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KONE 2016 | SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
INNOVATIONS
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DRIVING INNOVATION AND
IMPROVING RESOURCE
EFFICIENCY
At KONE, innovations in urban development have an important role
in tackling issues like social progress, economic prosperity and climate
change. For example today’s cities take up about 2% of the world’s land
mass, but account for 75% of global energy consumption and 80% of
manmade carbon emissions. Reducing the impact urban areas make on the
environment is essential for a more sustainable future.
G4 INDICATORS RELATED TO THIS SECTION
G4 EN3: Energy consumption within the organization
G4-EN6: Reduction of energy consumption
G4-EN8: Total water withdrawal by source
G4-EN15: Direct GHG emissions
G4-EN16: Indirect GHG emissions
G4-EN17: Other indirect GHG emissions
G4-EN18: GHG emissions intensity
G4-EN19: Reduction of GHG emissions
G4-EN23: Total waste by type and disposal method
G4-EN29: Monetary value of significant fines and total number of non-
monetary sanctions for non-compliance with environmental laws and
regulations
G4-EN30: Significant environmental impacts of transport
Urbanization is generating new needs for
buildings and infrastructure, for living standards,
for safety and for sustainable low-carbon
societies. The increasing pace of urbanization
is transforming how people live. There is a
need to improve and modernize existing cities
to accommodate a growing population. All
this provides us with great potential for new
innovations.
We have developed numerous eco-innovations
over the past decades, and we pay special
attention to resource efficiency in all of our
actions. We also continuously develop, improve
and refine our approach to innovation. For the
most part, KONE’s business has been driven by
advances in mechanical engineering for more
than a century. Innovation in today’s world
is much more. It means new processes, new
integrated technologies and connectivity, as well
as new benchmarks for customer service.
At a time when markets and technologies
are changing, competition is intensifying and
urbanization is happening faster than ever, at
KONE, we have mapped our innovation focus
areas by understanding universal needs for
sustainable and smart urban development. We
have defined six of the most important needs,
listed on the table next page.
If we can understand the demands and
the changing trends of urbanization and
technological disruption, then we believe we
will have a great opportunity to add value to
our customers and society at large, making a
contribution to rising living standards, in the
most sustainable ways.
Collaborative approach
The needs which arise from urbanization
play a large role in the development of our
Research & Development (R&D). For the past
century, we have made systematic, long-term
investments into our R&D capabilities. Today
we have eight global R&D competence centers
INNOVATING FOR SMART
URBAN ENVIRONMENTS