Konecranes works for a decarbonized and circular world
The world faces the challenge of providing materials and goods that are essential for people, while preserving scarce resources and limiting emissions. Businesses play a central role in solving this.
As an industry leader, Konecranes is perfectly placed to meet this challenge: We support our customers’ operations with innovative solutions that enhance their productivity, help lower their emissions and drive their business forward.
Together with customers and business partners, our resourceful people make material handling more productive and sustainable. We maximize lifecycle value and eliminate waste of resources, energy and time throughout the whole value chain.
Konecranes’ knowledge and innovative technologies, solutions and services constitute a key link in enabling the flow of essential material and goods. Our culture is rooted on uncompromised safety, high ethics and diversity and inclusion.
We work for a decarbonized and circular world for customers and society.
2024 Highlights
- Konecranes achieved the Scope 1 and 2 science-based target of reducing the emissions of own operations by 50 percent by 2030 from the baseline year 2019 already in 2022, eight years ahead of schedule. Therefore, a new target was set: Carbon neutral own operations by 2030. We will achieve carbon neutrality by improving energy efficiency in our operations, investing in renewable energy sources, and electrifying our vehicle fleet. The unavoidable emissions left – most probably mainly related to vehicle fuel consumption and refrigerants - will be offset if no feasible technologies are available by 2030. In 2024, emissions from own operations decreased by 56 percent compared to the base year 2019. During the year, we continued to increase the share of renewable energy. For example, in Hyvinkää, Finland we shifted to fully renewable district heating and renewable fuels, and in Markaryd, Sweden we replaced oil-based heating with geothermal heating. We also continued to electrify the vehicle fleet.
- We target to halve our Scope 3 (value chain) emissions by 2030, with current progress of 12% decrease since 2019. The main actions in Scope 3 emission reduction are related to electrifying our offering by 2026 and collaborating with suppliers sharing our climate ambition to minimize the emissions related to steel purchases. In 2024 we launched several electric products on the market. We also further increased our understanding of the steel market decarbonization development and its impact on our products as well as further investigated alternatives for purchasing low-emission steel. We continued the implementation of Konecranes Design for Environment principles in product development.
- We continuously develop our digital ecosystem and product safety features and have further strengthened our information security management system as well as our safety culture to enhance the safety, security and reliability of our products, services and solutions. In 2024, we, for example, conducted product safety management process’ internal audits and used the findings to further improve the process. Konecranes also achieved IEC 62443 cybersecurity certification for its secure product development process, covering RTGs in segment Port Solutions, and Process Cranes and Light Lifting products in the segment Industrial Equipment. We also continued embedding health and safety into everyone’s daily job by supporting employees in recognizing hazards; making health, safety and environmental observations; and promoting health, safety and environmental excellence.
- In 2024, Konecranes rolled out an updated Supplier Code of Conduct to include more robust human rights management requirements as well as more emphasis on environmental responsibility. We also changed our approach in the supplier selection and onboarding by moving from mainly spend-based know-your-supplier process to a risk-based process.
- In 2024, we paid an adequate wage to all employees, committed to meeting the living wage requirements and started to close the gaps. Living wage is higher than the adequate wage in several locations. We also measured an 83 percent inclusion index in 2024, indicating a strong feeling of inclusion among our employees.
Sustainability governance
Sustainability work at Konecranes is embedded into our governance processes at several levels. The Board of Directors is the highest body overseeing sustainability. The Board of Directors also approves the long-term focus, ambition level and targets. The Konecranes Board of Directors’ Human Resources Committee is the official supervisory Board committee focusing on sustainability and is responsible for assisting and providing guidance and recommendations to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors’ Human Resources Committee reviews the sustainability strategy implementation and the performance against set targets, business strategy and values as well as the long-term and short-term incentive plans including ESG metrics. The Board of Directors’ Audit Committee is the official supervisory body for overseeing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting.
Konecranes’ President and CEO holds the highest executive-level responsibility on sustainability. The Konecranes Leadership Team plays a significant role in the company’s management system, strategy preparation and decision-making and is involved in the risk and financial planning process, but it has no official statutory position based on legislation or the Articles of Association. The Konecranes Leadership Team approves sustainability policies, strategy and targets and reviews sustainability performance monthly.
The Sustainability Council, nominated by the Konecranes Leadership Team, advises and assists in overseeing the sustainability strategy, ambition and performance, as well as compliance with Konecranes’ sustainability-related policies and processes. The Sustainability Council also validates the materiality assessment, prepares policies, and oversees the implementation of the practices. The Sustainability Council follows risk and opportunity assessments and emerging trends and regulations, and is led by the Vice President, Sustainability. The Compliance & Ethics Committee oversees the development and quality of the Compliance & Ethics Program and is sponsored by the Executive Vice President, General Counsel.
In Konecranes’ organizational structure, the highest responsibility for operational sustainability work is with the Vice President, Sustainability, who reports directly to the President and CEO.
Our operations and ways of working are guided by Konecranes’ Code of Conduct and our values and principles for economic, social and environmental responsibility. In practical terms, this means conducting business on high ethical standards and extending these principles also down the supply chain.
Advancing our climate action with science-based targets
Limiting global warming requires decarbonization of all industry sectors, and we have analyzed our ability to do our part. We have reviewed how climate change affects Konecranes and how Konecranes can contribute to climate change mitigation. In early 2022 we published our science-based climate targets which have been validated as being in line with the ambition to limit global warming to 1.5°C. These targets highlight Konecranes’ ambition to cut emissions, further develop its low-carbon portfolio and mitigate climate risks.
Konecranes is committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 mainly by investing into the energy efficiency of the production processes and improving fleet fuel efficiency as well as using renewable energy. As this target was achieved in the end of 2022, Konecranes aims to further reduce the emissions from the original target, aiming for carbon neutral own operations by 2030.
For Scope 3, Konecranes is committed to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, encompassing the use of sold products and steel related purchases. The target covers over 70% of Konecranes’ value chain emissions. The most important milestones in Konecranes climate roadmap are to electrify product offering, further accelerating the adoption of smart design principles and collaborating with steel providers who share Konecranes’ climate ambition.
Additionally, in 2024 Konecranes committed to set long-term net-zero group emission reduction targets in line with the Science Based Targets initiative Net-Zero Standard.
Focusing on low-carbon offering and circularity
We enable our customers' shift to a low-carbon future with our offering. To meet the increasing demand for low-carbon products, we will focus on providing eco-efficient solutions and prolonging product lifecycles with our solutions and service concepts. Building our processes around circular economy principles helps us improve our resource and energy efficiency while creating value for the customer.
We have aligned our reporting and communications on low-carbon solutions and reviewed our taxonomy-eligibility and alignment according to the EU Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852.
In Port Solutions, we provide cutting edge technology to the market with our solutions that enable our customers to shift to a low-carbon future, accelerating circular economy. We have steadily expanded our offering of electric and hybrid products, with the last remaining diesel-fueled product lines within the lift truck business to be made available electrically by the end of 2026. For diesel-powered vehicles we provide innovative power options from hybrids to full electric and battery technology with additional energy-saving features. Container gantry cranes, ship-to-shore cranes (STS), mobile harbour cranes (MHC) and automated guided vehicles (AGV) are available as fully electric. Konecranes also offers electric forklifts and is actively developing new electrified equipment alternatives. Electrified offering and customer industries’ electrification are important focus areas connected to our Scope 3 target of halving emissions by 2030. The emissions category “use of sold products” is the biggest source of emissions, and the share of Port Solutions’ diesel-powered equipment sales impacts that heavily. This is also why the electrification of customer industries of ports and terminals is key.
As the industrial crane products are fully electric, our Industrial Equipment offering concentrates on energy and material efficiency, as well as repairability and recyclability.
Our service business advances circular economy by focusing on extending the lifecycle of customers' equipment. We also offer retrofit and modernization solutions for customers to update their technology up to current standards and to enable them to increase efficiency, safety and security of the equipment and reduce their environmental footprint.
Our sustainability agenda
We have combined the material aspects of our operations into four commitments of sustainability: we enable a decarbonized and circular world; we deliver safe and secure material handling solutions; we create a fair, inclusive, diverse and engaging working environment; and we expect the highest ethical standards of ourselves and our business partners. We have set ambitious targets for all four areas, and regularly monitor the progress on those.
Sustainability indexes and recognitions
Konecranes actively and regularly responds to sustainability indexes and questionnaires such as MSCI ESG, CDP, ISS ESG, Ecovadis, and Sustainalytics. A summary table of Sustainability ratings and recognitions is available here.
Konecranes’ sustainability work has been recognized with top ratings from distinguished sustainability indexes.
In addition, Konecranes is a signatory member of the UN Global Compact and committed to UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Contact our sustainability team
Anniina Virta-Toikka,
Vice President, Sustainability
anniina.virta-toikka(at)konecranes.com
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