Valeria: I am Product Manager for Window Solutions South America and responsible for Sustainability projects in Region Americas. I am particularly excited by the new challenges and seeing how plans take shape. The broad network that is created through collaboration with the various teams is particularly important. There's so much going on that you must keep up to date all the time. 

Alexa: I have been working at REHAU since 2010 and currently I´m Plant Manager in Manizales, Colombia. Beyond the production process, I am at the plant every day because personal contact with the colleagues is particularly important to me. It is a great motivation for me to know that I am helping to improve the lives of our customers with my daily work. Collaboration with my team is crucial here. We tackle and solve the challenges we face together.

Valeria, as the sustainability officer for a large region, you certainly have to bring many threads together. How do you go about it?

Valeria: Yes, that's right. As the central point of contact, I coordinate the topic of sustainability in the region. This means I am in regular contact with the individual plant managers such as Alexa and various departments to identify approaches, develop ideas and follow them up. I also coordinate closely with my European colleagues and look at the projects implemented there. In principle, we are all driven by the same questions: What opportunities are there to reduce energy consumption and increase the proportion of renewable energy? Of course, these vary from region to region. In Mexico, for example, we have a photovoltaic system at the Celaya plant and Colombia uses hydropower to supply energy. 

But it's not just about our own perspective. We have noticed that many of our customers are placing greater emphasis on sustainability. They are often looking for suppliers who consistently pursue this issue. So, in the end, this is also a question of competitiveness.

The challenges and circumstances therefore vary greatly from region to region. Alexa, what exactly does this look like in Colombia?

Alexa: Our focus is on reducing energy consumption. To this end, we are constantly analyzing new possibilities and processes. For example, we recently converted the motors for extrusion and optimized the compressed air system. You need to be creative and constantly develop new ideas, this only works with teamwork, because the efficient use of resources is the responsibility of all employees at all levels. 

Does this mean that the team's motivation to help shape something is also a key success factor?

Alexa: That's right, mutual inspiration and motivation within the team is very important for our success, among other things. It's great to see that our team is actively involved, and we consciously encourage the formulation of new ideas, for example with a suggestion scheme. This gives us many useful approaches, such as replacing old taps with new, economical models, switching to LED lights, or using compressed air more consciously for cleaning tasks. Of course, these are small building blocks, but together they can make a big difference. We see our employees as experts in their field who can also provide the best ideas for improvements. Every voice really does count. This also has an impact on employee satisfaction at our company: We have received the "Great Place to Work" certification for the second time and were also the first country in the world to be awarded it at REHAU.