Siemens Serbia’s Lončar: Planet needs ecosystem, not egosystem

Knowledge and new technologies are key to the response to challenges that the planet is facing, Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Serbia Medeja Lončar said. Siemens halved the carbon footprint of its operations since 2019 and the goal for 2030 is to cut it by 90%.

When it comes to taking care of the planet, it isn’t supposed to be an egosystem but an ecosystem, CEO of Siemens Serbia Medeja Lončar said at the Kopaonik Business Forum.

“At a time when we are witnessing numerous challenges for the global economy, in the geopolitical situation and with regard to climate change, the need to accelerate the digital and sustainable transformation has never been bigger,” she stated. Knowledge and new technologies are key to the response to challenges that the planet is facing, Lončar pointed out.

Speaking at a panel on a green transition action plan for Serbia, the head of Siemens’s subsidiary stressed that the company halved the carbon footprint of its operations since 2019 and noted that the goal is to achieve a 90% cut by 2030.

Everyone must change their habits to save planet

Innovative technology has a key role in creating a sustainable future, Medeja Lončar said. The effect of doing business responsibly on sustainability, and with it on everyone’s life, is evident from the fact that Siemens’s products sold in the 2023 fiscal year alone will prevent emissions equivalent to 190 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by the end of their life cycle, she underscored.

It is more than the entire annual emissions in the Netherlands, Lončar said and pointed to the findings from the company’s sustainable development report for the 2023 fiscal year, which ended on September 30. In her words, everyone must change their habits to save the planet.

Siemens spent EUR 416 million on its employees’ training, education

“The future depends on all of us: institutions, organizations, companies as well as each individual, on how we treat nature and society and how we do business,” Siemens’s head in Serbia asserted.

She noted that in 2015 it became one of the first global companies that vowed to become carbon neutral by 2030. Within its DEGREE framework, Siemens has an additional goal – to lower CO2 emissions within its supply chain by 20% in the same period.

The significance of knowledge for the company is best evident from the fact that it invested EUR 416 million in fiscal 2023 in training and educating its employees, according to the press release. It secures sustainable employability in a rapidly changing labor market, Siemens Serbia said.