October 23, 2025: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Shaochen Yuan

Talk summary:

How does the most sustainable company act for sustainability? Schneider Electric has frequently been recognized as a leader in sustainability—including being named the world’s most sustainable company by Time Magazine and Statista in 2024 and by Corporate Knights for the second time in January 2025. During my career at Schneider Electric, I’m enriching the understanding on sustainability in industrial segments by practicing and learning the corporate strategies and latest professional topics/solutions on decarbonization & sustainability. Our commitment is to deliver customer-valued sustainable performance. Through our sustainability programs, we want to ensure environmental performance is embedded in all our offers and accelerate our ability to deliver sustainable value propositions to our customers. Sustainability is hardwired into our business strategy. We accelerate at every stage: eco design of our products, sourcing of green materials and packaging, differentiation with innovation and innovation with circular business models.

Bio:

I’m Shaochen Yuan, a graduate of the University of British Columbia. I currently serve as the Eco-Referent Sustainability Design Engineer in the Energy Management division at Schneider Electric. My primary professional focus includes environmental footprint disclosure through life cycle assessment (LCA) and the creation of environmental data (such as environmental footprints, recycling potential, etc.). I also ensure compliance with directives and regulations related to electrical and electronic equipment at the product level. Another growing area of my work involves introducing and integrating eco-design methodologies into R&D activities. Our goal is to accelerate sustainability improvements—such as decarbonization and energy optimization—across all products throughout their lifecycle.