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Todd Pruzan, HBR
Welcome to the HBR Video Quick Take. I’m Todd Pruzan, senior editor for research and special projects at Harvard Business Review. Leading organizations worldwide use awards programs to drive brand awareness and nurture relationships with customers and key partners.
In June 2022, Schneider Electric launched its Sustainability Impact Awards—a first-of-its-kind global awards platform celebrating industry leaders who prioritize sustainability and decarbonization. Rohan Kelkar, executive vice president of the Global Power Products division at Schneider Electric, is one of the architects of the company’s global awards initiative. Rohan, thank you so much for joining us today.
Rohan Kelkar, Schneider Electric
Hi, Todd. Thanks for having me here.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Rohan, I see that the inaugural Sustainability Impact Awards focus on Schneider Electric’s partners, such as system integrators and design firms. Why is partner recognition and support so important to global brands like yours?
Rohan Kelkar, Schneider Electric
If I take a step back, we’re trying to solve two big challenges. The first one we all know, which is the race to net zero—a very difficult challenge that requires all of us to work together. The second challenge specific to our industry is around the fact that we have an extensive ecosystem that we lead in the electrical distribution and industry space. That involves over a million partners.
The good news is we are all on the same journey. And we are all leveraging each other to really learn and drive the right solutions that help with decarbonization. The other good news is over 60% of our partners are already on this journey, so what we want to do is recognize their efforts and recognize the wins that we have in our industry so collectively we can learn and celebrate and drive towards the first big challenge, which is towards net zero.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Rohan, there are two awards categories. One of them focuses on a partner’s sustainability efforts for their own business, and the other centers on work a partner has done to advance sustainability and efficiency for their customers’ operations. Why these two categories?
Rohan Kelkar, Schneider Electric
It’s quite simple. We like to think of these awards as recognizing partners that are doing work in their own four walls, their own facilities, driving decarbonization, whether it’s through source of power generation, through use of more smart and sustainable building equipment. And it’s also the partners that are helping us drive and helping our mutual customers and end users drive their efforts towards decarbonization.
The best example is IHG—well-known InterContinental Hotels Group, over 6,000 hotels. We worked with a partner, Arup, a well-known design firm.
We worked together. We had an external cost consultant called Gleeds that came in and made sure the economics made sense. And then we deployed the program. As a result, IHG is one of the top leaders in decarbonization in their industry, which is a huge win for them and also a huge win for the planet.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Why should a partner enter to win an award, and can you put the awards program in the context of Schneider Electric’s larger mission and your strategic plan?
Rohan Kelkar, Schneider Electric
Sure. I would just say, quite simply, there’s three reasons. And those are three big reasons. The first one is your employees.
Millennials, and over 70% of the employees today, are looking to seek employment at a place that cares about sustainability, so you can attract the best talent. Second is your shareholders. [In] over 50% of the firms, their shareholders, their investors, are expecting them to make a commitment and deliver that commitment over the next coming five to 10 years.
And the third one is the customers. They’re also expecting to partner, just like we described earlier in the ecosystem, with players, with partners that themselves are on a sustainability journey, so collectively we can drive towards net zero.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Well, Rohan, this has been a great discussion. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Rohan Kelkar, Schneider Electric
My pleasure. Thanks, Todd.
To learn more about the Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact Awards, please click here.
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