KONE Singapore, press release, July 31, 2024
KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has renewed its ambition to drive innovation for a greener built environment sector in Singapore and beyond with an expanded program until 2026. Following the inception of one of its three global innovation hubs here in 2020, KONE will also continue to invest in, build and nurture an agile local talent base. This strategic move, in collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), is integral to KONE’s unwavering commitment to collaborative innovation and practical impact for the industry.
To stay ahead of the emerging trends and challenges in the local built environment, KONE’s latest innovation program strives to develop new products, prioritized with environmental sustainability in mind. By 2026, KONE intends to add new roles in Singapore such as strategic designers, while building wider innovation capacity and capability across a number of imperatives, including construction acceleration; and repurposing and renovating buildings.
From more immersive and predictive insights for customer decision-making to improved construction productivity and seamless problem-solving in field service, these innovation projects leveraging climate technologies, generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), industrial internet of things (IIoT) capabilities and more can potentially reshape the industry and drive change in the sector. While the projects will be led, designed and trialed in Singapore, KONE keeps a keen eye for the Asia Pacific region’s vast potential and will, both independently and with like-minded partners, scale up their impact for the market.
“Innovation has been pivotal in fueling KONE’s mission to improve the flow of urban life. With Singapore’s global reputation for its vibrant ecosystem, we are excited to be deepening our innovation roots and competencies in the Asia Pacific region,” said Amy Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, KONE. “This expanded program opens up new opportunities for co-innovation, enabling us to explore novel technologies to address significant challenges in the built environment, positively impacting communities throughout the country and even the region, in the most sustainable ways possible.”
“We welcome KONE’s decision to expand its innovation activities in Singapore, in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), climate technology and industrial internet of things (IIoT). This is a good example of how leading industry players can leverage Singapore’s ecosystem to develop and scale sustainability solutions for the region, as well as capture green growth opportunities,” said Lim Tse Yong, Senior Vice President and Head, Mobility and Industrial Solutions, EDB.
For over 40 years, KONE has pioneered innovative and sustainable solutions in Singapore to improve people flow and is instrumental in delivering key real estate projects such as the Marina Bay Sands. It holds the highest number of Singapore Green Building Product certifications, and remains the only elevator and escalator company to have achieved all product certifications with the highest possible “Leader” ratings.
Today, to better serve the region and unlock market opportunities, KONE’s global innovation hub in Singapore explores emerging technologies, and co-creates new products and services with customers and partners. One KONE product innovation birthed from the team is the seamless integration of industrialized facial recognition into turnstiles for a smoother and more secure user access to commercial buildings. Using tablet-enabled and embedded facial recognition technologies, the innovation underwent robust live environment trials in Singapore before its official launch for market in 2023. KONE estimates that customers can benefit from around 35 per cent operational cost savings, while users enjoy contactless and more efficient building access from the implementation.
The company has also been recognized in Singapore for its commitment to environmental sustainability. In 2022, KONE was conferred the “Business Leadership in Sustainability – Innovation” award by the Singapore Green Building Council, and Building and Construction Authority. It was also a Merit winner in the Singapore Environment Council’s Green Innovations Award (MNC category) last year.
For further information, please contact:
Jane Chan, Communications Manager, Southeast Asia, tel. +65 9783 9804, jane.chan@kone.com
Read more
Previous press releases are available at www.kone.com/en/news-and-insights/releases/ including:
June 25, 2024: KONE 4G Gateway wins coveted Red Dot Award for Product Design 2024
March 13, 2024: KONE recognized as Supplier Engagement Leader by CDP and ranked 55th on Clean200 list
February 6, 2024: KONE recognized with ‘A’ score for performance on climate change
January 18, 2023: KONE ranked 19th most sustainable company in the world by Corporate Knights
June 21, 2022: KONE wins three prestigious Red Dot design awards
About KONE
At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2023, KONE had annual sales of EUR 11.0 billion, and at the end of the year over 60,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland.www.kone.com