Schneider Electric will assume a hands-on role advising Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew on its sustainability plan, which includes transitioning from fossil fuels, emissions reductions, and optimising energy at its historic estate in Southwest London and Sussex.
The UNESCO World Heritage site in Richmond, London hosts the world's largest collection of living plants and has a sizeable footprint, Grade 1 and 2 listed buildings, and high visitor numbers, presenting unique challenges to becoming climate positive by 2030.
Under the collaboration, Schneider Electric will provide a dedicated energy optimisation engineer, located onsite and on long-term secondment to support Kew with evaluating the impact, cost, and priority of energy efficiency, controls, and monitoring projects.
The engineer will also be tasked with identifying and implementing energy-saving opportunities within Kew’s Building Management Systems (BMS) and HVAC plant, and with exploring other innovative solutions that may potentially include battery storage and microgrid opportunities, at the London and Wakefield site in Sussex.
Rachel Purdon, Head of Sustainability at RBG, Kew, says: "With Kew’s unique combination of historic buildings, globally irreplaceable collections, and role inspiring diverse audiences to connect with nature, we face complex and wide-ranging challenges.
Schneider Electric’s expertise and hands-on support will be invaluable – it will help us deliver real, measurable decarbonisation progress across our sites.
Kelly Becker, President, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland, Belgium and Netherlands, adds: “Both of our organisations are impact makers, united in our vision for a more sustainable planet.
By combining our climate positive partnership, expertise, and energy management and automation solutions, we’re able to take real action to realise a more sustainable future at RBG Kew.
“We have deep experience with helping organisations like Kew advance their energy resiliency, a growing priority across businesses, utilities, and communities worldwide.
In Kew’s case, maintaining a consistent energy supply is essential to protecting the world’s largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections for humanity – and we’re honoured to be a part of the solution.”
