Dive Brief:
- Schneider Electric is spending $23.8 million to upgrade two manufacturing facilities in South Carolina, the company announced June 25.
- The transformation at the Seneca and Hopkins, South Carolina, plants will create 280 jobs. The additional workers will help Schneider Electric manufacture power distribution products used in electrification and energy efficiency applications, particularly for healthcare, wastewater treatment and data centers, according to the release.
- The contribution is part of Schneider’s $440 million investment in its U.S. manufacturing network, Aamir Paul, Schneider Electric’s president of North America operations, told Manufacturing Dive.
Dive Insight:
Schneider has an ambitious plan to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, which includes implementing carbon-neutral operations next year and reducing emissions over time.
The Seneca and Hopkins plant transformations will include HVAC electrification to boost efficiency, reduce costs, improve sustainability and help Schneider reach its decarbonization goals by 2050.
The investment will also fund a series of projects to help Schneider’s South Carolina team identify other ways to make facilities more sustainable, Paul said.
“Most sustainably efforts are aggregations of small gains,” Paul said. “But compounded over a period of time, you can make a facility 20%, 30% more efficient. So, it's actually doing a lot of small things consistently and measuring the impact of each of those actions.”
Other U.S. investments Schneider has made in recent years include $140 million in upgrading and expanding its plants in Mt. Juliet and Smyrna, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Mechanicsburg and Middletown, Pennsylvania.
The company also opened an electrical equipment plant in El Paso, Texas, in September 2023, as well as made investments to expand its Tlaxcala and Monterrey, Mexico, facilities.
Schneider’s ongoing decarbonization and sustainability efforts are getting recognition. Last month, Scheider topped Time Magazine’s list of the “World's Most Sustainable Companies of 2024.” Still, Paul said that while Schneider is proud, the job is not done.
“Being named the most sustainable company in the world is great, but you got to keep moving the bar and setting higher expectations,” Paul said.
