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KONE’s largest manufacturing unit has
won gold. KONE Park in Kunshan, eastern
China, has been awarded the coveted LEED
Gold certification for green buildings.
“I am very proud of Kunshan’s achieve-
ment,” says
Luca Galbiati
, Senior Vice
President for KONE’s Global Manufacturing
and Supply. “This is very important for us.”
The highly respected rating for the
energy and environmental performance of
buildings rewards the sustainability of the
plant, which includes an engineering facility
and research and development center, three
elevator factories and an escalator factory.
“China is by far the biggest single
elevator market in the world and we wanted
a highly energy-efficient manufacturing
site, which also delivers a majority of our
elevators around the world,” Galbiati says.
Kunshan was opened officially in
April 2013 to meet KONE’s global supply
network needs. It was planned using
the principles of lean manufacturing –
maximizing efficiency and eliminating
waste, reducing energy and water use,
and minimizing the carbon footprint.
Galbiati points out that other KONE
facilities have also achieved major milestones
in sustainability metrics, including KONE’s
Czech manufacturing unit, which achieved
ISO 50001 energy management certification
last year. At the end of 2013, KONE adopted
a Global Facility Policy that sets the goal of
reducing the facilities-related carbon foot-
print by 15 percent by the end of 2016.
And KONE as a group has beaten
its targets for sustainable energy use.
“We have a systematic track record of
achieving our global target to reduce our
carbon footprint for operations by three
percent annually, relative to net sales,”
Galbiati says. “Last year we achieved a
3.5 percent reduction,” he adds proudly.
That measure includes energy
consumption in all of KONE’s offices
and manufacturing units alike: Kunshan
and the Czech unit, as well as operations
in Italy, Finland, the United States, Mexico
and India. The Italian unit uses green
electricity and the Finnish unit has been
awarded by the local community for its
energy-efficiency efforts, including the
construction of a LEED Gold certified
visitor center on site.
n
Green means gold
for Kunshan
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