KONE Corporation, press release, November 25, 2014
KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has been granted LEED Gold certification for KONE Park, a manufacturing and R&D site in Kunshan, China. LEED certification is a highly respected rating system that provides third-party verification of green buildings.
KONE Park earned LEED Gold certification by excelling in many of the LEED categories for green buildings, scoring full points in both water efficiency and innovation & design. KONE Park's performance in the innovation & design category was exceptional, scoring above the requirements set by the LEED rating system. This was accomplished by educating staff in green issues, using local construction materials, achieving water savings of more than 40% and implementing an exceptional waste management system with a recycling rate of 95%.
"We are very proud of KONE Park's LEED Gold certification. China is by far the biggest single elevator and escalator market in the world, so we wanted a highly energy-efficient manufacturing site that delivers the majority of our elevators and escalators around the world while being highly eco-friendly. The LEED Gold certification serves as proof of KONE's strong dedication to our long-term environmental efforts and reinforces our commitment to be a leader in sustainability in our industry," says Hanna Uusitalo, KONE's Environmental Director.
Besides scoring full points in the categories of water efficiency and innovation & design, KONE Park was also recognized for its efforts to reduce emissions related to employee commuting. Among the other factors contributing to KONE's LEED Gold certification were the company's efforts to improve the indoor air quality by installing CO2 control in their HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) system, using low-emitting surface materials and paying special attention to ventilation and indoor air quality issues. KONE also implemented strict control over energy use, purchasing green power and placing firm demands on refrigerants - all efforts that helped KONE score high points in the energy & atmosphere category.
KONE Park in Kunshan is KONE's largest manufacturing unit in the world, with an engineering facility, R&D center, three elevator factories and an escalator factory. The awarded site was opened in April 2013. KONE began operations in China in 1996, and opened its first Chinese factory in Kunshan in 1998. Today, KONE has a network of over 500 locations, employing more than 10,000 people in China. KONE is the leading company in new elevator and escalator orders in the Chinese market.
LEED certification is granted to green design and construction sites that maximize the positive environmental impacts of buildings and use resources efficiently, while simultaneously increasing profitability and improving the health of its occupants. The LEED rating system has six green design categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials & resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation & design.
More information on KONE's environmental excellence can be found at: www.kone.com/sustainability.
For further information, please contact:
Hanna Uusitalo, Environmental Director, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 20 475 3573
Previous press releases concerning KONE's corporate responsibility are available at www.kone.com/press including:
October 21, 2014: KONE scores full marks in CDP 2014 climate change reporting
June 12, 2014: KONE ranked by Newsweek the world's 12th greenest company
About KONE
KONE is one of the global leaders in the elevator and escalator industry. KONE's objective is to offer the best People Flow® experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanizing environment. KONE provides industry-leading elevators, escalators, automatic building doors and integrated solutions to enhance the People Flow in and between buildings. KONE's services cover the entire lifetime of a building, from the design phase to maintenance, repairs and modernization solutions. In 2013, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 6.9 billion, and at the end of the year over 43,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd in Finland.