Five facts about sustainability @ KUKA

KUKA is a B2B company, which means it sells its products and solutions to other companies. Nevertheless, robotics and the like also influence the lives and work of end consumers, i.e. all of us. KUKA is aware of this responsibility – and is committed to it. This includes not only donations and charitable causes with offerings for children, young people and families, such as the association Orange Care e.V. or the KUKACARES Foundation, which was founded by KUKA Systems North America and KUKA U.S. Holdings Company together with eight of their suppliers, but also promoting innovations and bringing robotics and automation closer to the public. For example, KUKA offers an annual innovation award where creative talent from the robotics community can win €20,000 to continue working on their ideas. And at the European Robot Week, KUKA experts talk to children or interested members of the public about current topics in automation, such as last year’s talk about the global chip shortage and what it means for our everyday lives.

KUKA and its customers are increasingly focusing on more sustainable production. For example, new generations of KUKA robots consume significantly less energy than previous generations. KUKA robots are also almost completely recyclable after their long life cycle. Modern solutions for production, such as digital twins and virtual commissioning, also help to operate more energy efficiently and save resources. As a result of the Corona pandemic and the associated travel restrictions, Swisslog has commissioned many of its customers’ plants and systems “remotely”. This was made possible through the use of state-of-the-art technologies. This new service has simultaneously led to less travel and thus to a reduction in energy consumption and emissions.

With its products and solutions, KUKA is helping to shape the way we live and work tomorrow. Robots take over dangerous, unergonomic and monotonous tasks – making many jobs safer and easier. KUKA’s medical robots are also in action for people: they support surgeons in high-precision operations or minimally invasive and thus gentler procedures.

4 – Environmental protection in the company

Although corporate social responsibility and sustainability encompass much more than climate and environmental protection, these two aspects are of central importance. And KUKA also pays attention to this in its day-to-day work, from reusable packaging and deposit systems to e-charging stations where employees can charge their vehicles free of charge with regional green electricity. In addition, KUKA is successively increasing the proportion of hybrid and electric vehicles in the company fleet and has significantly reduced CO2 emissions by using district heating. At Swisslog in Dortmund, a new office building was completed and occupied in 2021. The building bears the Gold Certificate of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB).

That is the title of the new KUKA Sustainability Report. “The idea is to look optimistically ahead to the opportunities for KUKA,” Kerstin Heinrich, Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility, tells us. “The goal is a comprehensive sustainability program, with concrete goals and measures for the most important topics, defined by KUKA employees.”

Curious now? You can find the complete KUKA Sustainability Report here.

Climate protection and sustainability are more than just a trend. They are increasingly a social mindset. Read more about this in our sustainability topic series.