Schneider Electric: Powering Sustainability Procurement

Christophe Quiquempoix, Vice President of Sustainable Procurement at Schneider Electric, delivered a keynote at Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE: The Net Zero Summit looking at the five-year journey the company undertook to embed sustainability into the heart of procurement, focusing heavily on supplier engagement.

Schneider’s approach is built on a sustainable procurement framework that organises 50,000 suppliers into three layers: stating expectations through a code of conduct, eliminating risk via a vigilance programme and driving transformation.

This framework moves beyond simple compliance by addressing 20 distinct topics, from Green Materials like low-carbon steel to aspirational social standards.

Empowering SMEs and the 'big bang'

The programme specifically aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s top 1,000 suppliers by 50%. This was broken into three phases: measuring footprints, setting ambitions and driving action.

Christophe admitted the scale was daunting at the outset: "It was an extremely bold objective at the time – honestly, when we started, we didn’t know how we would achieve it.”

Following the planning stage, the programme formally launched in 2021 with a 'big bang' event. Schneider invited executives from 1,000 suppliers to a virtual summit, promising they would not be left alone. This support was vital because a maturity assessment revealed that many of their suppliers were totally new to decarbonisation.

Christophe noted the specific challenge regarding the size of these partners: "Two thirds of our suppliers were SMEs – and 70% were totally new to decarbonisation. The way we address it is by extensive training with the digital tools that we implemented with outside support."

Prioritising action and social excellence

The initiative pushed energy efficiency and renewables through regional cohorts and in-person workshops. 

Schneider even provided a 150-page playbook detailing the tools used in their own 160 factories. 

"This programme has been guided to focus on action and speed and not perfection,” Christophe said.

“Listen carefully to your suppliers – they developed tricks and techniques to decarbonise that we would never have discovered ourselves about tricks and techniques to decarbonise that we were able to share with the other supplies and replicate."

This action-first mentality extended to the social pillar through the Decent Work Programme. This went beyond basic compliance, asking suppliers to commit to aspirational behaviours. A key requirement included gender equity:

"We are also covering more advanced topics, like living wage, asking the suppliers that they have a living wage policy in place... with thematics as well about non gender family care, ensuring that the suppliers have paternity leave equal to maternity leave."

The results of this five-year push were significant. By December 2025, Schneider had engaged 1,004 active suppliers and trained more than 3,000 people, leading to a 56% average carbon intensity reduction. Reflecting on the achievement, Christophe concluded: “when we started, we did not believe it was achievable.

“We did not impose the 50% target. We asked suppliers to make their own commitment – and gradually increased ambition as confidence grew. This is when we key recipes for all of the different programmes.”