At times during Schneider Electric’s June Editors’ Event in Newport, RI, one could be excused for wondering whether Al Gore had taken over the proceedings to dispense some inconvenient truths to the journalists in attendance.
On screen, slides showed polar bears stranded on melting ice sheets, and colorful graphs predicted that sea levels would eventually rise to inundate Manhattan. Meanwhile, the talk turned to remedies for an insatiable global energy demand.
Flush with momentum from the green movement that has taken root in the United States and worldwide, Schneider used this year’s forum to highlight its energy management bona fides. On stage, a succession of executives touted the company’s vast size — 114,000 employees and €€€18 billion in sales — and its many decades of experience in energy management.
The company’s prominent role in energy usage in companies and countries that are crying for more means that “Schneider has a moral obligation to do something about it,” said Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Davis.