Legrand Group has been supporting the fight against climate change for the past 20 years, and it’s no wonder that the company’s 5th Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Roadmap features 2 out its 4 cornerstones related to Sustainability: Reduce Carbon Footprint and Develop a Circular Economy.
In March 2024, Legrand announced the validation by the SBTi1 of the Group’s Net-Zero 2050 commitment, with a reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3)2 of -90% between 2022 and 2050. It then joined the RE1003 initiative, with the objective of achieving 100% electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
To reach these targets, Legrand intends to pursue and amplify its action plans, such as improving energy efficiency and deploying photovoltaic panels on its sites, reducing emissions from its products during their use phase, committing its suppliers to reducing their emissions, and increasing the use of recycled materials in its products.
“With this Net Zero 2050 ambition and our commitment to RE100, but also with our range of products and solutions enabling our customers to reduce their own CO2 emissions in residential and commercial buildings and in datacenters, Legrand confirms its desire to play an important role in the fight against climate change.” explained Benoît Coquart, Chief Executive Officer of Legrand
Legrand Australia and New Zealand are implementing this commitment to the environment locally, as outlined in its Environmental policy, available on their website.
Some examples of local sustainable initiatives:
- Use of solar panels for on-site energy generation at Prestons (Australia) and Trical (New Zealand) manufacturing sites.
- Legrand New Zealand and Trical purchase 100% renewable energy from the grid.
- Carbon footprint reduction for downstream supply chain, measured by net CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions/tonne shipped. Result 2023: 18% reduction in CO2 emissions
- Encourage Legrand suppliers to make a CO2 emissions commitment towards reduction of at least 30% by 2030.
- Ongoing process of redesigning product packaging to use renewable and recyclable materials and aim to be plastic-free by 2030. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) was fully eliminated from our product packaging in 2024.
- Develop new products and packaging with a weight reduction objective.
- R&D focus on designing products that consume less energy than similar counterparts during their use phase of their life cycle.
- As of end 2024, Legrand factory operations in Prestons reached 26% of recycled plastics and 27% of recycled metals in terms of raw material consumption.
- Up to 80% of the waste generated from production sites are recycled via external recyclers.
- Continuous improvements of machinery energy efficiency. 2023 result: 18% energy savings vs a target of 11.5%
“We are constantly looking at where we can innovate and reduce our carbon footprint, particularly across our factory and manufacturing operations – modifying machine usage or finding efficiencies in our processes, using more recycled plastics in our devices and committing to 100% recycled packaging for all our new products, are a few more recent examples,” details Palash Nandy, CEO of Legrand Australia & New Zealand.
One of the latest milestones in Legrand’s sustainability journey is the Legrand Excel Life switch grids which are now made of 75% recycled polycarbonate, sourced from post-consumer materials.
Legrand believes this path to sustainability will also strengthen relationships with its partners. “All of our customers and suppliers are on a similar journey. Whatever experience and learnings we have, it’s important they are shared. The road we are navigating towards Net Zero is not linear and already complex enough, and that’s where Legrand is in a position to add value, offering solutions that are simple, sustainable and uncomplicated,” concludes Palash Nandy.
