Global industries need to embrace and not fear automation if they are serious about reducing their carbon footprint, according to a senior executive at one of the world's largest energy management and digital automation companies.

"If an industrial outfit craves efficiencies and an improvement in throughput that's meaningful enough to make a difference to its headline performance and reduce carbon emissions - it needs to automate and digitize," Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric, said in an interview.

"Optimized modern processing is all about knowing real-time what is going on in your factory, so you can make different decisions for a better outcome, whether they are reactive or predictive, aided by technology."

Frei said such an operating dynamic is already here and is only going to get better. "More so, as the entire manufacturing and industrial complex begins to join the dots between process efficiencies and lowering carbon emissions."

The Schneider automation boss said, for its part, her company embraced the open automation international standard IEC 61499 five years ago. "This has two aspects to it. First one is that you detach the hardware from the software. It makes the cycle on the software renewal independent of the hardware. So for a more performative application, change the hardware or software at will."