Schneider Electric Partners with Web Summit to Reduce Carbon Footprint for One of World’s Largest Tech Events

LISBON, November 6, 2019 /3BL Media/ – Schneider Electric is bringing its collaborative approach to carbon and environmental solutions to this year’s Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal (Nov. 4-7) where it will facilitate progress towards the event’s carbon neutrality goal. Schneider Electric will work with the Web Summit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced from the event using a combination of energy attribute certificates and carbon offsets to address emissions produced by the event’s energy consumption and attendee travel.

“As one of the most sustainable companies in the world, Schneider Electric is committed to helping clients and partners in their own sustainability pursuits,” said Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Chief Innovation Officer at Schneider Electric. “We recently announced that we will reach our own carbon neutral goal by 2025, five years earlier than expected, and are looking forward to working with Web Summit to help them achieve their goals.”

Schneider Electric partners with organizations of all sizes to help them achieve their sustainability goals, and enabled the Paris Marathon to become the first carbon neutralmarathon earlier this year. To calculate the carbon footprint of the Web Summit, experts from Schneider Electric Energy and Sustainability Services will gather data, including the size of the event space, number of attendees, distance traveled and more. Once the footprint is calculated, the associated emissions will be addressed through clean technologies such as carbon offsets. A highly valid method of counterbalancing emissions, verified offsets can be sourced from a
variety of projects, ranging from forestry to landfill gas capture and flare.

The Web Summit expects that more than 70,000 participants will travel to Lisbon for this year’s event. Offsetting the estimated GHG emissions from air travel alone for this amount of people would be the equivalent of planting more than one million trees. The estimation for emissions is based on an official air travel emission calculator prepared by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and takes into account the length of each flight, type of carrier and cabin class.

“Our global network of entrepreneurs and leaders presents us with an enormous opportunity to provide trusted guidance, inspiration and thought leadership in order to help us stand together in trying to solve the world’s biggest social, economic and environmental issues,” said Peter Gilmer, Chief Impact Officer of Web Summit. “We believe in leading by example and are pleased to have Schneider Electric with us, taking significant steps to continually improve the sustainability of our event.”

Schneider Electric is the world’s largest provider of corporate renewable energy consulting services and has worked with thousands of organizations to set and achieve environmental goals at all stages of their sustainability journey, including developing emission reduction and renewable energy procurement roadmaps. Emmanuel Lagarrigue will be participating on multiple panels at Web Summit and will discuss Schneider Electric’s Innovation at the Edge program, which includes investments, incubations, partnerships and joint ventures with start-ups and companies around the world to drive the sustainable energy revolution.

Going to Web Summit? Tips for a Sustainable Stay in Lisbon:

As the host city of Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal is a leader in sustainability. The city was recently named as the 2020 European Green Capital award winner for its efforts in addressing sustainable land use, urban mobility, green growth and eco innovation, climate change adaptation and waste. While carbon offsets aren’t an option for everyone, there are many ways
to incorporate more sustainable practices:

• Explore Public Transportation
  Lisbon has already implemented measures to restrict car use and prioritize cycling, public transport and walking. In 2017, Lisbon launched a bike-sharing scheme, with electric bikes comprising two thirds of the fleet to encourage cycling in the hillier parts of the city.
   
• Limit Single-Use
  When possible, utilize reusable utensils, glasses and coffee mugs in lieu of single-use containers or bring your own. This will greatly reduce the amount of waste that needs to be thrown away or recycled.
   
• Dine Sustainably
  Dining at places that source food locally can help to limit our carbon footprint. Lisbon is also home to many vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

To learn more about Schneider Electric’s sustainability journey, visit www.schneider-electric.us/en/about-us/sustainability/

About Schneider Electric

At Schneider Electric, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment.

We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers,  infrastructure and Industries.

We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

About Web Summit

Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”, Bloomberg calls it “Davos for geeks”, Politico “the Olympics of tech”, and the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”, and in the words of Inc Magazine “Web Summit is the largest technology  conference in the world.”

Whatever Web Summit is, it wouldn’t be possible without an incredible team of over 200 employees based in Dublin, Lisbon, Toronto and Hong Kong; including world class engineers, data scientists, designers, producers, marketers, salespeople and more. They’ve disrupted an old industry by building incredible software and designing mind-blowing events - revolutionising
how people and ideas come together to change the world.

As one of the world’s largest gatherings of entrepreneurs, investors multinationals and thought leaders - over 120,000 people from more than 170 countries join Web Summit in Lisbon, Collision in Toronto and RISE in Hong Kong.