Green Yodha campaign will continue to motivate our stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices: Rajat Abbi

The Green Yodha campaign, spearheaded by Schneider Electric, aims at fostering sustainability and driving positive environmental change. 

This campaign goes beyond the traditional approach by inspiring businesses, governments, NGOs, institutions, and individuals to embrace sustainable practices in their daily lives.

As responsible marketers, Schneider Electric aims to break through the clutter by leveraging creativity, innovation, authenticity, and a deep understanding of the target audience. 

The brand envisions a future where sustainability is integrated into every aspect of life and hopes that the Green Yodha campaign will continue to motivate stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices and accelerate India's path towards net zero.

On World Environment Day, Campaign India caught up with Rajat Abbi, vice president – global marketing, chief marketing officer, greater India, Schneider Electric, to pick his brain on the Green Yodha campaign, the impact they aim to cultivate, its association with Rajasthan Royals and its future goals

Edited excerpts: 

Could you provide us with insight into Schneider Electric's Green Yodha initiative and its primary objectives in promoting sustainability?

The IPCC’s sixth assessment report identifies India as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Hence, looking at the urgency to act on the climate change requirement, and with the goal of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5ºC, in line with the Paris Agreement, we believe that reliable power is critical in building the Aatmanirbhar Bharat of the future. Schneider Electric is committed to making the world More Electric, More Digital, More Efficient & More Sustainable, and seeks to further this commitment and align its vision with the nation’s net-zero commitment made at COP 26. 

We therefore conceptualised and launched an initiative in India for India, named ‘Green Yodha’. This initiative embodies Schneider Electric’s commitment towards sustainability and is focused on building a community of conscious citizens, organisations, and policymakers to accelerate their actions around climate change. This also includes creating a sense of urgency amongst businesses and individuals to do much more and act much faster, to ramp up the adoption of clean energy, electrification, energy efficiency, and other climate-positive solutions. 

The uniqueness of the Green Yodha campaign is that while most B2B campaigns focus on their direct stakeholders, i.e., their customers and partners, we have taken it several notches ahead and conceptualised the Green Yodha campaign as a mass movement that reaches out to everyone and inspires them to do their bit and apprise others about our collective responsibility towards planet Earth. It is a movement that aims at inspiring businesses, governments, NGOs, institutions, and individuals to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives. 

What specific impact does Schneider Electric aspire to achieve through this sustainability campaign, and how does it align with the company's broader sustainability strategy?

Through this campaign we want businesses, institutions, government bodies and citizens to inculcate sustainability into all walks of life. Our initiative, Green Yodha, extends beyond just being a marketing campaign; it is a dedicated awareness initiative aimed at creating a climate-positive society. Through this campaign, we aim to build a community that will unite for collective actions towards the adoption of practices in energy efficiency, renewables and solar, automation, and digitalisation, thereby creating a new world to meet both individual and corporate sustainability goals.

Schneider Electric has been ranked as the world’s “#1 Most Sustainable Corporation” in the Corporate Knights Global 100 Index for 2021. We strive to bridge progress and sustainability for all and measure the success against our Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) commitments with clearly defined sustainability targets. SSI is built on six long-term commitments, as outlined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. 

The six commitments are: 

• Act for a climate-positive world

• Be efficient with resources

• Live up to the principles of trust

• Create equal opportunities

• Harness the power of all generations

• Empower local communities. 

We believe that the fight for our planet cannot be won alone. As such, the Green Yodha campaign aligns with our comprehensive sustainability strategy, which encompasses not only making our operations sustainable but also supporting our customers in their sustainability journey. 

By combining our internal commitments with external collaborations, we aspire to create a sustainable future while empowering others to embrace sustainable solutions. 

Outside of this Green Yodha campaign, what else does Schneider Electric do to promote sustainability?

We are committed to bridging the gap between progress and sustainability by making the most of our energy and resources. We have strategically integrated sustainability across all our operations by developing innovative energy management and automation solutions. The uniqueness of our sustainability strategy lies in the fact that we play on both sides of the equation. 

Through our IoT enabled- EcoStruxure solution, we enable our customers to optimise energy usage, reduce waste, and achieve lower carbon emissions. Since 2018, we have helped our customers save and avoid 440 million tonnes of carbon emissions. 

At the same time, for our operations, we are committed to achieving carbon neutrality in our operations by 2025, 25% absolute carbon reduction across our entire value chain by 2030, end-to-end carbon neutral value chain in 2040, and net-zero carbon emissions across our entire value chain in 2050. Additionally, we ensure that 100% of our primary and secondary packaging is free from single-use plastic and uses recycled cardboard. 

To monitor our sustainability performance, we have implemented the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) dashboard, which aligns with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provides regular updates on our sustainability performance holistically. 

Through the Zero Carbon Project, our dedicated partner decarbonisation program, we support our top 100 suppliers in reducing their carbon footprint by 50% by 2025. In addition to these efforts, we have been sponsoring the Paris Marathon since 2013, emphasising our commitment to sustainability and promoting a healthier future.

Furthermore, Schneider Electric is dedicated to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workspace. By 2025, we aim to achieve gender diversity targets, including women representing 50% of all new hires, 40% of frontline managers, and 30% of senior leadership positions.

By focusing on holistic sustainable development, we aim to generate a climate-positive impact for the coming generations. 

How can brands ensure that sustainability is more than just lip service?

To ensure that sustainability extends beyond superficial claims, brands must take substantial and proactive measures. The first step is to set target-driven sustainability goals, making it a fundamental part of their operations. At Schneider Electric, our climate pledge is validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Joining global initiatives like RE100, EP100, and EV100, we are committed to making a strong contribution to limiting the global average temperature rise by 1.5 degree Celsius. 

As sustainability is an increasingly evolving space, brands should invest in research and development for eco-friendly product designs that can reduce carbon footprint and benefit local communities. 

Engaging and educating stakeholders including employees, customers, and partners, about the importance of sustainability is a key aspect of successfully integrating sustainability. Ultimately, brands must be transparent and accountable for their sustainability commitments, regularly communicating their progress and learning from failures to develop a climate-positive impact.

You partnered with Rajasthan Royals for this campaign. How has that helped the brand?

With cricket being the most loved sport in the country, forging partnerships of this nature holds significant relevance in generating awareness and exerting influence over the masses. In the previous year, we collaborated with Rajasthan Royals Team to orchestrate a one-of-its-kind carbon-neutral IPL T20 cricket match and received invaluable support from both the team players and its management in fostering the growth of the Green Yodha movement in the country. 

This year, we yet again renewed this partnership, fuelled by a shared vision to inspire sports enthusiasts to unite and accelerate their efforts in addressing climate change. 

As responsible marketers, our mission is to leverage the expansive reach of marketing to establish meaningful connections with people. Cricket and the IPL serve as prime platforms through which we can make a significant impact by effectively communicating with the masses. 

Over the past years, our initiative has successfully reached over 10 million individuals and organisations. For the future, we aspire to expand this outreach multiple times transforming millions of Indians into proud advocates for actions towards conserving the environment and sustainability. 

On occasions such as World Environment Day, we see several brands come up with campaigns. How can they break the clutter? 

We are living in a digital age and we as marketers have the responsibility to break through the clutter and create campaigns that strike a chord with the customers. 

A combination of creativity, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of the target audience is required to set yourself apart from the competition. Firstly, marketers should constantly seek ways to innovate their campaigns without constraining themselves to tried-and-tested ways of marketing. For marketing around occasions such as World Environment Day, it is important to capture the attention of our target audience, and what better way to do that than to speak their language? Understand your audience through intensive research, create consumer personas, and conduct surveys. 

Secondly, do not discard ideas too quickly. The most absurd-sounding ideas can be moulded into something fascinating and unique. Take risks and be willing to improvise on ideas before discarding them. Thirdly, marketers must embrace authenticity. In a world saturated with advertising, authenticity can be a powerful differentiator. Be genuine in your messaging and reflect the core values of your brand. Consumers are more likely to connect with campaigns that feel real and align with their own beliefs and values.

Finally, we as marketers must leverage the fact that marketing has the power to reach a wide group of people at the same time. We must capitalise on this aspect for building a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable planet. Responsible marketing is vital for supporting continuous growth, retaining customers, increasing brand loyalty, and creating a long-lasting impact. Any campaign that gets these fundamentals right is bound to succeed. 

Looking ahead, what are the plans and goals of Schneider Electric in the realm of sustainability, and how do you envision the company's role in driving positive environmental change? 

Sustainability is no more a choice; it is a behavioural shift that needs to be holistically integrated across all walks of life. There is an urgent need to revisit and redefine our marketing approach in tandem with the changing customer behaviour. Significant market opportunities are being created in India in various sectors, ranging from digital and electric solutions to renewable technologies, all a result of the new focus on sustainability. We are committed to accelerating Schneider Electric’s contribution to making India more sustainable and digital. 

Keeping this in mind, we are optimistic that the Green Yodha campaign will continue to motivate our stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives. We are confident that collective actions by society can accelerate India’s path towards net zero.