Partners: KONE (manufacturer), CapMan Real Estate (property owner), Insenti (project / construction lead)
Country: Norway
What was piloted?
CapMan Real Estate is fully renovating an 18-floor office building of approximately 21,000 m² in central Oslo, targeting BREEAM Excellent (v6.1) and Energy Class A. The building's five elevators date from 2003. The original plan was a full replacement. KONE proposed partial modernization, retaining shafts and major load-bearing steel structures and replacing only outdated or inefficient components. The pilot focused on the design stage, as the implementation of the pilot will happen earliest in fall 2026. The pilot tested whether partial modernization could deliver the same performance and certification requirements as full replacement at a significantly lower embodied-carbon and material footprint. Old drives were planned to be dismantled for potential refurbishment study and second-life use in other KONE projects.
Challenges and how they were tackled
Developing shared confidence in partial modernization across stakeholder groups. The approach was still new at this scale. The team developed a thorough value proposition and complemented it with an independent second-opinion review that confirmed the original results.
Highly site-specific CO₂ data. Calculations required significant manual work. The team's response is to standardise and automate the calculation process for future projects.
Timing of the modernization-versus-replacement analysis. The decision must happen very early, before renovation specifications are locked in.
Key learnings
Partial modernization saves around 60% of embodied emissions versus full replacement, roughly 112 tonnes CO₂ on this project.
More than 60% of heavy steel components were retained.
End-user experience is preserved: fully renovated car interior, new doors and signalisation, and an increase in elevator speed by 20-25% for around 1,100 occupants at peak.
Energy efficiency upgrade is included, with more efficient drives and a destination control system reducing operational emissions on top of the embodied savings.
Stakeholder alignment is essential, and an independently validated value proposition is an effective way to build it.
Solution scaling probability: 5 / 5
The pilot is on track for installation during fall 2026 to 2027, and KONE plans to scale partial modernization as a standard offering for buildings of comparable age and configuration.
We took an analytical approach to what we can actually retain in the elevator and still keep performance and user experience at the same level. With partial modernization we save 60 to 70% of embodied carbon and the elevator still looks and feels like new.
— Mari Lemberg, Senior Manager, Circularity and Sustainability, Global Modernization, KONE