Employees at Siemens Canada plant a pollinator garden at the company’s headquarters in Oakville, Ontario.Supplied
Whenever Nicole Estenfelder, project manager of real estate for Siemens Canada Limited, drives by the company’s Oakville, Ont., headquarters at night, she feels very proud that her employer is saving energy on lighting. “The building is completely dark, and all you see is the Siemens sign,” she says. “It’s quite rewarding to witness that.”
The 177-year-old global engineering giant is deeply committed to sustainability, and that includes aiming for carbon-neutral operations in all its facilities by 2030. In Canada, the organization has three factories, in Drummondville, Que., Peterborough, Ont., and Concord, Ont., as well as offices across the country, for a total of 38 sites. And Estenfelder is responsible for helping to make sure Siemens meets that goal — which, she says, it is well on track to achieve.
She notes that the use of LEDs, complemented by smart building sensors that control lighting levels across all floors and rooms, has lowered its lighting electrical consumption by around 75 per cent. At the same time, Siemens is decarbonizing its fleet and installing charging stations at select locations.
And at the Drummondville factory, which produces electrical panels, circuit breakers and other such electrical products, Siemens is leveraging its own internal team — made up of energy and decarbonization experts — to drive efficiencies and electrify processes that have traditionally relied on natural gas.
Estenfelder, who has a master’s degree in sustainable building development, started with Siemens in her native Germany six years ago, moving to Canada in 2022. “I’m so grateful,” she says, “to work in this specific niche and that I can help Siemens reach its goals.”
In addition to making its own operations sustainable, Siemens Canada’s business is all about helping its clients adopt greener alternatives that are not only better for the planet but also enable more efficient operations, as is the case with its in-house sustainability initiatives.
“One of our goals,” says Amy Geisberger, head of sustainability, “is helping our customers avoid emissions by using our products and services to make an impact across different areas of sustainability, with this newer goal of helping our customers avoid more than 1,000 megatonnes of CO2e cumulatively by 2030.
“More than 90 per cent of the company’s business helps our clients achieve a positive sustainability impact,” she adds. “That involves focusing on decarbonization and energy efficiency, resource efficiency and circularity, people centricity, and society.”
She goes on to describe the work of the Siemens group that decarbonizes buildings. “We’ll go into a building or facility, like our Drummondville facility, to understand where energy use and emissions originate, whether from natural gas for heating or electricity from the grid. Then we identify which processes can be made more efficient and which can be electrified, supporting our clients in achieving their sustainability goals.”
Geisberger notes that Siemens regards its Oakville office as a living lab to showcase its technologies — such as its Siemens microgrid, which helps make its headquarters more sustainable but also shows clients how to address energy transition, operate smart buildings, electrify mobility and digitalize. The company regularly takes visitors around the building to display what’s possible when it comes to decarbonization.
All of which makes Geisberger very happy to be there. “It’s easy to get anxious over headlines about severe weather and forest fires, especially for me with two young kids and thinking about the world we’re leaving for them,” she says. “Working for a company where sustainability is a top priority and which commits millions to developing many innovative green technologies gives me hope for the future.”
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.