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Leveraging diversity and inclusion to improve the industry not only leads to better job prospects, but also offers benefits for all businesses, even in seemingly unrelated areas such as sustainability.
Diversity in the industry has made significant and visible progress in recent years, but the sector as a whole still has a long way to go. I am very proud to be a Systems Engineer and Architect at Schneider Electric. As a company, we place great importance on all forms of diversity and have recorded an impressive statistic: women make up more than a third of the global workforce, including in senior positions.
Of course, diversity covers a broader scope than gender representation alone, and Schneider Electric has provided equal opportunities for all everywhere, creating an environment where employees feel uniquely valued and safe to bring their best. The company has been continually recognised for its positive approach to diversity, equality and social responsibility, most recently reflected in its winning the Outstanding Contribution to Diversity, Equality and Social Responsibility award at the 2024 Data Centre Solutions (DCS) Awards.
Achieving diversity isn’t just the right thing to do. True diversity brings a range of benefits to our teams, customers and products. It even plays an important role in the industry’s fight against climate change.
True diversity
What is true diversity? It's not just about who we are. True diversity takes into account the different backgrounds, education, experience and perspectives of people within an organisation, and the more diversity the better. Schneider Electric provides a safe and inclusive work environment for all, and I have seen first-hand the level of innovation and value this adds to our business.
Innovation for all industries
Creating an inclusive community with people of all ethnicities, genders and ages, as well as individuals from different educational backgrounds and who are both neurodiverse and neurotypical, provides the best environment to exchange ideas and allow innovation to flourish.
Organizations that have teams that share similar ideas, whether culturally or educationally, may have a great understanding of their current processes, but lack the different perspectives that drive beneficial change. This approach actively works against all digital transformation models where information can be interpreted in a variety of ways to generate value. Conversely, when there is a lack of diversity, companies risk becoming stuck in a business-as-usual model, which will quickly cause them to fall behind more forward-thinking competitors.
The impact of digital transformation and true diversity should not be seen as separate – they are intrinsically linked. Integrating digital transformation teams across diverse industry ecosystems allows for the pooling of expertise not only from the end-user business, but from all previous projects as well.
At Schneider Electric, this is a position we care deeply about. We like to build diverse partnerships with our customers, going far beyond the simple supplier relationship of selling technology, so that they can instantly expand their knowledge and expertise available for any project, opening up new avenues for value creation. Industrial companies should actively seek a diverse workforce and a diverse ecosystem to meet the challenges of modern industry, including climate change.
Amazing sustainability
Here at Schneider Electric we have recently been appointed The most sustainable company in the world For the second time, we are demonstrating our commitment to minimising the industry’s impact on climate change. We believe that when working towards a greener future, we can only truly represent the people we serve as an industry when the debate involves voices from all walks of life. It would be easy to think that people of different ages, genders or backgrounds would suggest the same solutions to a problem as global as climate change. But only by stimulating debate across diverse groups can assumptions be challenged and seemingly impossible goals achieved.
He Gender Policy Report A study conducted by the European Central Bank in 2022 shows how gender diversity in management positions has a direct impact on climate change. The results show that just a 1% increase in the number of female managers in a company leads to a 0.5% reduction in CO2 emissions.
As mentioned above, true diversity refers to more than just a disparity in gender representation, but we can see from this small evidence how addressing just one element of diversity has a surprising impact on sustainability. Now, let’s imagine that true diversity is achieved across all companies, whether end-users, integrators, OEMs or suppliers. How much could CO2 emissions be reduced by then?
I am privileged to work for a company that is very environmentally focused, which means we are always discussing and actively looking for ways to reduce climate change. However, this is not an experience shared by the entire industrial landscape, and the same can be said for true diversity. Both sustainability and true diversity are collective responsibilities of all industrial companies. We must work together to remove any obstacles and offer support to the diverse workforce, ensuring that each and every perspective is heard. Once we have created an inclusive industry, companies throughout the supply chain will see innovation grow as they move forward on their digital transformation journey.
As we have seen, the transition to a more digitalized and diverse industrial landscape will bring with it significant reductions in CO2 emissions. Diversity, transformation and sustainability should not be seen as three separate initiatives: being proactive in improving these areas means a better world for all of us to live and work in. Learn more about diversity, equality and inclusion at Schneider Electric here.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider's purpose is to create impact by enabling everyone 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 your trusted partner in sustainability and efficiency.
We are a global industrial technology leader, bringing world-leading expertise in electrification, automation and digitalization to smart industries, resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, smart buildings and intuitive homes. Backed by our deep industry expertise, we deliver end-to-end integrated AI-based industrial IoT solutions with connected products, automation, software and services, and deliver digital twins to enable profitable growth for our customers.
We are a people-based company with an ecosystem of 150,000 colleagues and over one 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.
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