GEORGE TOWN, Oct 8 — Malaysia has the potential to be among the leading countries to successfully integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles into its economy, Schneider Electric said.
Senior vice-president of digital energy Damien Dhellemmes said Malaysia has the ingredients for successful ESG integration, which include a proactive government, a vast network of mid-sized companies as well as large global companies operating here that are being pushed by their stakeholders to operate sustainably.
He said over the years, ESG adoption has become an increasingly important factor for investors and the Malaysian government is not staying on the sidelines. Instead, they have embarked on this change using legislation and regulations.
“We are seeing a strong commitment from the government in this regard as they have launched various initiatives such as the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, Bursa Malaysia’s Sustainability Reporting Framework, Green Technology Financing Scheme, National Energy Policy 2020-2040 and so on.
“These are concrete actions taken that will — together — drive Malaysia to become part of the leading countries in ESG integration.”
He noted that the government in any country would play the important role of incentivising — or penalising — industrial players.
First step towards sustainability
Dhellemmes said any company big or small will have to first strategise and identify its goals in its sustainability journey and pinpoint operational issues, trends and derive averages in daily energy management.
“Next, digitalisation is an enabler when it comes to ESG integration because you can leverage on artificial intelligence and machine learning to make use of the energy management data.
“Companies can use technology to build a digital twin of their factories, simulate their operations and move towards predictive maintenance, therefore, driving higher efficiency and sustainability.”
He also suggested companies and countries in the region to take that first step towards integrating ESG in their businesses before it is too late and they are forced to change.
Generate cost savings with ESG
Dhellemmes said this could result in cost savings in addition to cutting a company’s carbon footprint.
He said Schneider Electric, a company with more than 100 years of history, has an edge when it comes to guiding companies towards their sustainability journey given that they have all the necessary tools.
“We are a technology provider and we manufacture our own products. We develop software and bring them to the market. We also provide consultations.
“What makes us different is that we can help them ‘walk the talk’ because we have the products and the technology.”
A client managed to achieve annual cost savings of about US$30,000 to US$40,000 to date using Schneider solutions, Dhellemmes said, adding that the client registered total electricity savings of 160,184 kWh during the first year and an additional 137,200 kWh in the second year.
— Bernama
