It’s easy enough to talk about ESG in the board room, at a town hall, even on a podcast. The tough part is making it real, comme on dit.
Which brings us to today’s guest, Xavier Houot, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Business and Operations at Schneider Electric—an organization that was recently named the world’s most sustainable corporation.
In a spirited dialogue with Elaina Shekhter, EPAM’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Houot explains Schneider Electric’s comprehensive and holistic approach to ESG.
“We start with looking at the challenges outside of ourselves,” says Houot, adding that Schneider Electric views itself “from an outside-in perspective.” They consider the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. They compare themselves with the best performers in each category of ESG—the best on safety, the best on circularity—and of course they consider their performance in relation to their performance of the previous six months.
“It's not very important to please ourselves saying we are better than we were [six months before]…. If we are better but it's not enough, that frankly doesn't make the world a better place.”
Houot and Shekhter’s conversation swerves in a variety of interesting directions: Straight into Schneider Electric’s Zero Carbon Project, over toward building the business case for sustainability, and high up into the issue of organizational leadership, with informative excursions into the challenges of measurement, the role of partnerships, and the meaning of COP26.
Most importantly, they take a realistic approach to ESG. Shekhter, for instance, insists on keeping it real when she asks: “How do you know that decarbonization is the right focus?” and Houot responds with full and informed candor. To hear the answer, and many other important points about ESG, click the link below.
Resources
World’s Most Sustainable Corporation 2021. Read about how Schneider Electric earned this prestigious distinction.
The Zero Carbon Project. Schneider Electric’s ambitious initiative supports 1,000 of their top suppliers in halving their operational carbon emissions by 2025.
The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 Goals are essential to any organization that’s serious about ESG.
The Fight Against Climate Change Makes Good Business Sense. Houot’s blog post can help you make the case to your organization.
The Schneider Supplier Portal. Explore the resources Schneider Electric offers to its suppliers.
COP26 in Pictures. The Guardian provides you with a dramatic look at 2021’s most notable climate summit.
ESG + CSR = Better Business + A Better World. Elaina Shekhter and Shamilka Samarasinha discuss how EPAM’s CSR initiatives have evolved into their current ESG program.
The Resonance Test 66: Jennifer Howard-Grenville. The Diageo Professor of Organization Studies at the Cambridge Judge Business School talks about taking a true measure of ESG.
Host: Alison Kotin
Engineer: Kyp Pilalas
Producer: Ken Gordon
About the Author
Elaina ShekhterCHIEF MARKETING AND STRATEGY OFFICER, SVP, EPAMMs. Shekhter heads up EPAM’s Global Marketing and Strategy, working to integrate a variety of functions that have a material influence on the strategy, positioning, and global brand of the company. She has held a number of leadership roles within EPAM, including most recently as the Global Head of Business Development and, prior to that, as the Global Head of the Travel and Consumer Business Unit. Ms. Shekhter is an advisory board member for the MACH Alliance, a group of independent tech companies dedicated to open, best-of-breed ecosystems. She is also active in the software startup and emerging technology community, representing EPAM in its investment in the Go Philly Fund to support regional venture funding for seed and early stage companies, including as a board member of recent EPAM seed investment, SigmaLedger. Ms. Shekhter also takes a special interest in artificial intelligence and sustainability initiatives and is focused on expanding EPAM’s investment in these areas.
Ken GordonChief Communications SpecialistKen makes EPAM Continuum’s work visible to the necessary people. He creates superlative content, works with colleagues to do the same, and employs social networks to share it widely.
A card-carrying humanist, Ken co-founded QuickMuse, the improvisational writing website, and JEDLAB, the Jewish education community. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, the New York Times, and many other pubs.
Ken has an English degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MA in English from the State University of New York at Albany. He framed both diplomas long ago, but can’t seem to find them now—a fact he considers all-too-human.
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