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A conversation with M. Roland Aurich CEO Siemens Canada

Posted by Montreal Environment in Energy, Montreal, Sustainability, Urbanism

Siemens has begun a massive urban sustainability campaign in Canada starting with the release of the Sustainable Cities Challenge in Canada report in May 18 this year. Established in 1847 in Berlin, Siemens is now one of the largest engineering conglomerates in the world operating in 190 countries and employing approximately 420,800 people. Initially focused on telecommunications by improving the pointer telegraph, the company installed in 1848 the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe (500km route from Berlin to Frankfurt) and a little over two decades later it became a renowned international company when, in 1870, installed the Indo-European Telegraph line (11,000km) making it possible to transmit a message from London to Calcutta in 28 minutes as opposed to 30 days. Since its early beginnings the company has invested significantly in R&D staying at the cutting edge of technological innovation. Today Siemens operates in a variety of fields from energy, transportation, healthcare and telecommunications.

A surprising discovery was the fact that Montreal was the place where Siemens Canada first established in 1912. Since then the company has mainly operated in the energy sector as well as health. It has been involved with Hydro Quebec since at least 1968 when it supplied the ‘largest German-built transformers to date’. Although the two companies have collaborated in R&D and other energy sector technology transfer, competitiveness has also kept them at a certain distance. The thorny issue comes in the field of wind energy. In 2005 Siemens proposed the government a 3000MW wind project in the James Bay area, which was turned down and not made public at the time because the Rupert diversion was in EIA phase and the wind project could have raised even more doubts about the need to dam more rivers.  The proposal was leaked by Fondation Rivieres in 2007 but it did not stop Hydro Quebec to go ahead with the Rupert project and more recently with the Romaine diversion. According to Réal Reed, a former Hydro Quebec test engineer in wind energy, Quebec missed a great opportunity to become a strong leader in the wind industry. In addition to assuming the costs and creating a windmill blade manufacturing facility in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean that would have employed 450 people, Siemens had proposed a partnership to develop a low-temperature wind turbine capable of performing in Arctic weather, technology which could have had a global potential.

Despite of these setbacks, Siemens remains a company dedicated to technology innovation and according to Siemens Canada CEO, Mr. Roland Aurich, “Although Hydro Quebec has been more limited in the past in making progress Siemens has an interest in being a more active partner with Hydro Quebec and go forward.” Their partnership with Voith Hydro received the contract, valued at over $140 million, to design, build and equip the turbine-generator units for the Eastmain 1-A powerhouse (Rupert project). “The energy dominance that Hydro Quebec plays in Quebec isn’t an obstacle. They are powering a lot of new renewable utilities in the electrical system. That also relates to the transmission lines, to increase the capacity in the existing networks, also increase the quality and by that having a more efficient usage of the electric grid and that is exactly the right way to enhance the grid in order to accommodate new renewables.” We asked Mr. Aurich why he thinks North America in general is reluctant to embark more proactively in energy alternatives especially since he was Siemens’ CEO in Sweden, a country that is now fossil-free and where 62% of its heating is derived from biomass. “It is really the development of sustainable solutions and environmental friendly technologies have taken a lot more leverage in EU than in North America. The reason behind that is that energy prices are a lot higher [in EU] and that kind of fosters energy efficiency usage. There are a lot of cheap and available energy resources here in North America and people enjoy that.”

Its recent commissioned report aims to shed light on urban sustainability challenges by “striking a balance between competitiveness, quality of life and protection of the environment.” Sponsored by Siemens Canada in conjunction with the David Suzuki Foundation the report focuses on five key infrastructure areas: transportation, energy, water and waste water, healthcare and, safety and security. It also features a specific section on governance. Indeed the report and much of the discussions surrounding it are making an explicit link between sustainable technology implementation and the political will to see it realised. This is because “the infrastructure that drives sustainability in cities is really under the governmental or politicians’ control. So that underlies the decision process. It is about the politics to take the right decision now to sustain their cities” said Mr. Aurich. Although technology innovation and implementation are a crucial component to sustainable city infrastructure “it’s really about the power to decide, the willingness and the guts to decide, to take those long lasting decisions now. When we discuss about sustainable infrastructure, it costs a lot of money, it needs to be a decision process that focuses on a long-term plan. But technology, for sure, is the visible part of that decision process.” According to him, Siemens’ role is “to engage with the technology and tell them to a great extent this can be done today. What we expect from the decision makers is that they are making their part and show innovation, show leadership in taking decisions now. We can assist, we can provide technology, we can provide suited solutions for each city depending on the challenges they have.”

Although the report was primarily geared for decision makers “it also targets all of the stakeholders around environmental organizations. We did the report in conjunction with the David Suzuki Foundation so that is a strong message that it has also other stakeholders we use in our research. And I think that is one of its strengths because it has a board sweep of the population. We love to have the facts on the table when we do decisions within Siemens, and this is report is a kind of example of fact-based research; a fact which feeds talking about convincing other people to share that knowledge and perhaps drive the questions and focuses in a certain direction. It also gives a way for the Montreal public to also make known, in a democratic way, their opinion and give a direction.”

As for Montreal, “we view with interest what is going on with the transportation sector. We do also see a need for Montreal to enhance the infrastructure system, the water system and the water treatment. We are also involved in the health care with imaging technology, making sure we have efficient processes, at the very least making the waiting time for patent shorter.” The healthcare technologies are a field that Siemens has engaged with First Nations in Canada. “We have an approach that we apply to combine our knowledge in healthcare with establishing hospital-like institutions that could come closer to those First Nations areas. We have some examples in Ontario and Quebec where we are actually addressing those issues. Siemens, as a turn-key supplier, can erect and install a facility for First Nations.”

The challenge remains in engaging the civil society as well as good governance for a sustainable urban future. For Mr. Aurich “is really about talking to people in a qualitative way: its’ nice to be in the city which is clean, which attracts business, which attracts knowledgeable people, giving that momentum really creates a good and high quality of life.  We showed in this report some differences across the Canadian cities where we see that expectations on how the quality of life will impact people into the future. We do see that there is a parallel between those cities that have a good approach to sustainability infrastructure solutions and they also enjoy higher quality of life.  We think that this kind of balance between the competitiveness, attacking people and the quality of life and having those as the basis for the environment. It is really a kind of a virtual circle that needs to be in balance. And if these pieces work together we would probably have a good place to be where people enjoy living and makes the economy turn.”

To foster this kind of dialog a series of Thought Leadership Roundtables in Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, and Toronto were held. The website contains an impressive amount of information from reports to video clips. People are invited to comment and get informed on how they get involved.