Sustainable product innovation
Customer demand for sustainable products is increasing. It is in our long- and short-term interest to ensure that ASSA ABLOY run a sustainable business and offer architects and customers sustainable solutions.
By being sustainable we can create value for our customers by cutting costs at the same time, as sustainable products and processes are inherently more efficient in their use of materials, energy, transport, and other costs.
A process toward more sustainable products
Keeping up to date with sustainability development throughout the ASSA ABLOY value chain is important in order to create and maintain awareness. We do that by training programs that covers governance, innovation, sourcing, manufacturing and sales etc. The group intranet and the staff magazine are other important channels to engage with the employees on this matter.
With buildings generally accounting for around 40 percent of energy consumption in society, the focus on sustainability in the construction industry has increased over the past couple of years. This is expressed in an increased number of sustainability-certified buildings, sustainability-profiled architects, and so on. At the same time, security-related regulation is increasing and financial investments are increasingly being based on sustainability criteria – in companies as well as in building projects.
Improving the sustainability profile
ASSA ABLOY has focused on improving its sustainability profile for several years. The group monitors performance in the manufacturing plants and have implemented improvement targets in many important areas. To improve the performance further, the group has increased the focus on sustainability in new product innovation.
ASSA ABLOY’s ambition is to develop new product concepts that are truly innovative in the way they solve customer problems or create customer value, while being based on more sustainable solutions and processes.
To maximize the sustainability of new products and solutions, ASSA ABLOY considers the whole life cycle of products and focus the engineering efforts on areas where the greatest impact can be achieved. The group place each product in a broader context than that of its own development and production processes as its environmental impact can increase significantly when it is part of a larger system, such as a hotel, hospital or university.
Reduce-reuse-recycle
We apply the principles of reduce-reuse-recycle in product innovation.
In implementing this sustainability strategy, we intends to reduce the use of chemicals, energy and materials needed to fulfill security, safety and convenience requirements. The ultimate aim is to reduce the negative impact of our products and processes.
The reuse aspect is addressed through an increased focus on modularity. All major platform development should be modular so as to maximize the variance for the customer while minimizing the complexity of customization. As a result, components can be produced in an efficient way and product obsolescence is avoided.
The recycle principle is addressed by the environmental check list, which ensures that all environmental aspects of product development and production are considered. The product innovation process requires that suppliers participate in a supplier quality assurance audit to ensure that ASSA ABLOY’s high standards are met.
The group has reused and recycled products, components and materials for many years already and intends to continue to improve in this area. Our ambition is to optimize product construction so that raw materials will be utilized in the most efficient way resulting in as little spill and scrap as possible.
We continuously work to improve our workways to separate waste in different fractions for more efficient reuse and recycling.
Let’s talk
Questions or comments about our products and solutions, services or anything else regarding Entrance Systems and door automation? We would love to hear from you.