
03:00and even very cumbersome for a certain number of companies,
03:04due to the complexity and the effort required to comply with them.
03:08However, this initial investment,
03:11because it's an initial investment,
03:12after it's going to be smoother normally,
03:16is required.
03:17If you want companies to mitigate
03:19their environmental and social negative impacts,
03:22in addition,
03:23it can also help them to seize
03:25they are facing an array of challenges,
03:28stemming from climate change,
03:30loss of biodiversity and pollution,
03:33and many others.
03:34These include material shortage,
03:37decreasing productions,
03:38rising energy costs,
03:40infrastructure damage due to flooding, for instance,
03:42and operational disruptions caused by extreme heat
03:45or lack of biodiversity.
03:47It also pushed them to explain how they will adapt
03:52to these upheavals,
03:54which is not always the case.
03:56Often companies don't think about those
03:58or think,
03:58okay, we're going to address those issues much later
04:02and sometimes too late.
04:04Large corporations have a pivotal role
04:07to play in facilitating this transition among all companies.
04:11They can lead the way and move beyond mere compliance
04:15to truly integrate sustainability into their upstream
04:19and downstream value chains
04:21and become more resilient in the future.
04:24With a secular economy,
04:26numerous solutions can aid this transition.
04:29One, often overlooked resource is waste,
04:32which can be repurposed into valuable materials.
04:35As virgin resources become scarcer,
04:39reusing waste becomes essential.
04:41In our discussion,
04:43we'll delve into these topics
04:44drawing insights from Rachelle,
04:47Gwenelle, Joe,
04:48and Destana.
04:50Together,
04:50we'll explore the multifaceted nature
04:52of a green transition for large companies.
04:56So now,
04:57we're going to go up to the question,
04:59and Rachelle, I'll start with you.
05:01The European CSRD regulation is coming.
05:04a certain number of companies,
05:06as I said before,
05:07consider it as a major administrative burden.
05:10On the contrary,
05:12you believe it serves both as a catalyst
05:14for corporate sustainability
05:16and a strategic opportunity for companies.
05:19Can you explain why and how?
05:21If they had attended Christina's session just before,
05:25they would have all understood
05:26that there is a ROI out of it, you know.
05:29The sustainability today is a differentiator, definitely.
05:32There will be more and more figures coming in about that ROI.
05:37And what's great with the CSRD,
05:39CSRD can be cool, okay?
05:42CSRD, I love CSRD.
05:44I should have my badge with I love CSRD
05:46because finally,
05:48finally there is a framework that is asking, you know,
05:51to as many companies as possible because Europe is number one commercial market, okay?
05:57So you cannot avoid, you know, doing business with Europe.
06:00But it's asked to as many companies as possible to harmonize the way they are reporting on their carbon and
06:08ESG data on their sustainability plans.
06:11What they envision in terms of, they have to commit actually about with a transition plan.
06:17So compared to all the framework that were asked before, this one is really going further.
06:23Further in terms of transparency.
06:25So harmonization first, definitely.
06:26In terms of transparency, in terms of the depth of what is asked, carbon but also ESG, okay?
06:34In terms of auditability, what's the burden here is, you know, for the companies?
06:41Yeah, but it's a limited assurance and soon reasonable assurance and all the financial auditors will jump on us, you
06:51know.
06:52Yeah, that's life.
06:53But the good news is that you already have all the data.
06:56Christina was mentioning, you know, sustainability data are actually,
06:59is actually business activity data.
07:02The good news is that to perform any kind of CSRD reporting, you already have everything you need, okay?
07:10For this, you need that governance, but another topic.
07:15But what I mean is that it's a real way for companies to get the data in front of them,
07:21have this reflection about, okay, what should we do to transition, to build that business plan for our sustainability.
07:28And once you have to show it, once you have to, once you can be benchmarked publicly, come on, you
07:34are businesses, so you have to play the game of being better than anyone else.
07:39It's good for, as Christina was mentioning, it's good for your bottom line as well, you know, cash access, etc.
07:45But it's, finally, we have that competition, you know, about being sustainable.
07:50And I guess that eight billions of egos are fine to have companies dealing with this topic for them.
07:57Yeah, and also, again, it's a first initial investment, but as we see, we can use more and more tools
08:04that help us into that.
08:07Again, the first day, it's complicated, but after it's going to get smoother and smoother.
08:11And also, another thing, it's normalize a certain number of ESG reports.
08:15So, before, you had to give plenty of data to many different, I don't know, investors or whatever.
08:21Here, you can say, okay, just look at the CRSRD, we've got one value and take that one, instead of
08:26giving plenty of them.
08:27So, it's true that it's still a lot of work, but it normalize also the data.
08:31And also, again, it's a bit what I said before, it's you are asking sometimes for first time questions that
08:37you never asked before.
08:38And just asking those questions gives you a way to find where are you going in the next 5, 10,
08:4520 years.
08:46And that's also really crucial, as we're facing a lot of upheavals now.
08:52Gwenelle, how does Schneider Electric, in fact, integrate the CRSRD across its value chain?
08:59And what effect does this integration have on Schneider Electric and its partners?
09:05Well, thank you.
09:06Just maybe to step back, because you talk a lot about CRSRD as a matter of compliance, because regulation applies
09:14and then you have to deploy it across the companies.
09:17But beyond that is the way we think about the business.
09:20And for me, it's a tool to transform business model, to transform the focus of the companies, so that sustainability
09:28becomes a discussion at executive committee discussion, at board level, at every level of the organization.
09:36It's not only compliance for compliance, it's compliance for change.
09:41That's how we need to leverage on CSRD.
09:45So now when it comes to Schneider Electric, in fact, we have been launching the first KPI around sustainability in
09:532006.
09:54We didn't wait for CSRD to be developed.
09:57We wanted already to track and to communicate to the external world on extra financial indicators the same way than
10:06financial indicators.
10:07Super important, because when you believe that sustainability is a serious topic, then it should be elevated and communicated externally
10:17as important as financial indicators.
10:20So since 2006, we had developed KPI to track our performance and sustainability, numbers of indicators, environment, but also social
10:31pillars, but also governance.
10:33And we were communicated on a quarterly basis, numbers of KPI on a quarterly basis.
10:38It's also to giving a sense when we talk about sustainability and decarbonization up to 2050, because we all want
10:45to be carbon neutral, et cetera.
10:47That's good, but we need also short-term milestone to showcase that this is happening, you know, on a day
10:55-to-day 2024, 2025.
10:57How are we progressing in that direction?
11:01So that's what we initiated in 2006.
11:04And then CSRD is just a complement.
11:07It's how to put that all together, but we have not waited for that.
11:12My message around that, it helped to mature the topic, to make sure that over time, we are not just
11:19tracking figures because we are obliged to track figures, but progressively it's embedded into the culture of the company.
11:26And this is even more important, how to make that the culture of the company, so that when it comes
11:32to sustainability, you know, we all innovate within the company.
11:35You're working on R&D, you're working on the commercial, you're working on anything in the organization.
11:42You can change the path of the company on sustainability.
11:46That's how we think about it.
11:47And now when it comes to embarking more, because it's good when you're doing it in your company, it's even
11:53better when you're embarking across the world value chain with customers, but also with suppliers.
11:58The biggest hurdle that we had in 2021, we put ourselves into a KPI that in 2025, we would decarbonize
12:09our suppliers, the top thousand suppliers that represent 70% of our emission upstream by 50%, reduction of their emission
12:19by 50%.
12:20I can tell you decarbonization of suppliers was a journey, but it's incredible how impactful it can be.
12:29We were working with numbers of SMEs that didn't know how to calculate carbon footprint, that didn't know how to
12:36decarbonize.
12:37We had a lot of investment into capacity building, training, making them aware of their carbon footprint in order to
12:45bring them in this journey.
12:47And for me, I think the most important thing that I've learned, you know, in this overall discussion is that
12:55you need to be exemplary in what you do, embedded that into the culture rather than compliance itself, and then
13:02embarking more ecosystem.
13:04When you know how to do it, then making that happen with suppliers, with customers, talking about that, putting that
13:12into concrete actions makes a huge difference.
13:16You are doing so because you were already thinking about that for a while because of the size of your
13:22company, but that CSRD is also asking as many companies as possible, I would say, to ask their value chain
13:30to change their behavior.
13:31So you've been doing so, but now CSRD is virtuous in that sense.
13:36Yeah, and also, you're completely right to put back, because CSRD is just an acronym.
13:40That's not what's the most important.
13:42The thing is what's changing is that green transition, again, it was a lot greenwashing for most of companies.
13:48And now the point is that we're moving from kind of a lot of communication to an area where it
13:54goes much more close, in fact, to finance, and we're moving to something that is really concrete.
13:58We need tools, in fact, to show the progress, where we are going.
14:02And CSRD is just kind of like a compass.
14:05And, of course, there are companies that might just use it as tick the box, but that's absolutely the wrong
14:10way to work it.
14:12You have a strategy and just put inside CSRD and plenty of other tools.
14:16Again, that's just an acronym and a certain number of reporting that you need to do.
14:20And just to finish, about Benel, what you think is, are there some initiatives also to help smaller companies to
14:31integrate not only CSRD, but also to be more environmental friendly or have actions in the social area?
14:42Well, exactly. So, when we did that for ourselves, we had a journey.
14:47I was saying for suppliers, for example, we had five years to decarbonize by 50%.
14:53I can tell you, for two years, we just trained them.
14:57Two years of training, because they were SMEs that didn't have all the tools, the software tools that we may
15:04have.
15:05And, hence, we dedicated for the SME small tools, very easy to integrate, not intrusive, not big, I would say,
15:14overloading software that can track the carbon footprint.
15:19We did that because we've learned for two years that we need something simple to be implemented quickly for those
15:26companies.
15:27And now we are scaling it.
15:29We were in discussion, for example, with the pharmaceutical industries, the top 14 pharmaceutical industries in the world.
15:36They're asking themselves the same question, how I decarbonize my suppliers, but the suppliers of all those companies are almost
15:43the same.
15:44So, they asked us to be the trusted advisor to decarbonize the suppliers of the world pharmaceutical industry.
15:51That's how you can have meaningful impact, because then you scale, not only for your own smaller, I would say,
15:59counterparts, but also for clients' counterparts, clients' suppliers.
16:03That's how now we accompany others to do the same.
16:06Yeah, it means also that we're moving from a customer-supplier relationship to a much more partnership and also competition
16:16between even competitors, because we need to be together to change.
16:20Joe, there's also another topic that is also described in CSRD, but there's plenty of things in there, which is
16:29resilience strategy of companies facing climate change or material shortage and price surge.
16:36One key to tackle this is by circularity.
16:40But you told me that to make it happen, we need to unlock the demand for circular materials and products.
16:47How can we do this?
16:49Thank you.
16:50Yeah, so just to actually build on this answer from the previous question first, if I'm allowed, because I think
16:56there is something important about companies that really see sustainability, circular economy, as a competitive advantage.
17:03Because if you believe that, then when you're looking at some of these compliance pieces that are coming, you already
17:10have that data, because you need that data, because you need to be delivering on your promises.
17:14And I'm sure Snyder Electric are a preferred supplier for many businesses because of what they've been able to do
17:21within their supply chain and within their product portfolio.
17:23So I think that real genesis of believing there's a competitive advantage through some of these investments is key.
17:30And then it reframes the whole conversation about data and compliance.
17:35In terms of circular economy, loads of great solutions exist today.
17:38And actually, in terms of demand, there's some really simple stuff that could happen.
17:43I was talking to a really large PC manufacturer recently.
17:47They have a service model.
17:49So they, on a B2B sales, they will, instead of selling just new product throughput to a partner, they will
17:56do a service subscription model and they will sell repaired products and they'll have a kind of repair process to
18:03that.
18:03One of their big challenges in actually selling that is that typically what businesses do is they get to an
18:08end of a budget cycle and they say, hey, we've got to use or lose this residual budget here, so
18:14let's go and upgrade all of our IT equipment.
18:16And they just need to get the cash out of the door.
18:19So there's a sort of mismatch between the procurement side and the actual sales side for this company to be
18:24able to sell these solutions, even though those solutions would help that company perform way better on their net zero
18:31targets.
18:32Then there's some a bit more advanced stuff, which is, you know, when you think about circular economy solutions, I
18:38was just in a fashion event in Copenhagen this week.
18:42And, you know, we foresee that resale, resale could be up to a quarter of the fashion market by 2030.
18:50But really, have we really put oomph from a brand perspective behind that model?
18:56Have we really put marketing power behind that model to make it aspirational, desirable, fun, easy?
19:03You know, new entrants have come into that market and scaled really quickly, really successfully.
19:07But have we really seen that kind of marketing power unlock?
19:10So I think there's, you know, there's some simple stuff, but there's also some real kind of mainstreaming and getting
19:17the real oomph of the business behind some of these solutions that could elevate as well.
19:22Yeah, and there's also an idea for all companies that are here.
19:24What you can do is just check what are the different companies that are around you.
19:28You can also ask to your town, to the department, to the region or whatever, because I'm certain that there's
19:35maybe just your neighbor that might have either a waste or resources that might can be either a resource or
19:42waste for you.
19:43And, of course, usually there's some transformation between them.
19:47But just going that, that way, is a good way to go through circularity, but also to bring some value
19:54to the territory.
19:54And that's really important because people are really, and also the relationship between companies and the territory is really important.
20:01To make the link between those two is also one way to be more resilient in the future.
20:06Destana, you see also waste as the biggest untapped resource.
20:11How can we effectively repurpose its invaluable materials considering the challenges associated with waste such as variable quality, substantial energy,
20:23also requirements for a certain number of cases for transformation, and also its inherent heterogeneity?
20:30Thank you, Dimitri.
20:32So I'll zoom out for just a second here and touch on what I alluded to.
20:37When we say consumer climate tech, regeneration is focused all across the value chain of any business that sits within
20:44or around the consumer sector.
20:46The LVMHs, H&M, Ikeas of the world, we're looking at everything they put into their products and everything that
20:52comes out of said products.
20:54And so when it comes to waste, the way we think about it is that it is one of the,
21:00if not the fastest growing resource on the planet, because it's a human made byproduct as opposed to a natural
21:08existent entity.
21:10Waste didn't exist in nature before humans.
21:12We've created this byproduct through our economies, our linear economies, that extract, then make, and then waste.
21:20And instead of that, if we're able to valorize the outputs of our economies, the materials, the products that we've
21:27used once, that we've used twice, we see so much opportunity to take that and put it back into production
21:33systems.
21:34Or to take those streams and turn them back to consumers as, you know, a second lifetime of product.
21:41So on the upstream side, we look at additives and coatings and ways to design for disassembly and ensure that
21:4870 to 80% of the footprint that's guaranteed when a product is designed doesn't destine that material for landfill.
21:55And then on the downstream side, we look at reuse technologies that fall under reverse logistics, actually taking material flows
22:03and bringing them back into production systems.
22:05And we look at re-commerce.
22:07I think my new friend Joe here talked about resale.
22:10I'm doing my part with half the outfit here to support that industry and that growth.
22:15But on the reverse logistics side especially, right, it's a data problem.
22:19That's where the answer comes from and turning what would have been waste into new materials.
22:24You need to know where it ended up.
22:26And that's why the upstream producers of products and materials are now regulated under extended producer responsibility laws to find
22:34out where their stuff went.
22:36You can't really solve the problem until you can see the scope of it.
22:40Yeah, and also there's one complexity with circularity is that usually you have standardized, I would say, materials to produce
22:47always the same thing.
22:48Now we have, I would say, heterogeneous materials.
22:51So it's much more complicated.
22:53It costs usually more.
22:55And you need also to change your factories and to accept heterogeneous materials or have waste, in fact, to transform
23:02heterogeneous materials into more standard.
23:05Dimitri, sorry, can I just come in on waste?
23:08Yeah, go ahead.
23:08Because I think there's another type of waste.
23:09I mean, that's obviously literal material waste that we deal with.
23:12But there's also structural waste that exists in how we use things today.
23:16So there's obviously the Tesla cars right outside here.
23:19Right?
23:20So your average European car is parked for 90% of the time.
23:23Right?
23:23So there's a structural waste in that system of mobility of how we use cars to get around.
23:29When you think about circular economy and really the opportunity there to unlock that utilization, how does that same asset
23:35work so much harder?
23:36But what are the business models, what are the technology that will enable that?
23:40And I believe I've heard Elon Musk in the past talk about this eventual with automation moving to more fleet
23:46management.
23:47So how does your car, while it's parked when you're at work, go do a few carpooling drives on your
23:52behalf and earn some income back on itself?
23:55So if you think about that, it's still a car, all of the embodied energy, all of the resources that
24:00have gone into manufacturing that car.
24:03Maximizing the utilization means that we actually can displace the need for as many cars on the road and therefore
24:09as much extraction.
24:10Gwenelle, you want to say something about it?
24:13Well, just maybe if we step back around circularity, we talk a lot about recycling.
24:19Our vision is that circularity can be depicted in three areas.
24:23Use better, use again, use longer.
24:26Use better because in everything that we are consuming, we can turn part on green materials.
24:33Working on green materials component so that we use better what we have.
24:38That's one of the pillars of our strategy.
24:41The second is use longer.
24:44How to extend lifetime of the products.
24:49Complete shift of mindset.
24:51For some time, industries were focusing on lifetime so that you can buy again in our spirit of circularity.
25:00It's how we extend lifetime of our products.
25:03So instead of buying everything again, maybe there is a small piece that is end of life.
25:08But the rest is staying.
25:10So I think it's a shift of mindset on how we redesign products.
25:14So we don't need to change everything.
25:17So this is the second pillar.
25:19And the last one is use again.
25:21And this is about take back and using the scrap in the manufacturing industry, etc.
25:26That's how we think about circularity.
25:29A combination of how you design the product first to use more green materials, less plastic or recycled plastic and
25:38things like that.
25:39Second pillar, extension of lifetime of the products.
25:42And last element about using again after the end of life of the products.
25:48But it's such a change in terms of is our business model.
25:53We are talking about a transformation for companies.
25:56So last one was 15 years ago with digital transformation.
25:59So that sustainability transformation can be harmful in the mind of some of them.
26:05So if we are not putting some incentives to allow the fact that we can use a product on a
26:12longer term.
26:16This is why CSRD, you know, making sure that companies are showing all this through data.
26:23And that it can lead to better access to free cash.
26:27Free cash, no.
26:28To cash with lower interest rates, for example, or to open new revenue opportunities.
26:36You know, if there is not this incentive, it's very difficult for companies to change that.
26:40So hopefully in Europe, we are leading the way to, you know, drive this transition.
26:45Yeah. And in addition also, I mean, just to grab on utilization.
26:50In many companies, you have a certain number of assets.
26:53It can be equipment.
26:54It can be offices.
26:55It can be cars or whatever.
26:56Just calculating the percentage of usage over time used.
27:00And if you see that it's under 10% or 20%, maybe you can think, hey, can we share it?
27:06Can we maybe provide this to other people either or companies?
27:11It can be a new revenue stream, but it also can be used for your territory or for other people
27:16around you.
27:17Just asking you this question of utilization also helps to reduce, for instance, creating new buildings, new cars, new equipment,
27:25etc.
27:25And it's often common sense.
27:27I'm going to ask you a question for all of you.
27:30In fact, it's Rachel who was talking about forever companies before.
27:34And but how businesses can transition from prioritizing short term financial games that often is done today and gear towards
27:47more forever companies,
27:49which means a company that is able to focus on long term sustainability and resilience.
27:58But of course, I mean, for each of these companies, they need still to make money because otherwise they die.
28:04So what are they?
28:06How can this happen?
28:08And also what are maybe the key strategies and the mindsets that are required to make this shift?
28:12Yeah, so we are calling our customers the forever companies indeed.
28:17Very basically, you know, the the mandate of any CEO of any chief level, actually, or even even any employee
28:26is to make sure the company they are working for is lasting forever.
28:32OK, you you you you are we are all earning our paycheck at the end of the month because our
28:38company is still is still live.
28:42OK, and so it's a mandate for that.
28:45So if you are today avoiding those sustainability questions or how which are we think about making sure we are
28:54here while there is that reputational threat regulatory threat.
28:58if we are not embracing that we won't last as a company.
29:03So this is our customers, for example, are the first one to really love this forever company term because it's
29:12exactly what they are preparing, actually.
29:14And having said that, all the you know, that this is the year of ROI for sustainability because there is
29:22more and more companies.
29:23So we have a Schneider Electric who's been doing so far for a while, but so many companies now are
29:29able also to bring on the table the figures of that ROI thanks to their sustainability action plan.
29:36Not only that regulatory threat or reputational threat, but the fact that it's increasing their top line, it's benefiting their
29:44bottom line.
29:45You know, there is a there is many, many figures today showing this.
29:49So, yeah, this is if you are not embracing sustainability today, this is you are not embracing the right differentiator
29:57and you won't last forever.
29:58I don't know if you, Destana or Joe, you wanted or Guinella as you wish.
30:02I did. I did. Rochelle inspired me, so I have to share now.
30:06We call this in-setting consumer climate tech.
30:09And to define what I mean, because I know in-setting is a new term, those are technical interventions addressing
30:14environmental challenges buried somewhere within the value chain of large corporates.
30:20What we see here is a massive opportunity in the face of both large corporations and multinationals as well as
30:26entrepreneurs that are fighting the climate tech fight to solve their problems as opposed to try to tackle the entire,
30:33you know, sector by themselves.
30:35Rather than fighting and competing with these corporates, solving those problems and in doing so unlocking the resources that they
30:42have and the scale that they have.
30:44So, last week I co-hosted a panel with the head of Inter IKEA Group's Ventures team.
30:51So, Lynn Claburn, shout out if you're listening.
30:53The three conclusions we arrived at were that co-investment, joint development agreements and meaningful off-take agreements were kind
31:01of three instant keys that large corporations need to and can provide the entrepreneurs that are in their portfolio or
31:09in their corporate venture teams landscape mapping.
31:11These are the only ways these climate tech innovators, right, are going to reach the scale in time and the
31:17only way these corporations will reach their ambitions.
31:19May I also compliment? So, I think that this discussion is really important. Why? Because today in Europe, we face
31:30some questions around sustainability.
31:32Because many companies are saying, it's overwhelming, all the big relations that happen, because we're talking about CSRD, but there
31:40were plenty of other regulations.
31:41And believe it, yes, it's burdensome. So, many companies today are, you know, crying against this avalanche of regulations saying
31:51enough is enough, we have to stop.
31:53That's the reality. And our role collectively is to show that this is not a burden, this is a differentiator.
32:02And that's why I think that our voice is even more critical now because of the avalanche, just that people
32:09need to keep the hope and not believe that this is only compliance.
32:14This is good business. And I insist on that because there is no compromise between business and sustainability. It goes
32:23hand in hand.
32:24Having an investment on sustainability will pay off. Sometimes it's an investment and then you don't see the short-term
32:32immediate return, but it will pay off.
32:35And to give the example on Schneider Electric, when our CEO decided to focus the company on sustainability, which such
32:44core, I would say, commitments, it was 18 years ago.
32:49There was no attention like today on sustainability. He decided that because he believed that was a differentiator for the
32:57company.
32:58Everybody can do electrical products. Everybody can do automation. If we want to be different, we have to make things
33:07different on a certain path.
33:09And he decided to do that on sustainability. And over time, you can look at the share price. Share price
33:16has been increasing dramatically.
33:17Today, the market cap is more than 120 billion, which is huge. So it's just to showcase that the focus
33:26on sustainability was good for business.
33:28And we need to advocate much more on that rather than only talking about compliance.
33:33Yeah. Just to underscore that, because I think it's so important, even in this conversation, you know, it sort of
33:40feels like we're somewhere to starting to really lead with the business case, but we're not quite there yet.
33:46We're sort of even in this debate conversation talking sometimes about kind of business and then other. We do this
33:53over here. Just going back to the car example.
33:55So I was with a large automotive company recently. And this is about when we talk about the business cases,
34:01the business case for investment in these areas.
34:03But at the same time, we need to be talking about the business case of doing nothing. Right. And those
34:08two sides of the coin is so important, the business case of action, the business case of inaction.
34:13They had a business case of investment into a kind of much more sophisticated leasing model where they would basically
34:20control ownership of the car through many cascades as it went through into the second hand market.
34:25And they through their modeling, they had a fourfold increase in revenue per unit of car per car. So, you
34:33know, that's in a sector which is getting smashed all over the place and, you know, competing for real incremental
34:39gains.
34:40And you've got almost 400 percent sort of growth story when you if you looked at this business model with
34:45with rigor.
34:46So I think, again, the the the the modeling is there. The business cases are there.
34:51But there's also a little bit of inertia that I think we have to overcome to really lean into the
34:56business case.
34:57I just wanted to say that about that data that is overwhelming and we don't know where to start, etc.
35:06We can act actually today. It's a matter of just understanding what you have to make sure that you are
35:12finally understanding it to act.
35:14And technology is already organized digital, you know, digitally speaking, we are organizing the way we are connecting all those
35:23dots.
35:24So you have to know that technology providers are masking that complexity.
35:29We are organizing the tech strategy that you need in your sustainability strategy.
35:35But it's already there. It's already there to mask that complexity of I don't know how to where to start
35:42digital companies.
35:44So there is sweep there. There was a watershed before we can do that for you.
35:49And it's important to know that it's existing at the lack at for to to serve to address any scale
35:55of companies.
35:56I have also a point. I mean, we're discussing about investing in sustainability.
36:01It's interesting at Viva Tech. I think you've seen there's a lot of a investment in an AI.
36:05I'm pretty sure there's much more for the moment investment in an AI than in sustainability, which means that kind
36:12of contradiction because, you know, AI, in fact, use a lot of electricity, a lot of energy, which one point
36:18of time might cause a certain number of problems.
36:21I want you to also to talk about this kind of contradiction. How do we do we need to use
36:27it really?
36:28Or do you have maybe a certain number of ways to use technology to say, OK, in this case, we'll
36:32use it. But this way doesn't really make sense.
36:35How do you use it for your transition or your green transition?
36:41Well, the difficulty with digital is that it's less visible. I mean, it's not visible like when you do renewable
36:48energy, for example.
36:50But our conviction is that decarbonization will happen only with a combination of greening the supply on one side with
36:58renewable energy and managing well the demand, reducing the consumption of energy.
37:05This is critical. The demand side is as critical as the upstream side. I'm saying that because today there are
37:12plenty of digital software that are helping decreasing the demand.
37:18I will give you one example. In a given building, you know, you have you may think that it's difficult
37:25to optimize the consumption, the energy consumption in the building.
37:29But it's important because 40 percent of the emissions globally are coming from buildings.
37:33So we have to tackle buildings and existing one, not only working on new buildings that are smart and et
37:39cetera existing buildings by deploying sensors and software technology.
37:45We call building management system and things like that. You can reduce consumption by 30 percent with a return on
37:52investment of less than five years.
37:53It's just to showcase that at the end of the day, having connected product, having edge and having artificial intelligence
38:01at the end is helping reducing the consumption.
38:06So we need to leverage on AI in order to help us become more becoming more efficient in our energy
38:14consumption. And this is the enabler.
38:15Our challenge is to make visible what is invisible, to make visible digital as the enabler of the energy transition.
38:22Just one point concerning that one rule of thumb is when, for instance, you want to add technology.
38:29The first question is how much will it reduce your impact or environmental impact and how much will it also
38:35and what is the additional and to also make kind of a balance of the two.
38:39And if you do that exercise before, then you will see pretty quickly, I mean, where it makes sense or
38:45not.
38:46I had a pretty good question. I mean, here from from Fred, who says to change the world, do you
38:52push young people to go in bad companies to change them from the inside or to go to a more
38:58clean company?
38:59And if you have some other questions, maybe we'll have a few seconds to to put to save them. So
39:04go ahead.
39:05What are your thoughts about that?
39:07I like the idea of this army of moles going off double agents into the world.
39:15I think I think I think I think graduates are sort of voting with their feet.
39:19To be honest, I think already that is part of the war for talent is actually having credentials as a
39:24business to show that you are moving on these topics.
39:26I don't know if you found that with Schneider Electric, but I would be interested in your point of view.
39:32Well, I think today when when we ask the question of the newcomers to Schneider, I think, why did you
39:37join Schneider?
39:38I mean, 100 percent of the time we have the response because of our sustainability impact 100 percent.
39:46So it means that not only it's good for business, but it's good for attracting talent. And that's what we
39:51wanted.
39:52Can I add to that? Because I don't think it's just graduates. Right. I mean, this is people at all
39:56ages of the workforce at all experience levels.
39:59You know, this is attracting talent full stop because people want to be working with companies that are addressing global
40:05issues and building, you know, a brighter future for future generations.
40:09Yeah. Also another way. I mean, if there's no people that are want to change things that are in, I
40:18would say, bad companies, usually it's not bad or good is more complex than that.
40:23But I think we need both. You have you need people that go on one side to change things from
40:29the inside.
40:29Other people that from the outside also to push. And then after, it's also depends on your belief.
40:35And sometimes I know this is too much. I can't go that way. So just get out of there and
40:40do something else.
40:40Sometimes you need also for your own budget, you need to work in a company.
40:46So try to be aligned with what your beliefs are and change things from the inside if you're in what
40:52you would say a bad company.
40:54And sometimes often you can change things. Sometimes they're like this and you change things and it's much better.
41:01So go ahead, Rochelle. I love the big emitters today. OK, why?
41:07Because they are the biggest agent of change. They are the ones who can really change things right now if
41:14they are transforming themselves.
41:16It's hard to address the big manufacturers, the the, you know, big industrial, you know, that that sector.
41:24It's super difficult because they because of the legacy of all their information systems and because of their business model.
41:31This is difficult, but this is my challenge. OK, my challenge is to make sure that I am leveraging the
41:39companies who are already at scale so that when they change, when they improve, you know, the impact that they
41:45have on the world is is can be massive.
41:48So, yeah, I've built, you know, sweep to address that enterprise size, you know, company size, just to make sure
41:56we are helping the biggest agent of change banks, financial institutions, big corporates, because this is where is the the
42:05most efficient improvement, I would say.
42:08Also another point. I mean, in the time where it's efficiency and reduced consumption might be major drivers in the
42:14next years, which means that sometimes if you have a lack of water or lack of electricity, you might not
42:20produce as much.
42:21I mean, what strategies companies could adopt to not only survive, but also to thrive?
42:30Yes, by the way, for yourself, but also for your customers. I think that's really important. It's really the way
42:36you look at. And by the way, we should do that already today because water is already a topic.
42:40Biodiversity is another topic and carbon at the end. So I think that we need to have a holistic view
42:48and to look at lifecycle analysis in how your presence has an impact overall.
42:55We can manage by many ways. Today, we are using a lot about digital. You have leaks everywhere. You have
43:01overconsumption everywhere. The best way to do it to track in an environment and then to reduce.
43:07That's the way we do it. To do that, we need first data. We need to know where it is.
43:13In a building, again, back to the example, we have real time more than 50,000 data.
43:19On this basis, we can track when the energy is consumed where there is no necessity to consume it. Same
43:26for water. So I think we need to develop more and more to scale more and more this kind of,
43:32you know, sensitivity around it's possible.
43:36It's really about deploying digital as the enabler for energy efficiency, for water reduction, consumption, et cetera, et cetera.
43:46We have just one minute left. So yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Maybe one quick point. I think the magic
43:55word there was in lifecycle analysis and her broader point around ensuring that you have the data in front of
44:01you.
44:01I think one of the innovation trends that we're seeing real saturation in right now is carbon accounting.
44:08And I want to push carbon accounting platforms to look beyond the step of measuring and start to find ways
44:15to leverage that data to insist and to empower the customer to make those changes.
44:20I'm talking about carbon platforms that beyond measure scope one, two, and three also can provide that data to the
44:28suppliers to help actively decarbonize the suppliers within that value chain.
44:34I think that's a massive opportunity that's missing and all this data that's being collected and then sits in the
44:39hands of people who aren't necessarily trained to do something with that data.
44:42I think it requires resource mapping and flow mapping to truly understand. But I think there's a lot there.
44:49I don't know if Joe, Rachel, or if you have a last point, Gwenaire. Time is out, so we have
44:56just a few seconds left.
44:58Yeah, no, I've just heard that from a U.S. customer recently. He told me whatever the color at the
45:03White House or whatever, you know, politics or else, sustainability is a differentiator.
45:08And I would say one word. We consider sustainability as a marathon, but without finish line. We always need to
45:15reinvent ourselves.
45:17Okay. Joe?
45:18Yeah, it's a competitive advantage, I think, and really leaning into that. Cost of action versus cost of inaction.
45:26And to finish, we need action rather than just waiting, and I hope you really appreciated this panel, and thank
45:32you for all of you, and thanks a lot.
45:33Merci.
45:34Merci.
45:35Merci.
45:35Merci.
45:35Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
45:36Merci.
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