KONE launches its own circular economy sector

A pioneering sector in the sector

The launch of this sector is part of KONE's desire to systematize reuse by structuring the different stages of its “circular economy” offer. Concretely, the creation of this sector includes the identification of materials that can be reused during the modernization of a device, non-destructive disassembly, transport to a storage location as well as their reuse by KONE or their implementation. sale on a resale platform Prokodis, a subsidiary of KONE, between construction professionals. KONE technicians were thus trained in the different stages of this specific operating procedure.

For Mare Rossaert, Modernization director at KONE France, Belgium, Luxembourg: « Many businesses, such as real estate and construction companies, which have set ambitious decarbonization and circularity targets, are seeking solutions from their suppliers. It is to enable our customers to meet these objectives that we created this sector by standardizing and streamlining the different processes: identification, dismantling, storage and resale. As an indication, each modernization operation with circular economy saves at least between 182 kg and 400 kg of CO2 »

177 elevators modernized in France with the “circular economy” offer in 2023

Since its launch at the beginning of 2023, this offer has made it possible to give a second life and reuse the components of 177 different pieces of equipment (frequency variators, electronic cards, operating cabinets). This represents an increase of 590% compared to the 30 equipment modernized in 2022 via the circular economy. In 2023, the sectors most popular with KONE's offering were residential and office, which is equivalent to 42% of projects.

For Mare Rossaert, Modernization director at KONE France, Belgium, Luxembourg: « The consolidation of our circular economy sector strengthens our support to customers in their transition to more sustainable buildings. Always in a logic of innovation, we are currently studying new needs and new reuse sectors for other types of parts, in order to go even further in this approach and support new projects. »

The income generated by the sale of these parts is part of an ecological utility program. They are entirely donated to Reforest'Action, a B Corp certified company specializing in the preservation, restoration and creation of forests. In 2023, this reasoned and constructive offer generated enough income to plant 7.080 trees and thus respond to the environmental challenges of reforestation, associated with the preservation of biodiversity.

Facilitating the circularity of components within KONE also involves the creation of new elevators. Thanks to the eco-design of its products, KONE can control the end of life of its equipment, 90% of the materials and components of which can be recycled, recovered into new resources (or raw materials that the sector will need) and thus accelerate its transition to the circular economy.