How Kempower commits to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

At Kempower, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. By committing to sustainability both through electrifying transportation and the way we run our own operations, we can proudly say that Kempower’s positive handprint exceeds the footprint of our products. 

How do we achieve this? To make the huge subject of sustainability simpler, we have defined our key commitments into three pillars. These form three overarching targets through which we aim to improve our sustainability contributions:

• Committed to 100% carbon neutrality
• Responsible products, enabling a society powered by 100% electric transportation
• Create the best workplace for future professionals

While building these pillars, we were inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), several of which naturally fit into these pillars. Our dedicated sustainability team uses the corresponding SDGs as inspiration when setting concrete goals to aim towards.

3 years on from first setting these goals, we want to share the progress we have already achieved toward them and outline the exciting plans we have for the future.

Committed to 100% carbon neutrality

Reducing emissions and achieving carbon neutrality is at the core of Kempower’s mission. We want to build a society powered by fully electric transportation, making the world cleaner and more sustainable, and that means minimizing our own carbon footprint. Kempower’s long-term target is to be 100% carbon neutral.

Sustainable Development Goal 7 – affordable and green energy – strongly corresponds to this pillar. We are committed to annually reducing our relative carbon footprint per EUR 1 million of sales and plan to use 100% fossil free electricity in all locations by 2025. We have established a carbon footprint calculator according to the GHG Protocol to help us measure progress and set realistic goals towards this ambitious target.

Goal 13 – climate action – also relates to our commitment to reducing emissions at every stage of our operations. Here we strive for another ambitious goal: Kempower aims for 100% recyclability in our own operations. Our strategy is to reduce Kempower’s plastic packaging by 50% by 2025 compared to 2021’s level by transferring to bio and biodegradable plastics where economically viable. We also aim to transition to using more green electricity and green heat, and shorten transportation distances for our supplies. 

Responsible products enabling a society powered by 100% electric transportation

Beyond Kempower as a business, we look to the society we wish to build.  We have faith in the power of our product to transform our world for the better.

Goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities – is very pertinent to this vision. Kempower already significantly reduces carbon emissions in urban areas by enabling the DC fast charging of electric vehicles and machines. Features such as Kempower ChargEye further support sustainable urban planning by providing valuable data about EV driver behavior and patterns.

Kempower is also committed to being a front-runner in clean tech, investing in continuous technology development and innovations, which is why Goal 12 – responsible consumption and production – resonates with us. Our commitment to Goal 12 starts with our own product. One way we achieve this is by designing our chargers to last: Our cloud-based monitoring system, Kempower ChargEye, ensures that updates and maintenance needs of our IoT chargers can be monitored and updated remotely, extending the life cycle of Kempower charging solutions. Looking even further ahead, we have set an ambitious target of 99% end of lifetime recyclability rate for all Kempower chargers, which we have already achieved in the Kempower Movable Charger, Kempower Satellite and Kempower Power Unit, which all have impressive recycling rates of above 99.6%.

The best workplace for future professionals

Last but not least, our final pillar is dedicated to making our workplace the best possible place to work for our employees. In 2023, Kempower joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact initiative, a voluntary leadership platform for developing, implementing and disclosing responsible business practices. Through this, we show our commitment to 10 universally accepted human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption principles, about which we report to the UN annually. Other ways we honor our responsibility toward the Kempower team is by committing to Goal 3 – good health and well-being – and Goal 4 – quality education.

In the spirit of Goal 3 – good health and well-being – Kempower strives to promote a diverse and safe work environment with a family-friendly working culture. It is important to us to offer healthcare that supports both physical and mental health. This means providing an occupational healthcare system. For example, we are committed to reducing and maintaining the Total Recordable Injuries (TRI) rate at 0 through important work such as providing first aid skills to our staff, aiming at 100% share of trained personnel. 

It also means looking after our employees outside of work. We offer team leisure activities – popular clubs with Kempower include volleyball, floorball, ski jumping, cross country skiing and padel – and give employees the opportunity to do 8 hours of optional volunteer work each year. We recently introduced a DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) policy to formalize our commitment to building a team which is both diverse and inclusive. 

Goal 4 – quality education – also closely aligns with Kempower’s vision of building a strong future workplace. We want to attract and nurture the best talents on the job market now and in the future and recognize the need to adapt our work environment to serve the needs of future generations. To do this we provide trainee positions every year and numerous first jobs for recent graduates. Our close cooperation with schools and universities results in us mutually benefitting from their talent and research. For example, our proud partnership with LUT university in Lahti has resulted in the Kempower Electric Mobility Research Center (EMRC), a common research center which aims to strengthen cross-disciplinary research on electric transportation and to develop education to meet the future needs of the industry. We also grant many of Kempower’s traineeship and summer positions to LUT University students, enabling us to benefit from the university’s rich R&D tradition.

Living our mission and purpose

Building a sustainable future is the driving vision for everything we do at Kempower, so aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is a natural choice for us. Led by our dedicated sustainability team with support from the wider team, we will continue to measure our progress and set new goals toward our key pillars of carbon neutrality, responsible products and building the best possible workplace.

By working towards achieving these goals at Kempower, we hope to establish a workplace where our employees feel a sense of belonging and purpose, driven by our mission to build a cleaner and more sustainable world.

Written by

Johanna Kilpi-Koski

Sustainability Manager, Kempower