A Sustainable Future

In this issue of ELEVATOR WORLD Middle East, we report on those things that sustain us as an industry and as people, including key events throughout the region, some of which took place despite difficult circumstances but all of which demonstrated a strong and supportive industry. 

We report on the 12th International Seminar on Elevator and Escalators in Industry and University Unity in Iran by Dr. Mohammad Masoud Majidifar. In Counting Successes in Istanbul by Bülent Yılmaz, your author recounts a meeting hosted by the Middle East office of Spain-headquartered Fermator prior to Asansör Istanbul. The Asansör Istanbul Fair took place for the 18th time on March 9-12 at TUYAP Congress and Exhibition Center in Istanbul. That event, held on the heels of devastating earthquakes in that country, is detailed in Earthquake was on the Agenda of Asansör İstanbul by Yilmaz. In Great Interest in the First Kazakhstan Expo, Yilmaz reports on the successful inaugural event for Central Asia held in Almaty on March 29-31.  

The subject of Sustainability, our focus topic this issue, is of growing importance around the world and in the vertical-transportation (VT) industry. The key difference between sustainable buildings and green buildings is that sustainable buildings operate with all three sustainability pillars in mind (people, planet and profit), whereas green buildings focus solely on the environment. What does that mean? These buildings will have to be energy neutral, people friendly and function flexible. We feature six articles that focus either on sustainability in buildings or in their company.

• Elevating the Bar by Viswesh Vancheeshwar. The author highlights how the VT industry has begun to embrace sustainability and the reasons for the shift.
• Environmental Impact of Lifts: the EPD by Giuseppe Iotti. The author reviews the environmental product declaration, and its geographical variations and trends.
• Going Green in Singapore. The Otis group in Singapore is converting all vehicles to electric by 2029. The effort joins others in Europe and North America.
• Reducing Energy Consumption by an Optimization Algorithm in Elevator Group Control by Anton Glad, Juho Kokkala, Mirko Ruokokoski, Janne Sorsa and Toni Tukia. Modern controls focus on passenger service optimization, but a new control algorithm can save energy and not sacrifice service. 
• Using Circular Economy Business Models and Life Cycle Assessment to Improve the Sustainability of Elevators by Marco Tomatis, et al. The goal of the study was to assess the environmental impact of refurbishing an elevator drive versus installing a new drive.
• Elevators and the Environment by Fernando Guillemi and Alea Guillemi. Your authors examine how pollution by carbon dioxide and contamination by spills can be avoided. They also examine the human resources used from sales to after sales. 

I hope to see you during our travels this year, and in between, reach out to me and let me know what you think of this issue.