APC 2015 Annual Report Download - page 78

2015 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC76
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC’S COMMITMENT TOENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
The extension of this internal directive to the large tertiary sites with
more than 500 people was launched in 2010. For instance, the
Groups’ headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, France was certifi ed in
2010.
At Group level, the scope of certifi cation covers about 60% of
employees.
The challenge for the coming years is to maintain this performance
level by certifying all new industrial and large tertiary sites.
Management of industrial consumption
Water consumption
The Group provides a detailed breakdown of water consumption
that takes into account water from the public network, groundwater,
surface water (lakes, rivers, etc.) and other sources (rain, recycled
water, etc.). Water drawn for the sole purpose of cooling and
immediately released without alteration also began to be monitored
and has been subject to separate reporting for some sites for
several years.
Water is not generally a critical resource in Schneider Electric’s
industrial processes. The topic was considered not very material
by both internal and external stakeholders during the materiality
analysis.
As Schneider Electric industrial production is mainly based on
manual assembly processes or automatic processes for electrical
components and subsets, it has low water consumption and a
negligible impact on water quality.
Water is essentially used for lavatory purposes, sometimes for
cooling and, in certain sites, for surface treatment. In the latter case,
industrial water discharge is subject to appropriate treatments
in terms of its pollutant potential and discharge into the natural
environment or in a plant subject to a monitoring plan.
The Group has initiated an analysis of industrial site positions relative
to water stress in different regions throughout the world using the
WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development)
tool.
The « EverBlue » project was launched and designed to better
understand the uses of water within the Group, and therefore
its exposure to water-related risks, and reduce consumption.
Particular attention is paid to the highest-consumption sites and
those located in areas of water stress, where the objectives of
reducing water consumption accompanied by specifi c action plans
are defi ned, site by site.
In 2014, EverBlue encompassed 56 sites that represent 62% of the
Group’s total published consumption.
Schneider Electric measures and analyzes the quantities of water
consumed by its sites on a monthly basis and the different usages
made of it (process, HVAC/Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning,
lavatory, canteen, gardening). The Group continues to monitor the
per capita consumption of water on a like-for-like basis in order to
evaluate the improvement in performance from one year to the next.
Following the success of EverBlue, the company program 2015-
2017 has set the goal of continuing to reduce global water
consumption by 5% per capita by 2017 compared to 2014 (at
constant scope).
At the end of 2015, per capita water consumption stood at 20.6m3
at constant scope compared to 2014, up 2.3%, a slight deterioration
after the 23% savings with Everblue from 2012 to 2014.
The global EverBlue program has become regional with the aim
of implementing best practices and increasing the innovation
dynamics of the sites in their specifi c water contexts .
Thanks to a new reporting system, the detailed water usage is
reported. The diagram below prensents the breakdown of the
Group water use (within the EverBlue scope):
6%
HVAC
29%
Process
51%
Lavatory and canteen
9%
Gardening
5%
Other usage
Notes: other usage includes exceptional water usage such as water
used for construction of new buildings.
HVAC = Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning.
Lavatory , canteen, and gardening usage represents 60% of the
total. Industrial processes represent 29%.
This information can be used to improve the targeting of action
plans dedicated to water consumption reduction efforts. It also
helps to standardize information for more accurate performance
management: for instance, water used in lavatories and canteens
will be impacted by headcount changes and water used for
processes will be impacted by changes in production levels.
Energy consumption
See the Group’s energy consumption action plans page 72 .
Raw material consumption
Schneider Electric focuses on making its devices more compact
to conserve natural resources so that customers have more
environmentally friendly products to choose from. The Group
has developed design tools for managing thermal and electrical
constraints so that it can optimize the amount of materials required
in production. Each device’s Product Environmental Profi le
(PEP) lists the materials used. To facilitate end-of-life processing,
Schneider Electric chooses materials that are easy to recycle and
clip-together components that are easy to disassemble. Life cycle
analyses and recyclability assessments also help the Group identify
areas for improvement.
For more information on the Schneider Electric global action plan
relating to PEP and to end-of-life instructions, see the Eco-design
and Green Premium chapter on pages 74-75 .
Schneider Electric’s desire to reduce its environmental impact has
driven its focus towards the use of recycled raw materials. For
example, about 85% of cardboard used in Europe, 100% in China
and 60% in North America comes from recycled material (source:
purchasing data). With regard to metals that Schneider Electric
purchases globally, these include recycled material from recovered