Fatzer AG knowing the ‘ropes’ of sustainability

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Dr. Martin Bechtold is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Fatzer AG, Switzerland. A rope expert, his contributions towards the structural ropes industry since the year 2000 in technical, sales and managerial roles in Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, stands out.

In a chat with ‘Coliseum’, Dr. Martin Bechtold, CEO, Fatzer AG, Switzerland, states that the passenger ropeways ropes are experiencing a clear shift driven by the sustainability initiatives. Using ropeways as a mode of transport translates to zero pollution as he says, “We are the Swiss structural cable experts delivering the industries in construction and ropeways Why don’t the architects and the designers design a stadium and a couple of ropeways to transport the people to the stadium?”
 

Fatzer AG

Fatzer AG is a Swiss industrial company based in Romanshorn, Switzerland, that develops, manufactures and distributes high-performance steel wire ropes.
 

Environmental Sustainability

Dr. Martin Bechtold explains how the ropeways support environmental and urban sustainability by replacing fossil-fuel-reliant transport with low-impact, electric-powered alternatives. The ropeway systems enable eco-friendly transportation.
 

‘Interesting Ecosystem’

He informed, “At the heart of our operation is a world-class manufacturing site in Switzerland and Fatzer AG is also into consulting and installation and that brings us into the center of a very interesting ecosystem where we speak to almost all the stakeholders in those industries.”
 

‘Collaboration Success’

He affirms, “At Fatzer AG it is all about collaboration success. That’s what we like to be involved in and that’s why we also feel comfortable in where we sit in the industry. It is a bigger effort than just one company has done a successful sustainability campaign and it needs to be more than that. It needs the full supply chain to buy into it and deliver and it needs the designers and the architects to know what can be delivered and we want to be part of that and that’s why we are talking to everybody and talking to what’s possible and what kind of transparency we can deliver.”
 

Procurement Design Production Use Phase

“A lot of things that the Fatzer AG have always done and we are doing with additional thoughts and intentions. We have always been involved in standards committee work to develop the standards. Now, there is an additional thought in our minds in the view of sustainability. What’s hindering sustainability approach in standards – can we be more open to reusing material, talk about it and implement it. We are always on the way of supporting what we think is better structural designs, designing lightweight structures with cables and using less material, our endeavor for better material. We have started two research projects to investigate into improvement of steel for our wire and so on.”
 

Material Reuse

He stated that the reuse of material can be done if there is a large stadium where one can use cables again – “We can always make a shorter cable out of a longer cable. There is a product from the ropeway industry which actually has a plastic core in the center and we have insourced and we are manufacturing ourselves and we have then calculated what have we achieved with that. Obviously, we are looking for financial gains there as well, to have more control on the product but we have also eliminated 93 transports from our supplier to us and that equivalents to 14 tonnes per year.”
 

Net Zero

Dr. Martin Bechtold concluded by stating, “We will soon become net zero. The possible gains you can get when you use CO₂ with used steel for your wires without compromising on the specification and the properties because quality is still the most sustainable way in some products that last always better than things that last less long. So, without compromising on quality there is a different manufacturing route which used iron and the recycling content increased.”

Continue following Coliseum for the latest updates on sports venues, stadiums and arena business news worldwide.

Coliseum is dedicated to building a global community of sports and entertainment venue professionals helping create better and more profitable venues.

Become a member of the Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and industry experts from around the world. Apply for membership through the Global Sports Venue Alliance and access the 365Coliseum Business platform.

• Tags »
• Dr. Martin Bechtold
• FATZER AG
• rope

« Previous News: No takers for Ukraine Dnipro Arena; to go under hammer again
» Next News: VfB Oldenburg venue sod-cutting held but project not out-of-woods