immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Bauingenieurwesen

  • Miljan Gutovic becomes new CEO of Holcim

    Miljan Gutovic becomes new CEO of Holcim

    The Board of Directors of Holcim has appointed Miljan Gutovic as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Holcim with effect from 1 May, according to a press release. He will succeed Jan Jenisch, who wishes to concentrate on his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors and is standing for re-election at the Annual General Meeting in May. The Board of Directors has also appointed Jenisch to lead the planned IPO of Holcim’s North American business in the USA.

    Gutovic has been a member of Holcim’s Executive Committee since 2018. The Australian holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Technology in Sydney. He was Head of the Middle East and Africa region, then of the Europe region and was responsible for Operational Excellence. Under his leadership, Holcim has strengthened its market positions, achieved industry-leading margins and turned decarbonisation into a driver of profitable growth, according to the press release.

    Miljan Gutovic is “a highly qualified colleague who has made a decisive contribution to the successful transformation of Holcim into the leading company for innovative and sustainable construction solutions”, the still acting CEO Jenisch is quoted as saying. “Miljan has increased our profitability in Europe to a record level, successfully executed strategic transactions and built excellent teams.”

    “As a passionate civil engineer, there is no more exciting company for me than Holcim – especially at a time when decarbonisation and advanced technologies are changing the way we build. I look forward to working with the Holcim teams worldwide,” future CEO Gutovic is quoted as saying.

    Holcim, based in Zug, is one of the largest producers of building materials in the world. The company produces concrete, gravel and cement at 55 sites across Switzerland and turns demolition materials into resource-saving products.

  • EPFL student turns plastic waste into bricks for building

    EPFL student turns plastic waste into bricks for building

    For her master’s thesis in civil engineering, Selina Heiniger developed a method for the more sustainable production of building material. According to a press release from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne ( EPFL ), she uses plastic waste, concrete that has already been used and terracotta bricks that have been made small.

    In her master’s thesis, Heiniger wanted to tackle two related challenges: reducing environmental pollution from plastic waste and developing construction methods that use fewer raw materials.

    She developed bricks made from recycled plastic – polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) – as well as crushed terracotta bricks and recycled concrete. Their bricks are designed to interlock, so no mortar is required. Initial tests are encouraging, but the invention is still in the prototype stage. If successful, Heiniger’s work could make a significant contribution to reducing the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

    Heiniger graduated from high school in the canton of Bern and then enrolled at the EPFL to study civil engineering. At first she only studied part-time, as she also worked in a civil engineering company in Lausanne.

    Selina Heiniger’s master’s thesis was jointly developed by Corentin Fivet, head of EPFL’s Laboratory for Structural Exploration in the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Yves Leterrier, a senior scientist at EPFL’s Laboratory for Advanced Composites Processing in the Faculty of engineering, supervised.