Schneider Electric has received ISO 50001 accreditation for complying with the new standard for energy management systems across 15 of its largest UK sites.
The award was presented to Stuart Thorogood, Schneider Electric's UK country president, and Mark Jones, sustainability manager, by the chief executive of the AFNOR group, Olivier Peyrat, at the AFNOR headquarters in Paris.

The company believes the accredited certification recognises its commitment to continuously improving the energy efficiency of its sites, reducing its environmental footprint and enhancing user comfort.

Energy audits were carried out at each site to identify where there were opportunities to reduce energy usage. These was followed by numerous site based energy efficiency improvement projects through which the company upgraded key equipment such as lighting supported with intelligent lighting control, modified its Building Management Systems to enhance their effectiveness and replaced compressors and boilers. In addition, to ensure there is continual improvement in energy efficiency, the company developed and implemented its Energy Management System, which outlines procedures and processes to keep savings on track.

Schneider Electric has also engaged staff to become more energy conscious through energy days, competitions and ongoing updates, as well as deploying Energy Champions at each of its sites to measure consumption, raise awareness and implement improvement projects. To increase staff awareness of energy issues, the company encouraged employees to undertake courses on its Energy University e-learning programme.

The investment in such practices helped the firm to achieve year on year improvements and reductions in energy usage - from 2011 to 2012 the company saved six per cent in energy consumption, equating to around £90,000 in cost savings.

In June 2011, Schneider Electric's head office in France (known as Le Hive) was the first building in the world to be certified as complying with the new ISO 50001 standard.

'This certification recognizes our commitment to energy efficiency and our expertise in this field,' says Mark Jones, sustainability manager at Schneider Electric. 'More than ever, we are aiming for the highest standards in energy management for both our customers' sites and our own.'