KONE, a company specializing in vertical transportation systems, has joined the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, a select group of industry leaders who practice and are recognized for leadership in sustainability.
Founded in 2003, the mission of the Alliance is to transform the marketplace: to make green building best practices industry standards. To that end, it strives to raise awareness of sustainable development and promote the triple bottom line benefits delivered through high performance green buildings. Members include Johnson Controls Inc., Philips Lighting, Kohler Co., Eaton Corp., Milliken & Company, Forbo Flooring, JohnsonDiversey Inc., Owens Corning, USG Corporation, and now KONE.
“We are excited to have KONE join the Alliance bringing its expertise and commitment to sustainable urban development,” said Craig Zurawski, executive director of the Alliance. “Elevators, escalators, and automatic building doors play a critical role in the operation of any multi-level facility. KONE not only produces quality products that are efficient and safe, but its solutions also save energy, reduce emissions, and are designed with an eye on reducing waste.”
In addition to its commitment to producing products that contribute to a high performance green building, KONE was invited to join the Alliance because of its recognition of sustainability as a critical part of its business strategy, and its commitment to greening its own facilities and manufacturing processes.
As of March of 2008, 90% of KONE’s production facilities were certified according to the ISO 14001 standard and are actively continuing the certification work in the rest of its operations. Several of the countries’ operating units also hold the environmental certificate.
“As the eco-efficiency leader of our industry, we are committed to providing education to improve sustainable development,” said Vance Tang, KONE executive vice president and area director for the Americas. “We are excited to be a part of an organization that is in line with our current and future goals to help deliver high performance buildings as well as improve our own operating efficiencies.”
KONE continues to improve the energy efficiency of its products, about 95% of its elevator and escalator materials are made from easily recycled materials, reducing the strain on landfills. It also is lessening other usage related environmental influences by eliminating or significantly reducing oil usage, enabling longer lasting and more energy-efficient lifecycles through modernization solutions, and prescribing performance based maintenance.
KONE’s product lifecycle analyses show that most of the products’ carbon footprint is created when they are operated, not when they are manufactured. Therefore, improving the environmental efficiency of its solutions by reducing the need for energy and oil is a key issue for KONE. Such solutions include regenerative systems, energy saving hoisting mechanisms, standby energy saving solutions, and energy-efficient lighting.
KONE operates through 1,000 service centers in 50 countries and delivers approximately 50,000 new elevators and escalators per year. Its service base consists of more than 700,000 elevators and escalators and more than 300,000 automatic building doors. KONE was founded in Finland in 1910. In 2007, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 4.1 billion and more than 32,500 employees.
