157 Life Is On | Schneider Electric www.se.com Chapter 2 – Sustainable development Strategic Report 2. 2.4.3.2 Group policy Schneider Electric strives to distinguish itself through innovative green offers as mentioned in the Environment Policy. This ambition is articulated through: • Designing energy-efficient, low CO 2 , serviceable, and safe offers; • Helping customers improve their environmental performance; • Providing digital environmental information on offers. To reach such ambitions, Schneider is committed to: • Invest in R&D to create energy-efficient and environment- friendly solutions; • Create new eco-designed products and solutions and develop lifecycle thinking; • Invent circular offers and business models, through products that can be reused, repaired, retrofitted, refurbished, and recycled, as well as through end-of-life services; • Provide transparent and digitized information on the environmental information and benefits of offers; • Deliver continuous improvement in product stewardship through the Green Premium ™ portfolio. 2.4.3.3 Green Premium ™ Launched in 2008, Schneider Electric’s Green Premium ™ program was created to provide its customers with more sustainable products and to be transparent with environmental information. Since then, Green Premium ™ has been the absolute warranty for the Group to deliver products that comply with RoHS and REACH regulations as well as being perfectly transparent by delivering environmental disclosures and end-of-life instructions. The program has evolved over the last few years to integrate Schneider’s EcoDesign Way ™ process as well as green value propositions for an enhanced differentiation. As an example, Schneider embedded new durability value propositions such as the “take-back” program in Green Premium ™ . Customers who have purchased one of the APC Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) have access to complimentary recycling when the battery in the product reaches its end of usable life. In 2021, this service collected around 14,000 tonnes of batteries globally for recycling. In 2021, the main objectives for the Green Premium ™ program were to: • Ensure compliance with the latest regulations within an even more demanding context; • Develop new environmental claims within products for higher performance and a clearer differentiation; • Prepare the digitization of environmental information and ease data sharing with partners; • Prepare the future of product stewardship for the years to come by developing competencies within the Company. Schneider Electric is redefining the program that will encompass three pillars in 2022: Trust, Transparency, and Performance: • Trust means for Schneider to continue to be transparent with customers providing RoHS and REACH substance information and going beyond regulations by applying the same rules regardless of the geographies. That is and will remain the core of the Green Premium ™ program. • Transparency is the warranty from Schneider to disclose in a digital way the environmental impacts of its products, their end-of-life treatment, as well as any environment-related attribute meaningful for customers. This is crucial in the Group’s strategy, as the first step for improvement is measurement and quantification. • Performance is Schneider’s commitment to deliver products with reduced environmental impact. Performance can take several forms: − Usage of lower impact materials (i.e., recycled plastics); − Enhanced product recyclability to reduce waste and loss of critical raw materials; − Energy efficient products with at least 10% of improved energy efficiency with respect to the market average or to previous generations; − Improved durability and the ability to function as required under defined conditions of use, maintenance, and repair, until a final limiting state is reached (which should be at least 5% higher than market average); − The ability to provide SF 6 -free products; − Repair parts of products easily. Green Premium ™ information, including conformity declaration, Product Environmental Profiles (PEP), and End of Life Instructions, are digitally available 24/7 for customers in the technical data sheet of the online catalog, in the mySchneider mobile app, and on the “Check a Product” website at https://checkaproduct.se.com/. Digital environment disclosure (PEP) Lower Impact Materials Recyclability Circularity Profiles to provide guidance on responsible product end-of-life treatments Energy efficiency Durability Transparent environment attributes (ie. Mercury-/Lead-/PVC-free) Sustainable packaging SF 6 -free Reparability Transparency Minimal use of hazardous substances in, and beyond, compliance with regulations (RoHS, REACH). Tr ust Performance