Page 13 - ATZ11 November 2019 Professional

Rehau | Restructuring of the

Automotive Division
IMPULSES
To prepare for future challenges, the Rehau Group
is reorganizing its Automotive division. The restruc- Dr. Johannes Liebl
Editor in Charge
turing is a long-term process which will start with
ATZ | MTZ | ATZelectronics
changes in the division’s management team. On Sep-
tember 1, 2019, Dr. Markus Distelhoff was appointed
the new Chief Executive Officer of the Automotive
© Rehau Executive Board (CEO AEB) and Member of the Group
Executive Board for the Rehau site. Distelhoff has
Markus Distelhoff long-term, wide-ranging experience of managing
global businesses, most recently at Continental AG.
As part of the restructuring process, the previous CEO Making Climate Protection
AEB, Markus Grundmann, will take responsibility for
the marketing, sales, and engineering business units Smarter
of the Automotive division.
The German federal government’s Climate
Protection Plan 2050 essentially aims to
reduce CO 2 emissions. It is the base from
which all CO 2 reduction targets in the fields
Toyota | Suzuki | Capital Alliance of energy supply, industry, buildings, transport
and agriculture are derived. For land use and
Established forestry, the focus is to be on the absorption
and storage of CO 2 through the conservation
Toyota Motor Corporation and of forest areas and additional reforestation.
Suzuki Motor Corporation have However, this should be understood more as
announced that they have © Toyota an appeal than as a concrete goal.
entered into an agreement to
A study by ETH Zurich shows that trees
establish a capital alliance. Toyota and Suzuki are cooperating on
contribute to regulating the CO 2 content of
The aim of the alliance is to autonomous driving, among other things the atmosphere by absorbing CO 2 . For example,
develop a long-term partnership a beech tree produces enough oxygen for 20
in new areas of business, including autonomous driving. The two companies people every day through photo synthesis of
began considering a business partnership in 2016. In March of this year, they water, CO 2 and light in its leaves.
announced that they would begin working toward joint product development and
Using a database of almost 80,000 forests,
production, in addition to supplying each other with products. They will combine
ETH Zurich scientists have developed a map
Toyota’s strengths in electrification with Suzuki’s expertise in compact vehicles.
showing 0.9 billion ha of land worldwide for
potential reforestation. If the USA, Russia,
Canada, Australia and China play their part,
we could have forests as CO 2 reservoirs working
Faurecia | Reshuffle on the by 2050. But the enforced deforestation of
the rainforest in Brazil by a ruler who only thinks
Executive Committee nationally doesn’t bode well. Forests are global
climate actors. Protecting the forest must become
Faurecia has appointed Mathias Miedreich as an important part of climate protection efforts.
the Executive Vice President of its Clean Mobility Deforestation should be controlled globally.
business unit. Miedreich, who was previously Deputy
Executive Vice President of this business unit, suc- With smart climate protection and globally allied
ceeds Christophe Schmitt, who has been appointed key nations, these goals can still be achieved.
To reduce CO 2 emissions, we need a new, inte -
Group Operations Executive Vice President. Schmitt
© Faurecia in his turn replaces Hagen Wiesner, who has been grated approach that combines reforestation
and legal requirements for reducing emissions
named Executive Vice President of the Cockpit Mod-
Mathias Miedreich ules business unit (including the SAS joint venture). from the burning of fossil fuels. Reforestation
Faurecia’s Executive Committee, which is headed by must therefore not merely be an appeal, it must
be part of the solution.
Patrick Koller, the Chief Executive Officer, now has 14 members from five different
nationalities with responsibility for all the business units, the major functions,
and the company’s activities in China.
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