Ideas from Siemens employees have been contributing to the company’s constant improvement for the past 100 years. The 3i Program, the name given to the system for submitting suggestions in 1997, encourages ideas and suggestions from employees and rewards these initiatives. “Siemens has a huge number of motivated employees and thus enormous creative potential. This is what we want to exploit through the 3i Program,” said Siemens Head of Corporate Human Resources Brigitte Ederer. Thanks to the more than 1.5 million ideas from employees that have been put into practice, the company has saved over €3 billion. This commitment has been rewarded by premiums totaling €300 million.
In fiscal 2010, Siemens generated the largest operating profit in its history. Total Sectors profit rose four percent to €7.8 billion. Net income climbed 63 percent to €4.1 billion. Growth picked up speed once again during the year. While declining in the first two quarters, new orders and revenue rebounded sharply in the second half-year. For the full fiscal year, new orders increased by three percent to €81.2 billion, while revenue stabilized at €76 billion. “We completed fiscal 2010 very successfully. We’re coming out of the economic downturn with full momentum. Our growth is gaining speed. Operationally, we achieved record profit twice in a row. We expect to take this positive momentum into the next fiscal year. We have to keep winning, order by order,” said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher.
Singapore is Asia's greenest metropolis. This is the conclusion of the Asian Green City Index – a study commissioned by Siemens and performed by the independent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). For the study, which was carried out over the past few months, the EIU analyzed the aims and achievements of 22 major Asian cities with respect to environmental and climate protection. Singapore City stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. In other Asian cities as well, however, environmental awareness and climate protection guidelines are playing an increasingly important role."The Asian Green City Index supports cities in their efforts to expand their infrastructures on a sustainable basis. We want to enable Asia's up-and-coming urban centers to achieve healthy growth rates coupled with a high quality of life," said Barbara Kux, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer.
The University of Maastricht has contracted with Siemens Healthcare to deliver and install three powerful, high-field magnetic resonance tomographs (MRT). This order is one of the largest to date in the history of Siemens Healthcare in the Netherlands. The imaging devices will be used by the Brains Unlimited research project of the University of Maastricht. The objective of the project is to further investigate how the human brain functions.
In terms of environmental sustainability, Curitiba is Latin America's greenest metropolis, with other Brazilian cities, too, scoring above average. This is one of the results of a unique comparative study of 17 major Latin American cities carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Siemens. Siemens presented the study findings at the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City. "The Latin American Green City Index will help the cities to learn more from each other, and forms an objective basis for an exchange of ideas on successful strategies," says Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens. "We are providing the cities in question with important information on efficient climate protection, and partnering with them in developing comprehensive, sustainable infrastructure solutions."
For the 15th time, Siemens – together with Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany – is hosting a special technology conference, the Erlanger Technikgespräch, in the Siemens medicare building in Erlangen, Germany. Climate change, diminishing natural resources, increasing urbanization, rising prosperity and the related increase in energy demand require a new approach to the way energy is handled. The German government has set the course with its new energy concept. Plans call for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels, while increasing the amount of power generated from renewable sources by the same percentage. Today, 16 percent of Germany’s energy requirements are met by renewable energies. “We won’t reach our climate goals,” emphasized Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher, “unless we make electricity our all-encompassing energy carrier. In the future, electricity will also be used in fields where other energy carriers now dominate – in transportation, for example. We’re on the threshold of a new electric age.” And precisely here, added Löscher, is where Siemens, with its Environmental Portfolio, can make a decisive contribution – from renewable energies to electric mobility.
In connection with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Russia, Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher today signed memorandums of understanding in Yekaterinburg to supply wind power and railway technologies with a total value of several billion euros. “Green technologies from Siemens will help Russia reach its targets for energy efficiency and climate protection,” said Löscher. Under the agreements, Siemens is to modernize 22 railway switching yards by 2026 and supply Russian Railways (RZD) with 240 regional trains over the next ten years. Siemens is also to install wind turbines with a total capacity of up to 1,250 megawatts in Russia by 2015. In order to manufacture most of the products in Russia, three joint ventures with Russian partners are planned.
The summer holidays are just around the corner: millions of cars, motorcycles and buses will soon be traveling daily over Europe’s popular north-south highways. According to the Swiss traffic census, in July 2009, roughly 1.3 million vehicles passed through the Alps to vacation spots in the South via the country’s Gotthard, San Bernardino, Great St. Bernhard and Simplon tunnels alone. Siemens traffic systems support vacationers over thousands of kilometers. The company’s advanced control systems help reduce the number of traffic jams by automatically adjusting traffic guidance systems to changing traffic volumes and weather conditions. Fewer jams means safer travel, a cleaner environment and lower costs: according to the Federation of German Industries, clogged roads cost over €100 billion a year in Germany alone. Innovative technologies help optimize traffic flow guidance. Since Siemens equipped Austria’s autobahns with an intelligent traffic information and control system, there have been 40 percent fewer accidents. Travel times have also been sharply reduced. This is just one of the ways in which Siemens traffic systems are making holiday travel on Europe’s highways safer, more secure and more comfortable.
Following the successful expansion of the compliance system at Siemens, the Chief Compliance Officer, Andreas Pohlmann, is moving to Ferrostaal AG, where he will become a member of the Management Board. “Andreas Pohlmann has performed a great service for our company. We wish him every success in his new duties at Ferrostaal. Regardless of personnel changes, compliance remains the highest priority at Siemens,” said General Counsel Peter Y. Solmssen, member of the Managing Board responsible for Corporate Legal and Compliance. Solmssen will serve as acting Chief Compliance Officer until a successor is picked.