SEOUL-- December 27, 2021 -- Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has announced that two of its leaders were named to the 2021 Environment+Energy Leader (E+E) 100 Honoree List: Samantha Childress, Solutions Architect Manager, Microgrids and Susan Uthayakumar, President, Sustainability Business Division. The annual Environment+Energy Leader 100 recognizes those who make an impact in the industry through creating new solutions, programs, platforms, best practices and products to help companies achieve greater success in commercial and industrial environment and energy management.

Samantha Childress - E+E 100 Honoree

Childress is recognized for her impactful work with the Footprint Project, an organization that builds mobile solar generators to bring clean power to communities during disaster response events such as hurricanes and wildfires, and United Solar Initiative, a non-governmental organization which serves the power and electrical needs of many underdeveloped communities in need of grid stability around the world. Childress worked with the Footprint Project to leverage clean energy technologies, like solar, and battery storage to disaster responses more sustainable, economical, and resilient in the wake of inevitable climate-related events, most recently with recovery response to Hurricane Ida. As a member of the Board of Directors, Childress also led efforts with United Solar Initiative to deliver a new solar and battery storage microgrid system to support the Matongo Birthing Clinic, a women’s maternity hospital in Kisii County, Kenya, where maternal death and stillbirth rates are a major public health concern.

At Schneider Electric, Childress leads a team of cross-functional solution architects who develop solutions for microgrid and distributed energy resource projects, especially those that leverage clean energy technologies such as solar, wind, and battery storage.

Susan Uthayakumar - E+E 100 Honoree

Uthayakumar is recognized for her role in transforming Schneider Electric to a digital power and automation technology company driving sustainability, efficiency, and resiliency. Uthayakumar currently leads the Sustainability Business Division at Schneider Electric and is responsible for managing the Global Energy Sustainability Services as well as the sustainability consulting organization to deliver climate mitigation action to enterprise customers. Under Uthayakumar’s leadership, Schneider Electric launched the first of its kind Climate Change Advisory Services focused on enabling holistic solutions to tackle the climate crisis, accelerate action toward corporate carbon reduction goals, and build business resilience. Today, Schneider Electric is the largest energy manager in the world by volume, managing more than €30B in global energy spend every year on behalf of our clients; In 2020, we saved 134 million tons of C02 on behalf of our clients, and we aim to take out 800 million tons of CO2 from our client’s operations by 2025. We also recently crossed a significant cleantech milestone, supporting our clients with the procurement of more than 10,000 MW of renewable energy via PPAs since 2014.

Susan continues to lead with passion and empathy, and her leadership is not limited to driving business results. She is a champion of weaving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into the Schneider Electric company fabric through her active membership on the company’s D&I board, and is a strong advocate for the UN Women Empowerment Principles. Susan believes in using her work and her platform to drive impact both in business and in her community, championing innovation, advocating for women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and building the leaders of tomorrow.

“The Honorees on the annual list show groundbreaking work and dedication to the field of sustainability and energy management,” says Paul Nastu, President of Environment+Energy Leader. “We’re thrilled to recognize this year’s Honorees and congratulate all who made the list.”