Race to Zero – Why we’re proud to be playing our part in the preparations for COP26

July 22, the UK Government Minister for Net Zero, Andrew Griffith welcomed AVEVA among other UK industry leaders to the London Stock Exchange to announce that we have signed up to the United Nations’ Race to Zero. I’m proud that we are joining other leading companies in setting robust, science-based targets to minimize emissions and cut carbon use across our operations by 2030, putting us on course to achieve net zero value chain emissions by 2050. In doing so, we are aligning to the highest level of ambition under the Paris Climate Agreement and supporting the sustainable industries of the future.

Taking bold bets to advance the Decade of Action

In making this commitment, we are joining some of our leading customers in accelerating the drive to a low carbon future. A few months ago, I met with other Chief Sustainability Officers, to exchange ideas and learnings on transformative corporate sustainability leadership – a key topic on the agenda of our cross-functional sustainability-focused Customer Advisory Board. It was clear from that conversation that regardless of sector, size or programmatic maturity, making “bold pledges” on climate change target is key to delivering on the Decade of Action and accelerating progress on the net zero global economy. Having a robust plan is important, combined with a willingness to embrace transformative leadership and drive ambitious corporate sustainability goals.

At AVEVA, we confident that through a smart combination of electrifying our car fleet, implementing energy reduction measures across our offices, procuring renewable energy and engaging with our suppliers and customers on climate action, we can greatly reduce our footprint. We expect there to be challenges ahead and see collaborating with others who share our commitment to an ambitious climate agenda as essential to deliver on the sustainable future to which we aspire.

Building alliances and partnering for progress

Given the scale of the undertaking before us, technology alliances across companies will be essential.

We are excited to see the commitments being taken by the UK government to advance decarbonization and we are committed to supporting the UK’s Green Recovery. The last stimulus package included significant funding for carbon capture, hydrogen, and renewable energy. These are all areas where we have extensive technology capabilities and where we are working with innovative customers in the UK and across the world to realize lower carbon operations. Already, we are working with several of our UK-based co-signatories to the Race to Zero. These include National Grid, where our AVEVA Historian product is helping to synthesize data from over 5000 sensors in real-time, providing input to analytics that enable them to manage energy intermittency and balance power coming from 20% renewables in their generation base. Similarly at Anglian Water, our AVEVA Unified Supply Chain software is helping to reduce over 10 million litres of leakages each day, enabling more efficient use of resources and cutting the energy needed to manage the network.

Going forward, we are keen to partner with the UK Government, and other companies, civil societies and governments across the world, who are championing smart infrastructure, the transition to lower-carbon energy and digital transformation more broadly. Here, we are particularly excited by the opportunity to be joining the Race to Zero campaign. This recognizes that the positive change and innovation we seek will come together through collaboration from businesses, cities, regions, investors and many other actors.

With solutions that span engineering and operations, AVEVA is committed to leveraging our leadership position to be part of the solution, both in our own operations, and in working with our customers and other stakeholders to accelerate digital transformation toward a 1.5°C future.

Learn more about Race to Zero at www.un-race-to-zero.com

Explore AVEVA’s sustainability agenda, targets and strategy at www.aveva.com/sustainability