In prepared remarks made before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week, Germany-based Siemens AG president & CEO Peter Loscher detailed the steps the global firm has been taking to handle the current economic crisis and to better position it for what he sees as a "paradigm shift in the global economy" towards sustainability and green technologies.
According to Siemens, Loscher, cautioned that even in the midst of the current downturn, companies should not lose sight of the broader trends that will have an even greater impact on the future. "I'm talking about climate change, demographic change, urbanization and globalization. These are megatrends that have remained constant, even as Wall Street firms collapsed," Loscher said. "Our view at Siemens is that more industrialization and more growth will arise from the current crisis. And the color of this industrialization will be green."
As an example, Loscher mentioned energy-efficient technologies that will become a $3 trillion market by 2010 -- amounting to more than one-quarter of the current U.S. GDP. Global demand for renewable sources of energy and more efficient products will drive future economic growth, he stressed.
Earlier this week, Siemens announced it expects around $21 billion in new orders from economic stimulus programs worldwide over the next three fiscal years. And it said green technologies are expected to account for about 40% of that total. In fiscal 2008, Siemens' environmental technologies generated revenue of around $26 billion.
"We are bullish about the future of our green technology portfolio," Loscher added. He expects revenue from the company's environmental technologies to grow 10% annually, reaching the $35 billion mark by 2011.
