Yasemin Yavari: "Digitalization is the path to a more sustainable future"

In Formpipe's portrait series, "With the digital society of the future in mind," we meet inspiring figures from different industries who all have a clear attitude towards the digital society of the future. In the second article of the portrait series, we meet Yasemin Yavari, a Digital Transformation Consultant at Schneider Electric.

We begin by reflecting on the first article in the series:

As you may remember, it provided a glimpse into the significant benefits that humans can gain from Virtual and Augmented Reality, abbreviated as VR and AR. No matter where you are in life—whether you are unemployed, becoming a parent for the first time, suffering from a mental disorder, chronically ill, or going to school - VR and AR can help you.

But the assistance can also have an even greater scale...

While the above examples directly impact individuals, digitization combined with AR can also have a significant impact on both people and the climate indirectly. And that is precisely what Yasemin Yavari from Schneider Electric works on every day:

"Right now, we find ourselves in a situation where the climate demands that we minimize our resources and streamline our processes, so we make the smallest possible footprint on the planet."

And that is exactly what Yasemin helps Schneider Electric's clients with. Schneider Electric, a company with roots dating back 180 years, aims to be a digital collaborative partner for energy management, sustainability, and efficiency—through electricity.

Software solutions from Schneider Electric gather your company's data - both historical and real-time data. The software provides you and your employees with a visual overview, leading to a better understanding of your company's consumption. And when employees understand the consumption, they are often motivated to try to save on it or explore how different processes can be energy-optimized.

In short, they strive to make it easy for their customers to have a complete overview and control of their energy management. They do this, for example, through a "Digital Twin"...

In the future, everyone has a “Digital Twin”

Imagine being able to build a 1:1 replica of your machine, facility, energy system, or building in a piece of software. In this software, which stores your replica, you now have a full overview of all the sub-components involved in your project, down to the smallest thing, thanks to AR. If you want to optimize your project, you can try different options on your replica and see the output you get - and therefore how much (or how little) you save. Yes, you can even predict when your project needs maintenance to avoid breaking down.

That is a "Digital Twin."

And although the tool itself is not new, there is a special reason why Yasemin Yavari highlights it when we ask her what we can expect from new technologies in the future. She is experiencing a sudden increased focus, which will only grow over the next few years:

"There is a resource shortage in the world, so the times when we consumed blindly are over."

No company can avoid addressing the global challenge we face. Our environment suffers from overconsumption, and we struggle to obtain enough resources to sustain our usual living standards. All of this leads to the fact that everyone—from large corporate giants to small startups - must start looking at how much they consume.

"The concept of the 'Digital Twin' has been discussed at all tech summits in recent years, and the tool has always been highlighted as something companies should work with even more. But now, due to the world situation, we are experiencing a significant increased focus," she explains.

And this increased focus entails two crucial things:

• With a "Digital Twin," you streamline the entire process of a project. The replica tells you exactly which materials you need to purchase, so you don't buy anything you don't need. It also tells you precisely how to build it correctly, thus avoiding using man-hours and money on mistakes and miscommunication. And it also tells you which adjustments you and your employees can make to optimize your energy consumption during and after the project is completed.
• The increased focus also means that the development of the tool is now gaining momentum. The functionalities in the different software systems in which you can build a "Digital Twin" will only become faster, smarter, and better. This further optimizes energy management in companies, which can ultimately be seen as green numbers in the larger climate equation.

"Sustainability should not be a philanthropic thing”

And the increased focus on tools like the "Digital Twin" is crucial for us to embrace a greener future.

When you turn on your television and hear the dire climate forecasts, you may recognize the feeling that your tiny footprint is a microscopic drop in a large, consuming ocean. And that feeling actually hits the core of this entire article. In her work with sustainability, Yasemin has noticed an unfortunate tendency:

"It is a huge challenge that sustainability has become a fluffy thing. Companies can make a real difference with their data - such as tracking their consumption continuously and improving based on that data. In this way, we make something fluffy more concrete, and we can actually relate to it."

And that's where technology can be effective:

"We help companies, among other things, track their energy management. We collect that data in software that visualizes how they consume their energy - yesterday, today, and expectedly tomorrow unless some other buttons are pushed. That overview enables companies to manage energy consumption to a much greater extent than they have been able to before. In fact, we see optimizations of up to 20% in productions or factories with this solution," she explains.

But the change - both in individual companies and on a global scale - does not happen through digitization alone:

"The solution is not only technological - it is equally important to involve the employees. We need to understand the human aspect in the use of technology. We do that by showing people that their actions, changes, and ideas have real value. When you understand energy management, the data behind it, and the overall goal, you also understand the effect of small daily changes - and that always leads to better results," she concludes.

Would you like to find out more about Schneider Electric's many solutions? Then you can visit their website right here.