Schneider Electric and SSAB Receives World’s First International Carbon Handprint Awards in NY

Global digital automation and energy management company Schneider Electric and Nordic steel company SSAB are recipients of the world’s first International Carbon Handprint Awards. 

The winners were announced on September 21 in New York during the Climate Week NYC conference by awards founders Climate Leadership Coalition and the Vancouver Economic Commission.

'Carbon handprint' is a key climate impact indicator that demonstrates how a product or service reduces consumers’ carbon footprint either by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions or by increasing carbon sinks.

The International Carbon Handprint Award, which was introduced in 2022, features two categories: Most Climate Positive Carbon Handprint Product and The High Potential Carbon Handprint Innovation. The competition is open to any company in the world that manufactures products or sells services that help customers to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Schneider Electric was awarded the Most Climate Positive Carbon Handprint Product Award for its Altivar variable speed drives (VSDs), smart, connected devices that gather data and share information to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, positively impacting profitability.

SSAB earned The High Potential Carbon Handprint Innovation for HYBRIT, a revolutionary fossil-free steelmaking technology that helps to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions.

“The electricity consumption of industrial plants typically represents half their carbon footprint, while motors consume between 60 and 95 per cent. By optimizing the use of motors with Altivar VSDs, our customers avoided 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) between 2018 and 2021. Throughout the 12-year lifetime of the installed Altivar VSDs, they will avoid 117 MtCO2e more. Our overall aim is to avoid 800 MtCO2e between 2018 and 2025,” said Gwenaelle Avice-Huet, Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, Schneider Electric.

The magnitude of the avoided emissions can be compared to London’s emissions, for example. In 2019, the last year without COVID impacts, London’s greenhouse gas emissions were 31.4 MtCO2e.

“We are honoured to receive this award highlighting the need for breakthrough technologies. The steel industry accounts for approximately 7 per cent of total CO2 emissions globally. In 2016, we joined forces with LKAB and Vattenfall to create Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology (HYBRIT), which replaces coking coal with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. Since then, we have already delivered the world’s first fossil-free steel to Volvo Group. The potential of this technology is huge and we hope to inspire other value chains, so that we together can mitigate climate change,” said Martin Pei, Chief Technology Officer at SSAB.