Month: April 2023

WILLMINGTON, Del., April 13, 2023 /3BL Media/ – The Chemours Company (“Chemours”) (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company with leading market positions in Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials, was honored yesterday with two awards from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through its Better Buildings, Better Plants Initiative, recognizing partners for outstanding accomplishments in energy efficiency and emissions reduction.

Chemours received the Better Practice Award, presented to partners for innovative and industry-leading accomplishments in implementing and promoting practices, principles, and procedures of energy management, for its corporate roadmap to addressing Scope 1 emissions by reducing fluorinated organic compound (FOC) process emissions. Chemours also received the Better Project Award, recognizing partners for outstanding achievements in implementing energy, water, and waste projects at individual facilities, for boiler optimization at the Louisville Works site in Louisville, Kentucky. This project reduced Chemours greenhouse gas emissions by 1,200 metric tons of CO₂e per year.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Department of Energy for our hard work and incredible achievements reducing our Scope 1 emissions and improving our site energy efficiency,” said Dr. Amber Wellman, Chemours’ Chief Sustainability Officer. “When we announced our Corporate Responsibility Commitment goals in 2018, we made a commitment to ensuring our essential chemistries are made responsibly. This recognition shows we are doing just that, and we will continue to advance our commitments to meet the world’s demands for better, safer and more sustainable products.”

“Partners in the Better Plants Challenge are sharing their success and innovation to accelerate their energy efficiency. The Better Project and Better Practice awards highlight unique efforts to make meaningful headway in reducing energy, water, waste and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Carolyn Snyder, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy.

As a partner of the Better Plants Challenge, Chemours has committed to 17% reduction in energy intensity at its U.S. sites, which supports our Corporate Responsibility Commitment Goals to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 absolute GHG emissions by 60% by 2030—putting the company on a path to reach net-zero operations by 2050.

The 2023 Better Project, Better Practice Awards winners were celebrated during the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit held in Washington, D.C.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 13, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the launch of Zeigo, a sustainability software ecosystem built to simplify and accelerate climate action for companies of all sizes. Zeigo complements Schneider Electric’s existing sustainability consulting services and enhances a growing portfolio of digital solutions.

Zeigo will bring existing Schneider Electric digital tools for sustainability together with a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) application – Zeigo Activate – designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) decarbonize. The new application, developed by Schneider Electric’s sustainability experts, will go beyond existing solutions in the market by delivering easy emissions calculations paired with a customized decarbonization roadmap and a regionally tailored solutions provider marketplace.

Sustainability simplified with the Zeigo ecosystem

Increasingly, SMEs are being pressured to decarbonize, whether by customers seeking to reduce Scope 3 emissions throughout the value chain or by new global regulatory and compliance obligations. Zeigo Activate will help SMEs measure their emissions baseline, set reduction goals, and accelerate decarbonization efforts by providing the tools and knowledge needed to move swiftly from ambition to action.

“Many barriers have kept SMEs from decarbonizing, including lack of awareness, the availability of pragmatic tools, and limited access to resources. Zeigo Activate levels the playing field for these companies by providing easy, actionable solutions,” said Steve Wilhite, President of Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Business. “The application has the potential to revolutionize how SMEs decarbonize while driving significant value for companies of all sizes seeking to address value chain emissions.”

Zeigo Activate joins two existing Schneider Electric digital solutions rebranded under the Zeigo name that are designed to meet the carbon reduction needs of organizations of any size.

Formerly known as Zeigo, Zeigo Power allows users throughout Europe to digitally tender renewable energy Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), making clean energy procurement effortless and accessible. 
 Formerly known as NEO Network, Zeigo Network connects like-minded companies on the journey to decarbonization and has more than 600 global corporate members today. The software platform provides access to educational resources, community connections, and a robust solutions provider marketplace for the energy transition.  

Clients to benefit from a single Zeigo ecosystem 

Zeigo is designed to accelerate the sustainability efforts of both large organizations with clear climate goals and SMEs that are just getting started. Regardless of size, organizations can use Zeigo tools to effectively tackle their climate challenges, including:

Reducing energy consumption and emissionsAccess to energy market intelligence and educationConnection to regional solution providers in renewables, energy efficiency, and carbon offsets to drive action

“Zeigo puts the power of decarbonization into the hands of all organizations, and we’re excited to see how this ecosystem will accelerate the global net zero pursuits of all of our clients,” said Wilhite.

To learn more about Zeigo, visit www.zeigo.com Follow us on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog 
 

About Schneider Electric 
Schneider’s purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On.

Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries.

We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

www.se.com

Discover the newest perspectives shaping sustainability, electricity 4.0, and next generation automation on Schneider Electric Insights.

April 13, 2023 /3BL Media/ – From a field of over 160 submitted papers, Dissecting Green Returns was selected as the winner of the 2022 Moskowitz Prize at Northwestern University. The award, which recognizes high-impact research in sustainable finance, was presented to Lubos Pastor (University of Chicago Booth School of Business), Robert Stambaugh (The Wharton School), and Lucian Taylor (The Wharton School).

The Moskowitz Prize, now in its 27th year, is awarded annually to a research paper that demonstrates both impeccable empirical methods and strong potential to influence real-world business and investment practices related to sustainability.

“The study identifies a green factor that has impacted asset prices and portfolio returns in recent years,” says Lloyd Kurtz, founder of the Moskowitz Prize and again one of the judges this year. “They show that superior returns of green stocks were at least partly due to a change in investor preferences. But outperformance likely won’t continue over the long term. That’s good for green companies because it gives them a lower cost of capital—a big advantage in a competitive economy. So it’s an important paper for showing that sustainability is now priced into markets and past strong returns don’t guarantee future ones.”

The Expected Return of Green Investments 

The paper aimed to understand what kind of returns investors should expect from green (environmentally friendly) versus brown assets in the future. Theory suggests that investors derive satisfaction from owning responsible investments, and that green assets can hedge against climate risk, which should drive prices higher and the expected rate of return lower.

Yet, in the last 10 years green assets have outperformed brown, confounding what we might expect from theory alone.

How do the authors explain this unexpected outcome? The researchers looked at factors that could account for differences in expected versus realized returns and discovered that unexpected adverse climate news explained why green assets delivered higher returns in the study period. When they removed the impact of such news and unanticipated earnings, green stocks would have underperformed brown stocks as predicted.

In general, the team’s findings suggest that the outperformance of green versus brown stocks should not be expected to continue, because it was driven by unexpected news. In other words, their findings indicate that investors should retain the assumption that green stocks will have lower expected returns in the future.

Read the Moskowitz Prize Research Brief to learn more about the methodology, data, results, and real-world applications of Dissecting Green Returns.

Support for the Moskowitz Prize

The relevance of the Moskowitz Prize to the business domain is reflected in its premier sponsors, which this year included six financial institutions led by Bailard, the Calvert Institute for Responsible Investing, and Wells Fargo.