The planet today faces tremendous pressure from rapid industrialization and economic developments. Failure to swiftly tackle the environmental crisis will result in dreadful consequences.

In most countries, governments have stepped up their measures to protect the environment. Policies have been implemented, laws have been enforced, and the public taught to help in little ways that can help save the environment.

China is home to the largest population in the world and is the second largest consumer of energy after the United States. In the last decade alone, China’s energy consumption more than doubled due to a booming economy.

In the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), the Chinese government set goals to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2010. This is as a natural step for China since much of its economic success over the past two decades has been accompanied by pollution.

As socially responsible citizens, we need to play our part to help save our environment. This does not mean corporations should close factories or reduce their production capacity. This also does not mean individuals need to compromise on their comforts just to save electricity.

Corporations must realize that going green is the next moneymaking strategy. Reducing their carbon footprint will improve their public image.

Being energy efficient will not only help them save money in the long run, but also add intrinsic value to their products and services.

Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management. For many years, it was known as the world leader in power and automation equipment.

Today, it prides itself as a provider of innovative and integrated energy management solutions to help make the most of energy. Through products and solutions, it can make energy safer, more reliable, more productive and more efficient.

Its energy efficient technology can help organizations cut their energy use by up to 30 percent. This means energy savings in the millions every year. Its customers can make permanent savings through systematic methods with Active Energy Efficiency. Not only do companies enjoy significant energy savings, but the solutions also improve their competitive edge through better energy management and energy saving technology.

These solutions are targeted at the energy and infrastructure, industry, data center and networks, buildings and residential markets.

At Schneider Electric, it has customized over 70 energy efficiency solutions and 300 enabling products that can be tailored to every customer’s specific needs. Its solutions combine the use of enabling management systems and added value services to optimize energy within business operations.

Many of our energy efficient solutions have been successfully implemented in China.

For example, at the An Jia Ling Coal Selecting Plant, Schneider Electric provided an energy efficiency solution to improve their overall power quality, resulting in annual savings of 4.5 million yuan.

Carrefour, the giant hypermarket, is also one of our partners, and we are working with them to build energy-saving hypermarkets all over China. Already, four have been opened in Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai and Haikou.

We are also proud of our achievements in equipping 47 Beijing Olympic stadiums and related facilities with our energy efficiency solutions. In face of strict requirements, we are glad that we managed to contribute to making this a “green Olympics”.

By Guy Dufraisse