Energy Magazine - October 2022

2022

Snam S.p.A Snam is powering its way to a more sustainable future Shell Digitalisation and AI boosts productivity

from

SMART CITIES

After COP26, the UK is ramping up its renewable energy targets

A BizClik Brand

Price to pay

Energy prices are soaring around the world. While the rising cost of living is causing a crisis in many households, and businesses count the cost of turning on their lights each day, some energy firms are enjoying record profits.

This can lead to negative optics, but energy firms like many others live in a world of risk and reward. You only have to look at, say, the cost of building a new nuclear power station to see the GDP-like investments that many power giants face in a bid to turn a profit.

Of course, rising costs also bring opportunity, making previously nice-to-have but economically unviable alternatives a genuine option. So while oil and gas companies may currently be enjoying life in the sun, every day makes renewables such as solar more attractive. These are truly interesting times.

SCOTT BIRCH scott.birch@bizclikmedia.com

S.p.A

Snam is powering its way to a sustainable future

business

about doing more

BIG PICTURE

Mammoth storage facility Hellisheidi, Iceland

Climeworks, a leader in carbon dioxide removal through direct air capture, has broken ground on its appropriately titled Mammoth storage facility in Iceland. Mammoth meets long-term market demand for permanent CO2 removal from the atmosphere.

Following earlier purchases from Stripe, Klarna, Square Inc., LGT and Verdane, UBS is the latest and largest financial services company to commit to Climeworks’ carbon removal solution in a 10-year deal.

Patagonia founder GIVES PROFITS TO FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

Five years after being listed as one of the world’s richest people, Yvon Chouinard has donated all shares in Patagonia to a charity that will use profits to fight the climate crisis. Chouinard, now 83, founded the outdoor clothing company in 1973 to provide sustainable and functional outerwear for his fellow climbers.

Since then, the Patagonia brand has led the way in making sustainable and ethical manufacturing the ultimate goal of the apparel industry. In contrast to the ‘greenwashing’ campaigns of a lot of well-known fashion brands, Patagonia has consistently lived up to its 1% ‘earth tax’ promise, giving millions of dollars to

Yvon Chouinard

Founder



Netix Global’s Sustainability Finance Model for net-zero The Netherlands-based smart cities solutions provider Netix announces a first-of-its-kind sustainability finance model to support net-zero ambitions and help address the current European energy crisis.

READ MORE

Siemens Commissions 8.75MW Green Hydrogen Plant in Germany

Siemens has commissioned one of Germany’s largestgreen hydrogen generation plants. Up to 1,350 tonnes of green hydrogen can be generated annually from renewables.

READ MORE

SEG Solar to Build PV Module Manufacturing Plant in Texas

SEG Solar say construction of the facility will start at the end of 2022 and will have three state of the art production lines.

READ MORE

UBIQUITOUS ENERGY

The US company has created a new, transparent solar technology that turns windows into solar panels. Virtually indistinguishable from ordinary glass, this photovoltaic technology could offset up to 30% of buildings’ electricity usage.

 LOUIS VUITTON LV stores have promised to lower thermostats and reduce light usage this Winter. This announcement came in response to the French President Emmanual Macron’s pleas for companies to cut their power consumption by 10%.



OFGEM

Great Britain’s independent energy regulator, recently announced an 80% rise in the energy price cap. As protestors gathered outside Ofgem’s HQ, experts warned that nationalising energy firms is the only way to save them.

 UNIPER

The German government has bought a 30% stake in Germany’s biggest importer of natural gas, Uniper. Nationalisation seems to be the company’s only option as it struggles to survive amidst reduced supply and soaring prices.

W I N N E R S L O S E R S

TIMELINE

New homes and buildings such as supermarkets and workplaces, as well as those undergoing major renovation, will be required to install electric vehicle charge points from next year, under new legislation announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Up to 145,000 extra charge points will be installed across England each year.

The UK is aiming to use clean energy to power over 7 million homes by 2025, in a key element of its net zeroby-2050 strategy. Under the latest round of its Contracts for Difference scheme, new projects will provide around 6GW of capacity - 2.4GW more than the last round.

The phase out date for the sale of new UK petrol and diesel cars and vans has been brought forward to 2030, while new hybrids have been extended to 2035. To facilitate the transition, £1.3 billion is being invested in EV chargepoints for homes, streets and motorways across England. The UK Government also wants floating offshore wind to deliver 1GW of energy by 2030.

All new heating systems installed in UK homes to be low carbon. This year is the deadline for decarbonising the UK’s electricity system and from 2035, all new cars and vans must be fully zero emission at the tailpipe.

SMART CITIES

All new heavy goods vehicles in the UK will be zero-emission by 2040, the UK Government has confirmed. The UK will also become the first country to commit to phasing out new, non-zero emission heavy goods vehicles weighing 26 tonnes and under by 2035, with all new HGVs sold in the UK to be zero emission by 2040.

After COP26, the UK is ramping up its renewable energy targets

The UK’s net zero emissions target

Amin

H. Nasser

As President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, the ‘HOMEGROWN TECHNOCRAT’ Amin H. Nasser is setting world-breaking oil production records and reaching landmark financial targets for the world’s most profitable integrated energy and chemicals enterprise

WRITTEN BY: CHARLIE STEER-STEPHENSON

Saudi Aramco was established in 1933, but it wasn’t until 1938 that the company first struck oil with the discovery of the appropriately named “Prosperity Well” in the Saudi desert.

Since then, Aramco has continually hit recordbreaking oil production milestones, supplying crude oil to global markets and remaining an economic force in the Middle East. Now, under the leadership of President and CEO Amin H. Nasser, the company has broken its own financial record, with a US$48.4bn profit for the second quarter of 2022 and US$279.4bn profit over the last 12 months – that’s a 90% year-on-year (YoY) increase in net income.

According to Bloomberg , Aramco celebrates the largest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company. Its yearly profit is equal to the combined profits of Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft.

“Our record second-quarter results reflect increasing demand for our products — particularly as a low-cost producer with one of the lowest upstream carbon intensities in the industry,” said Nasser in Saudi Aramco’s latest economic report .

“While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential — both to help ensure markets remain well supplied and to facilitate an orderly energy transition. In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts.”

An advocate for fossil fuels as part of the cleaner energy transition As CEO of the world’s most valuable oil company, Nasser is outspoken on the need to continue using fossil fuels amidst the transition to cleaner energy. At the World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas, he explained that a lack of spending on oil production would lead to “energy insecurity, rampant inflation and social unrest.”

At the same time, Nasser leads the company’s efforts to invest in cleaner technologies, including next-generation fuel-engine interfaces, crude oil-to-chemicals processes, and renewable energy applications. Aramco is also striving to minimise greenhouse gas emissions through the industry-wide Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI)

“While there is a very real and present need to safeguard the security of energy supplies, climate goals remain critical, which is why Aramco is working to increase production from multiple energy sources — including oil and gas, as well as renewables, and blue hydrogen,” said Nasser.

“We expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts”

Dedicated to the development of education, research, and technology in Saudi’s energy sector

Since joining Aramco in 1982, Nasser has held various technical, operational, and strategic positions - gradually climbing the career ladder from petroleum engineer to Senior Vice President of Upstream to CEO.

A ‘homegrown technocrat’, Nasser is an advocate of education and training for his 79,000 employees. He supports Aramco’s Young Leader’s Advisory Board, and is renowned for promoting a decentralised work culture by spending time with both leaders and workers. During the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Nasser travels to different Aramco plants each evening to break the fast with his employees.

Nasser also believes in crafting an efficient supply chain ecosystem that includes smallto-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to support the company’s growing procurement needs.

In 2020 Nasser achieved The Chemists’ Club Cavaler Award by Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) and was named Energy Intelligence’s Energy Executive of the Year. According to Jim Krane, Energy Research Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, Nasser’s job is extraordinary for a CEO because it’s as much about keeping the Saudi government financially afloat as it is about producing oil.

In the Middle East, Nasser is celebrated as an innovator making the most of chemical energy in the shift to decarbonising Aramco’s operations.

“Climate goals remain critical, which is why Aramco is working to increase production from multiple energy sources — including oil and gas, as well as renewables, and blue hydrogen”

Jordan

Appleson

» In 2016, as a life sciences technology company. We had built some technology to monitor temperature and humidity for compliance in life sciences. Originally, the vision was to make it really easy to

connect to these life sciences assets to get data on compliance. But fast forward a couple of years on, and we were being asked to do all sorts of things, like monitor radiation in uranium mines or pollution. In 2018, a lot became about energy.

We have since built our technology to tackle all types of assets to get data out of them. As a business, we're trying to help our customers improve the way they perform; that means increasing the efficiency of their systems, reducing waste and maximising output. That's really what we're trying to achieve today

Hark is an Energy Analytics and Industrial IoT company on a mission to improve efficiency, maximise yield and reduce waste

CEO, Hark

“As a business, we're trying to help our customers improve the way they perform; that means increasing the efficiency of their systems, reducing waste and maximising output”

Q. TELL ME ABOUT HARK, WHEN IT WAS ESTABLISHED AND WHAT ITS VISION WAS AT THAT TIME?

at Hark – and that's across all the sectors, from chemical processing to facilities management to supermarkets.

Q. WHAT WERE THE KEY DRIVERS IN THIS EVOLUTION?

» LWhen we were exploring and getting into the market with our technology, what became apparent was how difficult it was to connect all of these disparate legacy assets – building management systems, energy metres, even energy storage and wind farms. Customers and companies really want to get data out of those assets to drive efficiency and energy gains, and get complete visibility –that was very, very difficult for them..

The driving force behind what we do now is making it as easy as possible to connect to those assets as a first priority; that's where we've driven a lot of our

R&D, a lot of our product. Now, we’ve got energy analytics tools, we’ve got downtime reduction tools, alarm tools for assets, and that's where this was born out of – connecting to assets that really are important in driving sustainability. After all, how can you manage what you can't measure?

» Actually there’s two mantras: our Culture and our Values. So when we talk about improving efficiency, we talk about improving the efficiency of a production line, improving the efficiency of a building, improving the efficiency of a business process that is related to those assets. For instance, it could be reducing maintenance, people unnecessarily going out to an alarm or an asset, when they can remotely configure it.

Q. YOU'VE GOT A MANTRA THAT'S SET ON THREE PILLARS. CAN YOU TALK US THROUGH THOSE?

We’ve also got the whole reducing waste aspect, and that's fundamentally about reducing energy waste and waste costs like we do with Sainsbury’s; we save them a substantial amount in electricity costs, fully automatically, using our software.

And then it's all about increasing yield, which is a by-product of reducing waste and increasing efficiency. And, when we talk about increasing yield, it could be the output of a production line, it could be the output of an energy asset, the output of how a building performs or how an asset performs for that building. So that's really what we're striving to do with our technology and our customers today.

“When we talk about increasing yield, it could be the output of a production line; it could be the output of an energy asset; the output of how a building performs or an asset for that building”

» Sure. There are three core products, or tools. We have Hark Connect, which is our software that makes it really easy to connect to industrial assets, building management systems and energy metres to get that data out. Those tools are being used by companies and our customers who just say to us, “we need to get the real-time data out” – from buildings or individual assets.

Our second tool is Hark Analytics. For companies that don't want to build their own analytical tools or automation tools, it provides all the kind of the graphs and the dashboards and the alarms and the alerting to say, “hey, you've got an alarm

Q. SO, YOU HAVE TOOLS THAT CONNECT SYSTEMS AND THEY PROVIDE ALL THE INFORMATION BUSINESSES NEED TO MANAGE THEIR ASSETS. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT HOW THEY WORK IN APPLICATION?

The Hark Platform is helping alert Energy Managers and Asset Operators to abnormalities across their estate, informing actions such as preventative maintenance, regulatory compliance, asset control and energy management.

or a problem with this asset”, or “you are using more energy than you should be” on a given basis. It can be used to send text messages or emails, or call other systems or send data into cloud systems that can be then used to do other analytics.

The final tool and product we've got is something called Hark Energy Tools. Hark Energy tools is specifically designed to deal with half-hourly energy and water utility data. It takes data from energy, gas metres and water metres, and provides analytical tools on how much is being used at different times of the day. This tool is good for cost analysis and forecasting, and is very useful for

companies that already have a lot of that data. They want to know things like, “am I using too much energy overnight? Where's my biggest opportunity for cost saving? If I've got a hundred buildings, are they all operating at relative efficiency and if not, why?”. This is the tool that can be used to take that analysis and automate it. So those are the three areas we are particularly focusing on today.

A BizClik Brand

WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

PRODUCED BY: TOM LIVERMORE

Snam is one of Europe’s leading energy infrastructure providers and is undergoing a profound transformation that will see it able to deliver sustainable sources of energy.

The move to net zero carbon emissions is a focus for all businesses right now, but for giant energy companies such as Snam, sustainability is about far more than greening-up internal working practices and encouraging staff to reduce their carbon footprint.

Snam is a world-leading energy infrastructure operator, and one of Italy's largest companies. Sustainability for Snam is about transitioning its entire operation from fossil-based gas to sustainable sources of energy.

This is why Snam is in the midst of a business transformation programme that is seeing it deploy data-driven Industry 4.0 technologies across its supply chain. Along the way, it has not only transformed its processes but also its mindset, from one of ‘cost’ to one of ‘value’, especially when it comes to efficiency and sustainability.

Snam is powering its way to a sustainable future

Leading the Company’s digital transformation is Claudio Farina, Executive VP of Digital Transformation & Technology (DT&T).

Farina was once with Boston Consulting Group, where energy was one of the sectors on which he focused, as well as spending 9 years with Vodafone. He says innovation and digitalisation has been a “leitmotif” throughout his career.

Snam’s digital transformation is being built on artificial intelligence (AI) and an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) infrastructure, comprising networked sensors, instruments, and devices – all of which feed data into

hybrid cloud-based solutions, to give Snam end-to-end visibility of its supply chain.

“Our role in DT&T is as an enabler for transformation and digitalisation,” explains Farina. “It’s our job to make core processes more effective, efficient, flexible and fluid.”

CLAUDIO FARINA EXECUTIVE VP OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION & TECHNOLOGY, SNAM S.P.A

The speed of growth of Industry 4.0 tech is exponential”

In terms of technology-driven changes at Snam, he says the key has been de-bottlenecking the value chain of data, from harvesting it in the field, to gaining insights from it and then storing it.

“The speed of growth of Industry 4.0 technologies like AI and digital twins is exponential,” he says. “Our ability to process and store data is incomparable when compared with early 2000.”

Data is increasingly supporting the way Snam manages its assets,” Farina continues. “It is also making our assets intelligent, so that they are increasingly capable of self-diagnostics and self-regulation.”

Thanks to digitlisation, assets in the Snam energy supply chain can even suggest courses of action, based on available data.

“Although people have the final decision,” Farina says, “data is helping us to preserve operational integrity and to optimise emissions and consumption”.

It is also supporting Snam in its transition away from fossil-based gas to sustainable energy sources, such as biomethane and hydrogen.

Farina adds: “It’s an ambitious multiyear programme, and it needs deep and broad footings to succeed. The ongoing transformation processes comprise 55 staffed projects and planned investment of €500mn.”

He says that although data-harvesting technology is what defines the transformation, the most important factor will always be Snam’s people.

“Paradoxically, thanks to digitalisation and automation, our people are even more at the centre of everything we do. I think that ultimately this is what will truly make the difference.”

He continues: “Supported by technologies and data, our supply chain colleagues will be able to strengthen the entire value chain, because they’ll be better placed to manage tenders, offers and negotiations with our partners.”

Specific ways in which technology is helping Snam streamline and automate its ways of working include a solution built on robotic process automation (RPA) - also known as ‘software robotics’. This helps it generate shorter vendor lists on tenders, but without the endless hours of clerical spadework.

The RPA solution applies different criteria, such as geo-referencing, analysis of relevant certifications and also of turnover. This cuts down workload in this area from days to minutes.

REPLY HELPS SNAM TRANSFORM THE ENERGY AND UTILITY SECTOR

ELENA PREVITERA, SENIOR PARTNER AT REPLY, DETAILS THE COMPANY’S SNAM PARTNERSHIP AND HOW IT IS HELPING TO TRANSFORM THE ENERGY AND UTILITY SECTOR

Globally, the energy sector is undergoing a profound transformation. The way that energy is being produced, distributed and sold is transitioning to complete decarbonisation to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Elena Previtera , Senior Partner at Reply, explains that in order to meet these targets, “an unprecedented acceleration in public and private investments, aimed at supporting research and industrial-scale implementation of new technologies for the generation, distribution and efficient use of energy” is needed.

REPLY’S ROLE IN THE INDUSTRY TRANSFORMATION

Reply combines its in-depth knowledge of the energy and utility market with its unique processes and distinctive ability to design, implement and manage application and technology solutions, in order to support the industry in its transformation.

REPLY AND SNAM’S COLLABORATION

Over the years, Reply has initiated and consolidated important collaborations with Snam, both in support of traditional business lines and in order to meet the needs of new businesses supporting the energy transition.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: “The platform dedicated to monitoring energy consumption and performance developed with Renovit, the group’s company operating in the energy transition business, is definitely one of the

assets that best represent Snam’s attention to sustainability” says Previtera.

TRADITIONAL BUSINESS: “From the introduction of drones and artificial intelligence to the design of cloud and edge computing solutions and the development of process automation solutions, Reply is assisting Snam’s traditional business lines and operational departments,” adds Previtera.

CYBERSECURITY: “Reply supports Snam at all stages, from technological initiatives to organisational projects. Specifically, the design and implementation of a CyberSOC for continuous incident prevention, detection and response, as well as other solutions to prevent threats,” explains Previtera.

Reflecting on Reply’s partnership with Snam, Previtera says: “It is fundamental for a company like Snam to be able to count on partners to guide the adoption of new digital solutions on a large scale and from an international perspective.

“Reply’s value is the result of its strong process and technological specialisation and its capacity to create solutions oriented to meet the needs not only of the specific business but also to consider sustainability aspects.”

LORIS SPALTINI

TITLE: EVP CORPORATE SERVICES LOCATION: ITALY

Loris Spaltini has been Executive Vice President Corporate Services of Snam since November 2019. Prior to this, in May 2018, he joined Snam as Senior Vice President

With a degree in electrical engineering at Politecnico di Torino and a master’s degree in business management, Loris began his career in consulting, and then continued with positions in the automotive sector: CEO of Fiat Group Purchasing (JV between General Motors and Fiat), Chief of Purchasing worldwide for IVECO and CNH, General Manager of MV Augusta. Loris worked also in the steel sector as Purchasing and Supply Chain Director

Main experiences are related to business management, purchasing and industrial management, in international and highly complex contexts, in Italy, in Europe and abroad in North America, Brazil, China, India, Russia and North Africa.

“Despite Covid we succeeded in improving – organisationally and in terms of technological

EXECUTIVE BIO SNAM S.P.A

CLAUDIO FARINA

TITLE: EVP DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION & TECHNOLOGY

LOCATION: ITALY

Claudio Farina has been with Snam since 2017, and is Executive Vice President Digital Transformation & Technology leading technological roadmap, ICT and digital transformation. Previously, he was Head of CEO Office.

Before Snam, he spent 9 years at Vodafone, as Head of Financial Planning & Analysis and Business Intelligence and Head of Strategy, leading spectrum auctions, reduction of digital divide, fibre strategy.

From 2000 to 2008, he was Principal in BCG, leading 25 projects.

In 1999 he was Researcher on technological innovation, at the German Institute of Economic Research.

GUIDO AMENDOLA

TITLE: SVP CORPORATE & GROUP SUPPLY CHAIN

LOCATION: ITALY

Guido Amendola has been with Snam since December 2018 and is Senior Vice President Corporate & Group Supply Chain, leading Procurement and Material Management.

Previously, he held the role of Head Corporate & Group Procurement, managing Indirect and Operational Services spending of Snam Group.

Before Snam, he spent 6 years in BNP Paribas, as Group CPO Italy, responsible for leading a Procurement Shared Services Hub. Prior to this, he was Supply Chain Director at PosteMobile and Head of Project Procurement at Siemens IT Solutions & Services.

in Procurement at Supply Chain Management Institute in Munich adding this expertise to a post-graduate MBA and a degree in Economics.

CLAUDIO FARINA EXECUTIVE VP OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION & TECHNOLOGY, SNAM S.P.A

Snam has also rolled out an AI admin solution that automates the checking of vendor documents, including Supplier contracts. This saves huge amounts of time for staff in Snam’s Sourcing, Legal and Risk Management Teams.

Another important figure in Snam’s transformation is Guido Amendola, Senior VP Corporate & Group Supply Chain. Amendola has broad-based procurement experience, having been Group CPO

at BNP Paribas bank in Italy and Supply Chain Director at telecoms company, PosteMobile.

On sustainability, Amendola says that, in procurement in general, there needs to be a change from the old ways of working to “a new, more entrepreneurial approach where innovation becomes the norm”.

This is a journey that starts on a consistent people’s consciousness about the new role of supply chain departments. To do this, he says, Snam launched the Supply Chain Academy, a programme that provides buyers, senior managers and directors with business-led strategic coaching around most important trends and topics in supply chain.

And when it comes to sustainability, Amendola is passionate. He says that

“

The ongoing transformation process comprises 55 staffed projects and planned investment of €500m”

GUIDO AMENDOLA SENIOR VP OF CORPORATE & GROUP SUPPLY CHAIN, SNAM S.P.A

“helping drive the company’s net zero carbon programme has been exciting” – as has supporting Snam’s ongoing transition from fossil-based gas to sustainable energy sources.

He believes that an important part of Snam’s sustainability drive is that stakeholders “continue to be engaged and involved every step of the way”.

This is why Snam has launched a Change Management Initiative in its supply chain with an incubator team called ProcuLab which, says Amendola, “is an ideas booster composed of people from across our supply chain, who

Snam’s energy transformation model

The Snam Group is one of the world's leading energy infrastructure operators and is one of Italy's largest companies. It guarantees the security of the Country’s gas supply and is one of Europe’s key enablers in the energy transition movement.

Snam operates in Austria, France, Greece, Italy and the UK, and has a presence also in Asia, the Middle East and the US.

The Group has the largest natural gas transportation network in Europe, with over 41,000 km, as well as 3.5% of the world’s gas storage capacity.

In recent years, Snam has begun to play a major role as an enabler of the energy transition, in line with EU net zero targets.

Its 8.1bn euro strategic plan is expected to be complete by 2025, and it says it is on course to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

The backbone of the energy transformation is to make its supply infrastructure ‘hydrogen ready’. It is also planning to support energy transition businesses such as biomethane from organic urban waste and agriculture and energy efficiency for buildings.

The Group's business model is based on sustainable growth, transparency and the promotion of talent and diversity.

“It’s important that Stakeholders continue to be engaged and involved in every step of the way”

100% HYDROGEN READY VALVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Valvitalia is the first Italian Group in the production of valves for the Oil & Gas sector and has developed solutions for sustainable energy transition.

DISCOVER MORE

Snam on course for net zero by 2040

Snam has set itself the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, with an intermediate target of reducing direct and indirect CO2 equivalent emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) of 50% by 2030.

The Group is committed to making its network ready to transport fully decarbonised gas (biomethane and hydrogen) by 2050.

In its 2021-2025 strategic plan, Snam foresees investments of 8.1bn euros for developing assets that meet hydrogen-ready standards, as well as net zero investments and speeding up of energy transition initiatives.

have a balanced mix of gender, skills and experience”.

He adds: “In ProcuLab there is no hierarchy, no rules. All that matters is valuable ideas. As well as generating ideas that continue to help us, I think it has also helped with morale, because it brought our people closer together when remote working during the pandemic”.

Amendola also feels strongly that having the right mindset will continue to be the bedrock upon which the process of change is built.

“Our culture is to challenge ourselves daily, so we can improve profitability and operating efficiency,” he says.

A third Snam executive who has been important to its ongoing reinvention is Loris Spaltini, Executive VP of Corporate Services, who reports to Snam’s CEO. Spaltini joined the

company in 2018 and has prior experience in the steel and automotive sectors.

Although the transition process has gone well, Spaltini admits it has been hugely challenging at times – not least during the height of the pandemic, when Spaltini and his team “had to guarantee supply continuity by supporting critical suppliers, as well as reinforcing procedures and supplierverification compliance.”

They also had to ensure the security of Snam assets, including not only gas pipelines and plants but also the software applications that allow it to control the Italian gas network. “Our cyber team did an amazing job,” Spaltini says.

As well as keeping operational matters on course at the height of Covid, Spaltini’s team were also tasked with ensuring its own people were taken care of.

He said: “This meant not only developing internal health protocols to safeguard our workers’ safety but also ensuring they were getting the psychological support they needed.”

As well as providing personal support and medical care for its own people, Snam also took on responsibility for helping the wider Italian public, by donating much-needed medical equipment and supplies to healthcare providers across Italy.

Now, as the pandemic is beginning to ease its grip, Snam’s supply chain is in a good place, says Spaltini.

“Despite Covid, we’ve succeeded in continually improving, in terms of organisational and technological development, as well as in terms of the growth of our people and our attention to sustainability issues. In Europe, we are a fundamental player in the energy transition movement.”

“Sustainability is no longer seen as an added benefit,” Spaltini adds. “It is a core operational and corporate goal. We have moved away from a ‘cost’ mindset, to a ‘value’ mindset – not just on sustainability, but in everything we do.”

WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

The near-global pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 has left governments and many businesses scrambling to make progress, as they seek to stay on track with sustainability roadmaps. And, with supply chains accounting for as much as 80% of organisations’ total carbon footprint in the shape of Scope 3 emissions, the challenge faced by multinational businesses is, quite frankly, enormous.

Digital transformation programmes are helping many organisations measure their carbon footprint, which is ground-zero on being able to reduce emissions across their value chains. But if commerce and industry worldwide is to meet net-zero targets, it will require a fundamental shift in how energy is both produced and consumed.

Schneider Electric’s Energy Management Chief, Steve Smith, says sustainability is most promising at the point renewable energy meets digital

Steve Smith Electric’s Energy Management Chief, Schneider Electric

Sheldon Mydat CEO, Suppeco

“Electricity 4.0 is the point at which renewable electricity meets digital”

STEVE SMITH

HEAD OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATIONS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

One business that is helping on this front is Schneider Electric, the French multinational company that specialises in digital automation and energy management, aided by Steve Smith, who is Schneider’s Head of Energy Management, Thought Leadership and Communications.

Addressing BizClik Media Group’s Sustainability Live London event in February, Smith reminded his audience that the world was “only just beginning to learn to create energy by means other than burning stuff”.

Smith insists the biggest single factor in helping us hit global net-zero targets will be “electricity 4.0”, which he describes as being “the point at which renewable electricity meets digital”.

‘Smart’ energy is visible, connected and controllable

He told Sustainability Live: “This gives us new ways of thinking about energy, new ways of distributing it, and new ways of saving it. Energy becomes visible, connected, smarter, and more controllable. It helps companies and individuals operate more efficiently and more successfully.”

Although conceding that green hydrogen will also be important in the drive to net zero, he reminded the audience that it requires “entirely renewable electricity to produce it, as well as quite a lot of water”, and that, because of this, green hydrogen alone “will never be as efficient as direct electrification”.

He added: “Climate change is all about energy. The way we use energy today is incredibly inefficient – around 60% of

Electricity 4.0: Powering the New Electric World | Schneider Electric

today's energy is either lost or wasted, so we need to make it smarter. We need to use it smarter as well as making it cleaner.”

Schneider is a global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation. It operates in 100 countries and employs 140,000 people.

By 2050, the company plans to have helped its customers save around 800 million tonnes of CO2 and itself expects to be carbon neutral across all its operations in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The company has also persuaded its top 1,000 suppliers to commit to the same target.

“It's about us taking our customers, our partners and suppliers on the journey with us,” says Smith, adding that, by 2050, Schneider expects “to be operating out of 150 net-zero sites globally, have an entirely electric fleet of vehicles and be operating a full net-zero supply chain”.

Tech firm collaborates on net-zero food initiative

SINAI Technologies is a platform designed to help organisations – including the world’s largest agricultural companies implement cost-effective carbon-reduction strategies.

Using detailed environmental & financial data, SINAI’s customers are able to analyse, forecast and model decarbonisation risks and opportunities throughout the supply chain.

The company’s Value Chain Module combines relevant supply chain data into one platform to calculate Scope 3 emissions. The software also shows how to allocate emissions at product- and facility-level, without using outdated product databases.

SINAI is also working with key food retail, energy and commodities companies to collect, calculate, forecast and share primary-emissions’ data across the global supply chain to help drive industry mitigation and decarbonisation.

Companies including BRF, Raízen, Rumo, AMAGGI will collect emissions data using SINAI’s decarbonisation platform so that consumers can see which carbon-neutral food products are available at local supermarkets.

SINAI Technologies’ CEO & Founder Maria Fujihara said: “This first partnership will focus on the agriculture industry, but the goal is to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon solutions across all supply chains. “It is pivotal that we continue to collaborate across global supply chains. Initiatives like this set the tone for others to follow.”

SUSTAINABILITY

Schneider taking tier-one suppliers along with it on its sustainability journey is something of a template for other organisations to follow as they strive to meet their net-zero goals.

Collaborate with suppliers on sustainability, urges Suppeco Sheldon Mydat, CEO of Suppeco – a cloud-based dynamic supplier-data platform – believes tier-one suppliers hold the key to driving sustainable practices deeper into the supply chain.

Speaking at another BMG event – April’s Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE – Mydat said that, because supply chains are complex, “it requires a lot of work to bring smaller companies along on the sustainability journey”. He added that almost half of such companies don't track their produce at all once it leaves their premises.

He continued: “When it comes to sustainability programmes, I think a lot of smaller suppliers wonder what is in it for them. Inflation is high right now, and there’s a cost associated with doing things sustainably. Many smaller companies don't have the money to invest in new processes, and this is often why they don't track produce when it leaves their premises.

“Encouraging suppliers to embrace sustainability is about creating a willingness to support the cause. It's down to tierone suppliers, in collaboration with their customers, to drive those behaviours and to bring smaller companies on the journey. Ultimately, it’s all about collaboration – about things such as driving shared R&D.”

Schneider’s Smith feels that, ultimately, many of the net-zero challenges faced in supply chains – including Scope 3 emissions – will be met through the widespread adoption of ‘Electricity 4.0’.

Net zero solutions ‘already exist in shape of Industry 4.0 tech’

“All the solutions we need already exist in the shape of Industry 4.0 technology,” he said.

“Electric and digital is the best vector for decarbonisation because it allows us to bring more renewables into an increasing share of the mix. It allows us to see and understand how energy is being used so that we can reduce that massive 60% wastage that we see today.”

Smith says buildings are the biggest consumers of energy and that the evergrowing number of power-hungry data

centres are a particular problem. “Although the use of data is part of the solution to so many problems in our daily lives, it is also a problem with regard to sustainability because too few data centres are energy efficient,” he said.

This is something Schneider is tackling by reimagining the power grids of the future. “At Schneider, we don't just talk about what we can do – we want to be able to demonstrate it,” Smith said

Schneider’s flagship data centre project is the Eco Data Centre in Sweden, which is the world's first ‘climate-positive’ data centre.

Smith said: “Their site is so energy efficient that the heat they produce as a data centre powers its cooling operations in the summer. During the winter, they send that energy to a local network to help homes in the district area. It’s reusable, recyclable energy.”

Schneider is involved in more than a million commercial buildings around the world, half of all of the world's data centres, as well as 40% of the world's utilities and hospitals.

“We're touching mission-critical lives every day with what we do and how we’re doing it,” Smith said.

PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

energydigital.com 51 WRITTEN BY: ILKHAN OZSEVIM

Leading a transformation to digitise and automate Shell’s S2C (Sourceto-Contract) and E2E (End-to-End) processes, Sander Voorn, the S2C Digital and Process Transformation Design Manager at Shell, discusses how the use of certain digital systems and tools have had a huge and measurable impact on their output.

“My current role is really focused on looking at how we can digitalise,” he says, “and with that, largely automate these processes.”

Voorn has been in procurement for the last 20 years, starting in an internal supply chain management consulting practice and within that role, helping to manage one of the company’s strategic supplier relationships — their technology partner for telecoms. From there, he was integral in centralising their procurement activities, moving into a role to digitalise their contingent workforce spend and activities.

How digital tools fuel Shell’s procurement process

Now at Shell, and describing the interplay of procurement structures and systems that brought this transformation about, Voorn says: “Each business has a procurement function, but they fall under one Executive Vice President, and my organisation supports all of these different businesses

Through its digitalisation, automation and AI systems in procurement Shell is receiving global recognition for its productivity and growing ethical standards

centrally. We have a few key tools to carry out this function. We have our Category Management and Contracting Process framework, which lays out the requirements that everybody needs to meet, which we incorporated into the system, SAP Ariba, which has embedded DocuSign. We also have Salesforce to complement this process, and a few other systems which together operate to manage the entire end-to-end (E2E) process.”

With the rise of digital systems in business, and their inevitable impact on global procurement processes, the effects are considerable.

Voorn says: “The biggest changes have been around centralisation, and a growing awareness of the importance and value of data, and the need to structure and standardise that data in order to extract value from it. The risk-management aspect of procurement has fluctuated a little, but in the last couple of years I’ve seen a growing awareness of its importance not only from a cost perspective, but also from a differentiator perspective.

“The ability to identify viable organisations — that is, who from a risk and ESG perspective we want and do not want to be doing business with — is becoming increasingly important, and I think this trend will continue to grow.”

Growing digitalisation has unmistakable global consequences, according to Voorn: “We are now able to connect the process End-To-End (E2E) that would not have been possible in the past.”

“The key to E2E system and process optimisation and integration is to create Natural Working Teams (NWT) composed of all relevant disciplines. The core of these NWTs consists of the Process Architects from my team, our partners from IT and the

Data Analytics team. These experts make the digitalisation happen!”

One of the main systems in Shell’s entire S2C process is SAP Ariba, where they now manage all of their spend. Describing the process, he says: “From my perspective, it begins with category management. We have categories like contingent workforce, rotating equipment or consulting, for example. These categories are managed by the Category Managers (CMs) who help collect market intelligence and are responsible for providing global steer to a group of buyers.

“The CMs set up these category strategies that detail how we want to go to market. They typically create global framework agreements, which are then made available through SAP Ariba. The next step begins when our buyers are looking to identify demand for a specific contract. They come up with a sourcing strategy, tie this into the global category strategies and leverage the information from them.”

SANDER VOORN S2C DIGITAL &PROCESS TRANSFORMATION DESIGN MANAGER, SHELL

“MY CURRENT ROLE IS REALLY FOCUSED ON LOOKING AT HOW WE CAN DIGITALISE AND, WITH THAT, LARGELY AUTOMATE OUR SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT (S2C) PROCESS”

BIO

SANDER VOORN

TITLE: S2C DIGITAL & PROCESS TRANSFORMATION DESIGN MANAGER

INDUSTRY: ENERGY SUPPLIER

LOCATION: NETHERLANDS

Sander Voorn is the Source to Contract Digital & Process Transformation design manager at Shell where he has led the S2C digital transformation over the past 4 years. During this time the S2C cycle-time was reduced by over 25%. Prior to this, he developed and implemented Shell’s Supplier Performance Management best practices for its Arctic operations. Ensuring safe and efficient performance throughout its supply chain.

Sander’s first global digital transformation was in 2005 when he developed a global programme for the sourcing and management of Shell’s 10,000+ Contingent workforce. The transparency and control this enabled reduced Contingent Workforce cost by USD 60 Mln+ annually.

Build Supply Chain Resilience By Disrupting It

Winning supply chains achieve breakthrough business outcomes by leveraging analytics automation on internal and external data to develop actionable insight into the needs of customers across product, channels and other factors that influence demand.

Some of the most successful supply chains use Alteryx to improve forecasts, assortment and inventory decisions, and the uptime of in- service equipment:

y Demand Forecasting: Improve on-shelf-availability and avoid out of stock conditions

y Assortment and Inventory Optimization: Operate a competitive supply chain with a clear line of sight

y Predictive Maintenance: Identify and address potential downtime before it arises

We can already see how much of Shell’s procurement process is carried out within SAP Ariba.

“We also review and approve them within SAP Ariba,” he says, “which provides the added benefit of being able to reuse and leverage existing or prior strategies, and we then use SAP Ariba to go to market, eSourcing either auctions or tenders. “We typically provide our suppliers during the tender with our fit-for-purpose contract proposal, in order for them to base their quote on. This draft, too, is created in SAP Ariba, which is done by leveraging

the metadata or the header data of the contract, which identify things like country, commodity, dates, contract value and so on to automatically assemble a fit for purpose contract for that unique situation.”

This is where SAP Ariba’s Artificial Intelligence starts to play a greater role.

How Artificial Intelligence and Automation lead to increased productivity “Contract Authoring was a time consuming and non-compliance risk area until we were able to use SAP Ariba Contract Authoring technology. There are about 50 key data points that the system uses to automatically assemble from around 4000 different elements of clauses, in order to determine the right contract for a specific situation. We have about 6 million possible combinations,

and that's the draft that we give to our suppliers to base their bids on. Once we get the quotes back, we finalise the contract agreement, then use DocuSign to get a quick signature on those contracts.”

Once contracts have been signed, they have an automated bot – referred to as an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) – that then releases the outline agreement of the contract on the SAP ERP system, from which the volume of spending for individual contacts is monitored.

The sheer volume and complexity of data that is sifted through and analysed highlights the extraordinary productivity and efficiency that AI is able to achieve compared to its relative human elements. Shell also employs a selection of other (AI) systems to bolster and complete their operations.

One of these is Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence), which is used in conjunction with SAP Ariba to allow procurement staff and stakeholders to easily follow contract journeys. A new Suite Dashboard for Shell’s Contract Management Teams (CMTs) is to be implemented into Salesforce, too, where they can see and collaborate on the contract relevant to each party.

Digital contracts, the limitations of AI and the need for human intervention Voorn’s position is that, even as part of the Shell procurement process – widely recognised as one of the most effective in the world – it is not yet perfect. And this is, he believes, due to the fact much of it still requires a certain amount of human intervention: “Presently, from a workflow

perspective, contracts are integrated and to a degree, automated. From an Artificial Intelligence (AI) perspective, however, most of the technology that I see is quite limited, and still needs a lot of human intervention.

“AI, no doubt, is able to perform numerous activities, but in reality for many applications it only has around a 60-70% accuracy rate, which means that you still need to have a person double-checking its work, which kind of defeats the purpose.”

He adds: “Truth be told, when people talk about Machine Learning, it's really about training the algorithm. We train the algorithm what is and what is not permitted, by embedding that training (or that learning) into our regular workflows.”

How AI can help to drive creativity and ethical standards

The AI aspect of Shell’s procurement systems is not only able to improve costeffectiveness and operational efficiency, but is also able to free up staff from certain laborious and time-consuming tasks, enabling them to work more creatively, as well as having an impact on ethical procurement.

“If you look at our strategy at Shell

‘Powering Progress’,” says Voorn. “It consists of a number of elements, a key one being ‘Powering Lives’. This means that Shell is concerned with supporting inclusive societies, but it also means making sure that we only ever do business with ethical suppliers, and also that there is supplierdiversity, where we do a lot of supplier development which can take time.

“So, thanks to the AI and automation process, we can free up staff to spend more time finding potentially viable suppliers and to look at how Shell can help these suppliers reduce their own carbon footprint.”

SANDER VOORN

DIGITAL &PROCESS

DESIGN MANAGER,

“THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY VIABLE ORGANISATIONS – THAT IS, WHO FROM A RISK AND ESG PERSPECTIVE WE WANT AND DO NOT WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH – IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT, AND I THINK THIS TREND WILL CONTINUE TO GROW”

When considering ethical procurement at Shell, the company takes time to develop actions and solutions to diversify their suppliers, as well as how to ensure that workers’ welfare rights and ethical standards are not only complied with, but substantially increased.

Artificial Intelligence also plays a significant role in the quality of Shell’s health and safety standards, with Voorn saying: “As part of our process, we ask suppliers about their safety standards and worker-welfare policies. Some suppliers respond, some don't, or don’t do so quickly enough. In order to tackle this problem, we are building bots to ask these questions and to follow them up.

“Once suppliers come back with their Health and Safety and Welfare Policy documents, they need, of course, to be fully read and digested. We typically know what kind of HSE (Health, Safety and Environmental) policy their documents should cover. With AI NLP (Natural Language processing) capabilities, we can see whether this document and their policy is up to a certain standard and whether it meets our thresholds, so we can then determine where there’s a safety risk for a specific category.

Shell’s Scope 3 ambitions and data driven sustainability

As an energy company, Shell is looking at its own CO2 emissions, as well as Scope 2 and 3 – which includes the CO2 footprint of their suppliers. One of Shell’s policies, implemented last year, surrounds the company’s drive to identify those suppliers who want to actively reduce their CO2 footprint, who can then register themselves in the Supplier Energy Transition Hub (a Shell-initiated programme), which Shell has made available as a public application

Shell uses Whatfix to drive adoption of its S2P digital applications

Shell transformed its contract management and procurement processes with SAP Ariba to keep up with the competitor landscape, streamline operations, cut supply chain costs, and meet evolving customer expectations. However, with a complex new application and outdated training practices, Shell struggled to meet its adoption goals, meaning longer process times, large amounts of support tickets, high training costs, and poor data quality.

With Whatfix’s digital adoption platform (DAP), Shell created a simple application experience with in-app content providing personalized guidance for employees. With in-app elements like step-by-step flows, task lists, and tooltips, Shell provided its contract and procurement departments with engaging onboarding and training, in the flow of work.

“Whatfix provides a great way to store information where it’s most needed, reducing the number of users' questions, and simplifying training. It’s a great way to communicate changes - ‘just follow the Whatfix flow!’”

With Whatfix, Shell launched its in-app digital assistant, SCAI, which embedded a knowledge base into SAP Ariba - allowing users to search for any applicationrelated questions.

“Whatfix enabled SCAI, which answers the majority of questions related to our contract and procurement processes, hence we don’t have to answer each support question from the frontline! Users ask SCAI anything they need on the contracting process or tool, allowing my team to focus on more important activities.”

With Whatfix, Shell created an intuitive SAP Ariba experience that supported its workforce through complex contract and procurement workflows. Whatfix provided an intuitive point-and-click digital adoption solution that accelerated its SAP Ariba adoption.

Empower your workforce with better in-app experiences and on-demand support with Whatfix!

By the Numbers:

The Whatfix Difference

• 20% reduction in SAP Ariba support queries & 30% reduction in time spent on application-related support tickets

• 100% change communication to all SAP Ariba end-users

• 20 minute reduction in end-to-end cycle time per contract

to which any company can join. In turn, Shell then works with these companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

“This is where you see a touch of symbiosis between our suppliers as customers, and our customers as suppliers; nobody can do this alone, what’s needed is collaboration.”

Shell is currently upgrading one of its SAP Ariba modules, called Supplier Life Cycle and Performance Management (SLP). SLP will allow Shell to develop sophisticated supplier profiles, by being able to analyse the qualifications of a supplier’s performance data from a variety of different angles and lenses. Everything from safety to delivery methods, through to their pricing, quality – and even worker-welfare – will be considered. Voorn says: “I think that SLP capability is going to be critical in our ‘Powering Lives’ development, and as partof our Net-Zero ambitions.”

Electrifying energy: Shell’s strategy to move away from Fossil Fuels

Shell has set out a strategy to accelerate the transition of our business to net-zero emissions. “Shell is working to provide more renewable and low-carbon energy options for customers through investments in wind, solar, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and more,” says Voorn. ‘For example, Shell is investing in lower-carbon options – from electric-vehicle charging points and solutions to fuels like hydrogen and biofuels.”

Additionally, Shell recently announced that it plans to increase the number of charging points from 80,000 to 500,000 worldwide by 2025.

“We've been recognised on a number of elements of our portfolio, from CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) and others. With CIPS, it was for our end-to-end (E2E) process,” says Voorn. “Our source to contact (S2C) digitalisation

strategy was recognised due to our global journey, but also due to our position moving forward. We have a fairly high percentage of sourcing that’s done through e-sourcing and e-auctions – when compared to the market standard – with around 88% of our contracts being signed through DocuSign. Just a few years ago, this was very uncommon. We encourage its use at Shell and, once you've used it, you know that it's a better way to go.”

Unexpected Data-Synergies and Value from Artificial Intelligence

For Voorn, the Salesforce programme that Shell uses has two primary functions: it acts as both a kind of dashboard where data from different sources can be directly

“I

SEEN GREAT CHANGES IN PROCUREMENT OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS. THE BIGGEST HAVE BEEN AROUND

A

OF THE IMPORTANCE AND

OF

pulled, as well as having the ability to jump via embedded hyperlinks into SAP Ariba to a specific task or activity.

Salesforce gives them the ability to collaborate, whereas most Source-toContract (S2C) tools have limited collaboration capabilities. It also allows them to collaborate on documents and pulls in documents and data from other systems, while also pushing these back into SAP Ariba via a systematic record–keeping function. The entire system is streamlined toward higher productivity.

Voorn says: “A big surprise to me was that data analytics with Alteryx identified activities that were being done that didn’t require doing. We then saw the number of contracts that staff could manage increase and the time

it took to complete a contract decrease. The game changer in process optimisation through process mining was when we decided to use Alteryx. We fed the system all our SAP Ariba workflow data which we analysed to identify frictions points, waste and other inefficiencies. This generated very surprising insights that enabled us to close knowledge gaps with some of our users, take out process steps that were not needed, re-engage with key process participants that were ignoring their tasks in the system and were still using e-mail and implement many more improvements. All combined this led to a 25% shorter cycle time and very material reduction in effort by procurement staff and key stakeholders.

“ONE OF THE MAIN SYSTEMS IN SHELL’S ENTIRE S2C PROCESS IS SAP ARIBA”

Another programme that Shell uses is Whatfix, which is a digital assistant that’s implemented inside SAP Ariba. Voorn says: “We have about 10 different features that Whatfix can do to help a user who’s, for example, using a feature that's never been used before. Or, if we change something in the system affecting a certain field, they will be notified of this change – and even explain the purpose of that field. Whatfix has enabled us to stop ‘classroom’ training and replaced this with short demos, guided tours, real time tips and similar features. So our users are much more comfortable trying new things because the system will support them. It will also detect in real-time any incongruent data, flag this to the user and guide the user to correct this, avoiding errors further down in the process. This again leads to increased productivity.

The impact of these systems at Shell is palpable. Productivity has been increased and the company is able to react to geopolitical shifts through automation and raising ethical standards while increasing productivity.

Sander Voorn predicts that these trends will continue to grow, serving as a perfect example of the essential nature of digitisation and automation in contributing to the success of any company aiming to thrive in an everexpanding digital landscape.

SANDER VOORN

S2C DIGITAL &PROCESS TRANSFORMATION DESIGN MANAGER, SHELL

SPEAKER SESSIONS FROM

Scott Birch picks his Top 10 sessions from the main stage at Sustainability LIVE London hybrid event, featuring leading CSOs, analysts and ESG innovators

WRITTEN BY: SCOTT BIRCH

Clarios

Here is an interesting question: One planet is enough, so why do we continue to use more than one? That was the driving theme of this fascinating session from Adam Muellerweiss, Chief Sustainability Officer at Clarios. He explores the problems of over consumption or, as he puts in in business terms, “we are over budget, we are over leveraged”. We are consuming at the rate of around 1.5 to 1.7 planets and “living on borrowed time”. Muellerweiss delivers a thought-provoking keynote on the promise and

WATCH: ADAM MUELLERWEISS

Pippa Bailey Ipsos

Dr Pippa Bailey is head of climate change and sustainability practice at Ipsos. Leveraging her background in consumer psychology, she collaborates with research experts across Ipsos to help clients navigate and address the insight challenges and opportunities that sustainability presents.

Discussing ‘The Road to Sustainability – Citizen Understanding at the Core’, Bailey examines the geographical variations in sustainability priorities while also digging deeper into demographics such as generational attitudes. Fascinating, and eye-opening.

Adam Muellerweiss

James Robey Capgemini

Capgemini’s Global Head of Environmental Sustainability, Jame Robey has been at the forefront of the group’s sustainability efforts since first setting carbon reduction targets in 2008. Here, he outlines the 5 Macro Trends Shaping the Future of Corporate Sustainability and – despite some technical issues with his presentation slides that he expertly navigates – this is essential viewing for all sustainability leaders.

Jenni Adams is Deputy Head and South Regional Director for HSBC UK’s Business Banking - Portfolio Managed division. Her role is primarily focused on supporting start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow their businesses and achieve their ambitions. In addition to this, Jenni lleads HSBC UK's strategy to support SMEs to transition to net zero. This session explores the challenges facing SMEs as they strive to be more sustainable and the solutions and pathways available.

Jenni Adams HSBC

WATCH: JAMES ROBEY

MAKE DATA CENTERS

At Automated Logic, data centers are part of our DNA. We designed and developed the industry-leading WebCTRL® building automation system, an intuitive, proven platform that provides real-time visibility and control of equipment, systems and facilities – from anywhere in the world. And our Strategic Accounts team delivers that innovation to real-world sites, installing the WebCTRL system with expertise and consistency around the worldbringing powerful, efficient, and sustainable data centers to life.

A

Company.

Oistein Jensen Odfjell

In his fascinating update Green Shipping – Can We Get There?, Oistein Jensen, Chief Sustainability Officer at shipping giant Odfjell, showcased the steps the Norwegian company is taking to improve sustainability in the shipping industry.

Jensen explained how data is being analysed and interpreted to improve efficiency, how hydrogen or nuclear power could help reduce emissions, and how digitalisation is impacting decarbonisation

Shipping is essential to global trade and Jensen shared his views on carbon offsetting, the EUs Emission Trading Scheme and the future of the industry.

WATCH: OISTEIN JENSEN

Musidora Jorgensen Microsoft

Musidora Jorgensen joined the Microsoft UK Senior Leadership Team in February 2022 as Chief Sustainability Officer, with accountability for driving sustainability outcomes for customers, partners and internally.

Jorgensen is passionate about Diversity & Inclusion and particularly in supporting more women in the STEM industries, and that passion came across in this packed session. She explains how it is not just tech giants like Microsoft that can make a difference, and the steps required to create and deliver on a net zero strategy from scratch.

04

Steve Smith

Schneider Electric

Discussing ‘Our Fastest Route to Net Zero’, Steve Smith made a welcome return to the Sustainability LIVE stage. Smith is Head of Global Marketing – Energy Management Thought Leadership and Communications – at Schneider Electric, the consulting company regularly voted as the world’s most sustainable business.

Smith discussed the role iof hydrogen in the future energy mix and Schneider’s view of Electricity 4.0 – plus the greatest barriers facing energy today, and in the near future.

WATCH: STEVE SMITH

Wipro

There was another packed auditorium for Sidharth Mishra’s session entitled Impact Tracking and Accelerating Operational Decarbonisation. Sidharth leads the Energy and Decarbonisation practice for Wipro, and advises clients on energy transition and sustainability solutions. Sidharth shared his extensive experience in digital transformation for energy and process industries, followed by a standing-room-only workshop session alongside James Patton of AWS.

Sidharth Mishra

Travis Wright QTS Data Centers

Data centres may not be on everyone’s radar when it comes to sustainability – but they should be. This point was illustrated by Travis Wright who said the data centre industry has more environmental impact when it comes ot emmissions that the aviation industry, at pre-pandemic levels.

Wright went on to outline some of the initiatives that QTS has invested in, such as providing clean drinking water via World Vision. Sustainability and ESG efforts such as this helped set QTS apart – a differentiator that was good for business as well as good for the communities that benefitted.

He explained that buy-in from senior management was crucial, and that QTS leadership were immediately on-board in a bid to ‘do good’.

A BizClik Brand

Geraint John Interos

Few people understand supply chain disruption better than Geraint John, who leads the Interos Resilience Lab team – generating data-driven insights, research and analysis on supply chain disruptions, topical issues and best practices for supply chain risk management.

A former journalist and Gertner advisor, John’s fireside chat highlighted recent major supply chain disruptions caused by

drought in China and Europe, and Russia shutting down natural gas supplies. He discussed how to assess these events from a supply chain risk and sustainability perspective, plus the key challenges that supply chains face when it comes to ESG.

Looking to the future, John raised Taiwan as a red flag that could have extensive impacts on supply chains – even greater than the COVID-19 pandemic.

WATCH: GERAINT JOHN