KONE deepens innovation and sustainability commitment to Singapore’s built environment

This press release was issued by KONE.

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.

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.