Case Study: Schneider Electric

Opportunity

Given Schneider’s core business focus, they understand that more than 40% of the world’s carbon emissions come from the built environment: from lighting, heating, cooling, and construction materials from commercial buildings.

In parallel to Schneider Electric building new technologies and solutions to assist their clients in reducing their carbon footprint, they also want to lead from the front, teaming with Upflex to make rapid progress on their own workplace transformation.

Solution

Schneider Electric engaged Upflex to assist with operationalizing a cohesive workplace strategy that gives employees the option to work from home or in “third places,” such as coworking spaces. As a part of this overall strategy, Upflex empowered Schneider with tailored solutions, including:

Cohesive data and analytics

With Schneider’s focus on sustainability, they’re leveraging Upflex’s robust data and analytics capabilities, enabling Schneider to track, anticipate and respond to office use and energy consumption levels across their portfolio (not just coworking spaces), enabling them to proactively reduce energy usage and emissions. Real-time, actionable data empowers Schneider to make quick, informed decisions to stay on track to meet their workplace transformation goals.

Hub & Spoke model

In addition to giving employees access to Upflex’s spaces on demand, Upflex also enabled Schneider Electric to reposition their existing offices into energy-efficient, next-gen, environmentally- sustainable beacons of their brand, culture, and commitment to the environment, all while reducing energy usage at their leased properties.

Reduce commuting emissions

The use of “spokes” — i.e. coworking spaces — outside of Schneider Electric’s dedicated hubs substantively reduced their CO2 output by reducing commuting time for employees. This “local-first” approach to workplace strategy reduces commuting days, duration of individual commutes, and ultimately leads to a measurable reduction in overall carbon emissions.

“Clean” real estate growth

With Upflex, Schneider Electric can continue to expand without increasing energy usage or related spend. By leveraging Upflex, Schneider can “chip in” on energy usage and costs with other companies who share their co-working spaces. Schneider is also sidestepping the waste and pollution that comes from the new construction of owned or leased offices.

Contributing to the ecosystem

Upflex has a unique partnership with Trees for the Future, planting a tree on behalf of Schneider for every desk booked. For a 3,000-employee company using Upflex, each employee booking a desk five times per month means planting 180,000 trees annually — or removing an estimated 28,770 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.

Proof in Results

According to Schneider Electric’s Head of Real Estate, Karen McClellan:

“Nashville’s our biggest example of success — our greatest number of employees in one office that’s not a manufacturing site, about 1,000 employees — and it’s just been huge. I think our recruiting is better. I think our productivity is better. There are people that have just said, ‘I feel better,’ from a wellness perspective. That’s a big thing too: I’m a big proponent of access to natural light, and we previously had a lot of dark offices. So, from a wellness perspective, I think it’s been huge, too. We’ve really seen a lot of positive impacts. We just haven’t been able to make the shift all over the country, but I just would always say, ‘Go to Nashville, go to our office, spend a little bit of time there, and you feel like it’s a whole new company.”