MEASURING SUSTAINABILITY

Submitted by CES on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 00:53

Recent newsstand editions of business magazines have featured a full-spread advertisement with the title “A watt saved is a watt shared” and a compelling set of juxtaposed photos from Schneider Electric.

This $16 billion company is bringing energy management solutions to the Global North that pair electrical efficiency efforts with electrical *access* efforts in the Global South (much of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa).

Schneider does so through a program called BipBop (note to SE’s branding folks: please give this important program a name that does not sound like the next teen dance video game), which stands for Business, Innovation and People at the Base Of the Pyramid. This is the bottom billion you hear Oxford university world poverty scholar Paul Collier and others talking about.

The goals of this program are real and aggressive; by the end of 2011:

1. 1 million households at the base of the pyramid have access to energy via Schneider Electric solutions.
2. 10,000 young people at the base of the pyramid are trained in the electricity field.
3. 500 contractors at the base of the pyramid set up their activities in the electricity sector.

This is a marked difference from the normal advertising we see coming out of energy companies as they scramble to convince us they are trying to save the planet. This is bringing people back into the equation, not something most energy companies consider to be their responsibility. This is not just about energy efficiency for the sake of the environment, but about bettering the daily lives of people around the world by launching new companies and job creation.

Schneider Electric created its own internal metrics back in 2005. In 2008 they added public metrics, including the two Dow Jones Sustainability indexes. In 2009 the company gave itself a rather humble grade of 3/10 and stated its goal of hitting 8/10 by the end of 2011. That’s massive progress in just two years, if Schneider hits it.

While I normally dislike internal company standards that are dubiously positioned as externally-verified in advertisements, the honesty and humility behind Schneider Electric’s internal/external mix of metrics is refreshing. When other energy companies are behaving irresponsibly – some might even say foolishly – it is encouraging to see progress from other players in the industry.

What do you think of Schneider Electric’s mixture of both internal and external rating systems? Real or bogus?  

This article originally appeared in Forbes.