Month: June 2024

Global consultancy and digital solutions for all stages of the user life-cycle: sourcing, data management, analytics and reporting.Advising 30+ private equity firms globally and more than 400 portfolio companies representing +$100B assets under management.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 24, 2024 /3BL/ – Schneider Electric, a global leader in sustainability, today announced that it has expanded the capabilities of its global private equity and financial services consultancy within its Sustainability Business, which offers comprehensive advisory and software solutions for decarbonization and sustainable value creation for private equity funds, asset managers and other financial institutions.

The expanded global practice is currently partnering with dozens of private equity funds and asset managers, supporting 400 portfolio companies, and advising +$100B assets under management.

The expanded practice focuses on an integrated approach to ESG and sustainability consulting, energy procurement, sustainability solutions and renewable energy, enabled by a strong suite of digital solutions. Specifically, the team partners closely with private equity funds, asset managers and other financial institutions throughout the investment life-cycle – from strategy and fundraising, all the way to exit strategy.

The practice group provides financial institutions with an exclusive opportunity to evaluate and handle financed emissions, monitor ESG performance across diverse assets, facilitate communication with underlying portfolio companies, and spearhead sustainable transformation. Through this unique approach, value creation is driven through ESG transformation and decarbonization, extending to the fund level.

In a recent study conducted by the CFA Institute’s Research & Policy Center, responsible investment funds have gained significant traction over the last decade, further articulating the need for specialized fund-level services through asset managers.

“With the evolving global landscape of ESG, our finance and private equity clients have a unique challenge and opportunity to gain a competitive edge in a way that supports their sustainability objectives,” said Cristy House, North America Lead, Private Equity & Financial Practice. “We’re excited to expand our leading-edge practice to drive even more value and results for our clients through innovative end-to-end energy and solutions that service the financial sector.”

Within the new expansion, there is a greater focus on data management and reporting capabilities that help financial institutions understand and track their portfolio performance and drive impactful engagement strategy. In addition to Schneider Electric’s flagship platform EcoStruxure Resource Advisor®, which announced new ESG capabilities last year, the organization is also working with connected software solutions that drive greater client impact, alongside the newly adopted tools. The collective solution set touts fund-level data aggregation, benchmarking, predictive analytics, and dynamic data requests, specific to the private equity sector. The combined expanded data management and sector-level abilities enables Schneider Electric to meet the unique needs of each client it serves.

“For more than 20 years, our client-first approach to ESG and sustainability has allowed us to stay nimble and value-focused with our solutions,” said Irina Gilfanova, Director, Head of Private Equity Europe. “Our capabilities continue to grow rapidly as the market needs various integrated solutions and flexibility to enable private equity firms to manage their processes, track their commitments, and provide insight into their portfolio performance.” Over the years, Schneider Electric has had multiple collaborations, partnerships, and acquisitions to deliver best-in-class sustainability solutions.

Schneider’s Sustainability Business has a long-standing history with flagship financial institutions across the financial services sector. The company has been listed among the most Sustainable Corporations worldwide for the 13th time in a row, according to Corporate Knights’ 2024 Global 100, and listed as a Sustainability Leader for the 13th year in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

Learn more here.

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About Schneider Electric

Schneider’s purpose is to create Impact by empowering all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. At Schneider, we call this Life Is On.

Our mission is to be the trusted partner in Sustainability and Efficiency.

We are a global industrial technology leader bringing world-leading expertise in electrification, automation and digitization to smart industries, resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes. Anchored by our deep domain expertise, we provide integrated end-to-end lifecycle AI enabled Industrial IoT solutions with connected products, automation, software, and services, delivering digital twins to enable profitable growth for our customers.

We are a people company with an ecosystem of 150,000 colleagues and more than a million partners operating in over 100 countries to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders. We embrace diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.

www.se.com

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

Junior Achievement of New Mexico is celebrating a 230% expansion of its program to bring financial and career readiness curriculum to more Indigenous students. A $98,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum Corporation allowed the nonprofit to expand to more schools where Indigenous students represent at least 30% of the enrollment. The nonprofit’s Indigenous Student Outreach Program served 1,491 students in 2023-24, up from 648 the year before.

The magnitude of the work done in schools by Junior Achievement (JA) of New Mexico can be seen in this note from a student: “Thank you for your help with what I want to be when I grow up. I also want to thank you for giving me more confidence to graduate high school.”

This student took part in the recent ‘JA in a Day’ event at Tres Volcanes Community Collaborative School (TVCCS) in Albuquerque. It showcased one way JA pursues its core objective of introducing K-12 students to the fundamentals of financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship to better equip them for the future. ‘JA in a Day’ involves joining with educators and local volunteers to bring an entire, five-session JA curriculum to every student at a school in one day.

“Thank you for your help with what I want to be when I grow up. I also want to thank you for giving me more confidence to graduate high school.”

JA of New Mexico also used the Albuquerque event to celebrate the expansion of its Indigenous Student Outreach Program through a $98,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC), which was spread across the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.

“Prior to working with MPC, we didn’t have the funding or organizational capacity to gather data or expand outreach to educators working with Indigenous students,” said JA of New Mexico President Erin Hagenow. “With this funding, we have been able to build a full Indigenous Student Outreach Program.”

In the 2022-23 school year, JA of New Mexico served 648 students at schools where Indigenous students represent at least 30% of the population. In 2023-24, the number of students served at such schools grew 230% to 1,491. TVCCS is an example of this growth. Not only are Indigenous students 30% of the K-8 school’s enrollment, TVCCS also has a Diné Language and Culture Program, which focuses on the native language of the Navajo Nation.

MPC’s support for JA of New Mexico goes beyond funding to involve MPC employee volunteers who help present JA curriculum. During the event at TVCCS, Principal Stakeholder Engagement Manager Robert Doore, Principal Right-of-Way Specialist Michelle Gaillour and Albuquerque Light Product and Asphalt Terminals Manager Will Foster provided lessons to second, third and fourth-grade students. Board games and other instructional tools were used to explain concepts such as profit and loss in building a business, problem-solving, how to manage money and the process of applying for jobs.

“It was rewarding to see students really begin to grasp the material and understand more about possible pathways for their futures,” said Doore, who is a member of the Blackfeet Nation. “I’m proud that we are bringing this kind of education to more Indigenous student populations that may have had very little exposure to it in the past.”

Time for some fun as we harness the Ohio sun.

Enbridge, project partner EDF Renewables in North America and guests are celebrating today in Madison County, Ohio, with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the recently completed first phase of Fox Squirrel Solar.

It’s one of the largest utility-scale solar developments east of the Mississippi—1.4 million panels and 159 inverters; and peak construction that required 650 workers safely installing 10,000 panels a day.

During the event, Amazon announced it has entered into power purchase agreements for the full generation capacity, which will help contribute to Amazon’s commitment to match all of the electricity used by its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030. The company is currently on a path to meet its goal by 2025.

As renewable energy commitments are increasingly embraced by corporations, solar projects like Fox Squirrel will help the state of Ohio realize its continuing commitment to attract business and nurture economic growth in the state.

Thomas Carbone, Enbridge’s vice president of power business development, told the crowd that Enbridge is pleased and grateful to grow its presence in the Buckeye State, amid an ongoing expansion of our renewables business.

“Fox Squirrel is a key part of our commitment to the energy transition and our plans to continue to invest in these types of projects,” Carbone said. “We look forward to working closely with all of you as we advance construction on Phases 2 and 3.”

The initial phase of Fox Squirrel has a generation capacity of 150 megawatts (MW) of solar energy. F Phase 2 is expected to be operational in mid-2024 and will generate up to 250 MW, while Phase 3 is expected to enter service in late 2024 and generate up to 177 MW.

The project extends the longstanding partnership between Enbridge and EDF Renewables that began with four wind projects in Canada 12 years ago. The growing Enbridge-EDF portfolio also includes several offshore wind projects in France.

“I am so pleased at how far we’ve come on this journey with our partners, EDF Renewables, and all we’ve achieved together,” said Carbone.

Enbridge is firmly planted in Ohio, with operations now representing every part of our business in the state—renewable power (Fox Squirrel and the Wheelersburg Solar project), liquids pipelines (Line 17, a.k.a. the Toledo Pipeline), natural gas transmission pipelines (Texas Eastern, NEXUS and Generation), and gas utilities (Enbridge Gas Ohio).

Solar power can generate electricity with no emissions, no waste production and no water use. We entered the solar business in southwestern Ontario in 2008 and continue to build our solar portfolio with several new projects – like Fox Squirrel – that are either operating or in development.

In all, the number of homes our solar investments can power each year has surpassed 45,000, based on net generation figures, which exclude our partners’ stake in projects.