This year's August 2nd is "Earth Overshoot Day," but it's not cause for celebration. Because on this day, we have exhausted the total amount of renewable natural resources on the earth this year. To ensure that our planet can renew itself in the future, we must be more responsible in our use of resources. The solution lies in the cycle, the circular economy. In this strategic field of action, the KION Group is committed to the use of renewable resources, the development of new concepts for the joint and modular use of products and solutions, the extension of the service life of products, and the reuse of materials.
In just seven months, we have globally emitted more carbon than our forests and oceans can absorb, felled more trees than regrowed, and caught more fish than fish stocks can recover. fish. Humanity is depleting resources at a rate of about 1.7 Earths per year at the expense of future generations, and this trend shows no signs of reversing.
At KION, how do we address this issue? An important concept in the responsible use of resources is that of circularity, the circular economy. KION's goal is to use resources more responsibly throughout the entire life cycle of products and solutions and throughout the value chain.
01
Sharing forklifts in China
Renting a car is more environmentally friendly than buying a car. Linde Material Handling, a subsidiary of the KION Group in China, has adopted this approach. In 2022, Linde will take the lead in launching forklift sharing, an innovative industrial forklift rental model, in the Chinese market. This service provides customers with convenient, fast, economical and highly flexible internal logistics solutions. Customers only need to use a mobile app to scan the QR code of the forklift to use the forklift.
After use, scan the QR code again to return the forklift. Linde currently has more than 100 shared forklifts available to customers in China and will continue to match the hardware and software of all major models in order to provide customers with more diverse choices of forklift shared products.
02
Sustainable Product Design at Dematic
Since 2021, the innovation team at KION subsidiary Dematic has been following the "cradle to cradle" principle in product design. Cradle to Cradle
describes the safe and infinite circulation of materials and nutrients in a cyclic process. With this approach, all components should be harmless and recyclable. The waste generated according to the existing "use-make-waste" model will cease to exist under this new model, leaving only useful raw materials.
03
Industrial Vehicle and Battery Refurbishment
Lithium-ion batteries play a pivotal role in the intralogistics of the future: 90 percent of all industrial forklift trucks sold by KION today are powered by electricity. In order to extend the service life of the forklift as much as possible and ensure a sustainable life cycle, KION repairs the forklift and its power unit.
04
Collaborative recycling of lithium-ion batteries
When the battery finally reaches the end of its life, it will be sent for recycling. In order to recover the primary material and make the recycling process as sustainable as possible, KION has partnered with the company Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. Lithium Cycle's process produces minimal landfill residue, zero wastewater discharge and low air emissions. From the second half of 2023, KION will recycle lithium-ion batteries in an environmentally friendly manner at the lithium recycling company in Magdeburg.
Circular Economy
A circular economy is a way of thinking beyond the end of a product or material's initial life cycle. It starts with sustainable product design, sustainable production and delivery, and extending the useful life of products through alternative usage models. The circular economy doesn't stop there either. The goal is to move from linear production to a circular process that wastes no resources. Products and materials should be used for as long as possible and then reprocessed and recycled sustainably at the end of their life cycle, creating new materials for future production processes.
