OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES AND THE FUTURE
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ThyssenKrupp Elevator is excited about the future of the Company. We can all work together to make better products, a healthier planet, a secure business and an engaged community.
Along our journey, we have been able to celebrate great accomplishments as well as learn from challenging discoveries and happenings. ThyssenKrupp Elevator is committed to continuing the development of our strategy by building upon and leveraging our opportunities. We will address sustainability challenges both within our operations and those related to environmental and socioeconomic trends that affect ThyssenKrupp Elevator.
Overall, our biggest opportunity is the partnership we share with our customers and stakeholders. Their trust in ThyssenKrupp as a valuable source for accurate and reliable information about sustainability is our greatest accomplishment and opportunity. Our desire to be a valuable resource to these audiences can positively affect their businesses as well as ours.
We will continue to examine and refine our current sustainability goals and highlight areas that we can build upon, such as elevator innovation, wasting nothing, energy efficiency and social responsibility.
Elevator Innovation
There has been an evolution in elevator technology over the past 10 to 15 years. Modernizing older elevator machines or controllers to the latest technology will bring huge savings in energy costs and CO2 emissions. Our green repair and modernization packages for existing elevators and escalators position us to serve clients better.
Wasting Nothing
In our efforts to waste nothing, ThyssenKrupp can strengthen the reuse, reduce and renew initiatives currently in place. There are many practices and strategies to enhance and continue, including growing our waste water recycling program, further reductions in VOC’s and increasing our 30% reduction in waste to landfill. We will also strive for 100% recycling of scrap metal, lumber and cardboard and further reductions in the Company’s water use.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is also key to our sustainability strategy. We have researched and implemented many best practices that can be leveraged for greater impact. Some examples include our Automated Energy Management System in Middleton, TN, the key findings and opportunities uncovered as a result of our Life Cycle Analysis project and our partnership with the FORD motor company to advance the FORD transit connect vehicles in the United States. These vehicles produce 37% better fuel economy than our current service fleet. ThyssenKrupp Elevator has 200 Transit Connects on the road, which saves the Company up to 90,000 gallons of fuel per year.
We will also continue to monitor the regulatory environment where we operate to identify opportunities and incentives related to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.
Social Responsibility
Our fourth goal focuses on our efforts to be a better community partner. ThyssenKrupp believes in giving back to the communities in which we operate and serve. We do this in a variety of ways, including involvement with various volunteer initiatives and charitable programs, supporting local suppliers, and producing American-made products. We also believe we can strengthen our role as a community partner by merging our “giving” efforts to develop a signature, philanthropic program for our business unit—resulting in a unified workforce and a more powerful, positive impact on the communities we serve.
As we developed our 2010 Sustainability Report, we identified additional opportunities for our Company, including:
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Challenges
Since the publication of our last report, we have been challenged in our efforts to measure and implement our sustainability strategy. However, we strive to grow and learn from any difficulties or obstacles that we encounter.
Standards and Regulations
Our biggest challenge is limited sustainable guidelines, standards or regulations that relate specifically to elevators. Currently, LEED® and certain state and local green building regulations address elevators by excluding them. Although we feel strongly that we are operating in the right way, there are not any official rules to follow at this time. We have taken this challenge and turned it in into the opportunity to become an educational partner to key audiences and stakeholders. It is our hope that if we can earn the trust and respect of the industry, we can play a part in helping to set any standard for our operations going forward.
On the regulatory front, our Company will have to adapt should increased regulations related to greenhouse gas emissions become enacted within the United States as our fleet, facilities, buildings and field offices produce greenhouse gases (GHG) as a by-product of their activities and operations. The most imminent climate-related regulations for ThyssenKrupp Elevator is the new fuel efficiency standards introduced in April 2010, via the EPA’s Climate Regulation. As we mentioned in the Opportunities section, our light-duty fleet vehicles are subject to this regulation, which could create capital and/or overhead costs to either purchase more efficient vehicles or improve the efficiency of its current fleet. Should carbon ever be priced or taxed within the United States, ThyssenKrupp Elevator may be required to make changes to facilities and equipment to help lower GHG emissions from our operations and facilities. Also, there is pending legislation/regulations that could drive our customers to reduce GHG emissions in their supply-chains further.
Our Operations
In addition to monitoring challenges and opportunities from evolving sustainability regulations and standards, we are focused on environmental and socio-economic trends as they relate to our business operations, such as rising energy prices, security of energy supply, climate change and economic growth.
Over the coming years, costs associated with new fuel efficiency standards within the United States could drive up the cost of service and/or products. Our suppliers will likely also see increased costs with the transportation of goods and services which will filter to us, and in turn may or may not be passed along to our customers. The scale of these potential costs is dependent on the current efficiency of our light-duty fleet vehicles and manufacturing operations, and also on any costs associated with addressing any inefficiency that may incur a regulatory cost. To help manage risks related to energy costs and climate change, our energy efficiency targets will allow ThyssenKrupp Elevator to reduce our energy-related costs as well as our GHG emissions.
As we developed our 2010 Sustainability Report, we identified additional challenges for our Company, including:
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The Future
We believe that the coming decades will be transformative. The future holds the advent of new technologies, increased transparency and a growing emphasis on sustainability to meet demand without compromising generations to come.
Our vision for the future is to grow TKE through efficient utilization of all resources by using each to its fullest potential and by wasting nothing, while continuously furthering our core values of safety, integrity, service, innovation, diversity, efficiency and quality. The journey will require a dedication to continuous improvement and will look forward to partnering with our stakeholders to adapting to meet the business challenges and opportunities of our new century.
