Earth Overshoot Day marks the date in the year by when humanity will have consumed more from the planet, including food, fibers, timber, and absorption capacity for carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning than the planet’s ecosystems can renew in the entire year.

Schneider Electric (Schneider), a multinational corporation that specializes in energy management and automation solutions, believes that adoption of energy-efficient and renewable technologies such as its IoT-enabled EcoStruxure platform could move the date back by 21 days through retrofitting of existing building, industry and data center infrastructure and upgrading electricity production alone.

To demonstrate how this can be done and to promote new approaches to sustainable business thinking, the company has partnered with Global Footprint Network, the international research organization that is changing how the world manages its natural resources and responds to climate change. Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint accounts enable to calculate Earth Overshoot Day.

CO2 savings

Schneider believes this situation is reversible. The company has calculated that if 100 percent of existing building, industry or data center infrastructure was equipped with active energy efficiency technologies that are readily available and the electric grid was upgraded with renewable capacities, the world could move the date back by at least 21 days.

“Operating on a planet with finite resources requires creativity and innovation,” said Xavier Houot, senior vice president of Globel Environment at Schneider Electric. “We team up with our customers and partners to unlock the potential to retrofit existing infrastructure, adopting circular business models, and we measure how much this helps save resources and CO2. We work to see our growth path through the lens of the growing need of living within the means of our one planet.”

Enabler to move the date

This challenge is central to Schneider’s strategy, which is focused on EcoStruxure, the company’s ecoDesigned, IoT-enabled, plug and play, open, and interoperable architecture and platform, aimed at all power-consuming sectors, including homes, buildings, data center infrastructure, and Industries.

EcoStruxure Building is just one example of the platform in action. The technology can deliver up to 50 percent energy efficiency while reducing energy costs by 30 percent. EcoStruxure works on three key levels:

• Connected Products: In buildings, connected sensors and meters improve the efficiency of networked lighting, heating, and air conditioning, enable to increase security and to optimize the use of space in the building;
• Edge Control: The layer gives users the capability to manage the data from IoT connected products on-site, with day-to-day optimization of energy consumption through remote access and advanced automation;
• Apps, Analytics, and Services: Visualized reporting on energy consumption through interactive dashboards, detection, and diagnosis of faults, performance analysis, and asset monitoring enable to detect additional energy efficiency opportunities and to transition from curative to predictive maintenance.