KEN Corporate responsibility
Professional hygiene solutions
Part of our overall aim at KEN Hygiene Systems is to contribute to global health and well-being. We do this by way of our innovative hygiene solutions used for disinfecting equipment in the healthcare sector.
People and the environment come first as we develop and produce solutions. We’d love to tell you about our specific initiatives by sharing our corporate social responsibility story with you here
KEN Hygiene Systems
is socially responsible
This takes various forms. Partly through the KEN Foundation. KEN Hygiene Systems is a locally based company owned by the Ken Foundation. This means our profits are allocated between reinvestment in the company and making donations.
Through the KEN Foundation, we give back to the local community by way of donations to promote public health locally. Additionally, we extend our support to national and international organisations with charitable objectives.
Our donations and the KEN Grant
Since 1986, the KEN Foundation has made donations to NGOs including: Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross and the Danish Cancer Society. In 2023, our donations supported the Danish Hospital Clowns, as well as the Danish Refugee Council’s efforts in Ukraine and the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa.
In addition, every year since 1992, we have awarded the KEN Grant to individuals working in the healthcare sector. In 2024, the DKK 25,000 grant was donated to research into the value of surgical instruments that can be sterilised.
Another of our social responsibility initiatives is hiring people with mental or physical challenges through a scheme created in collaboration with Code of Care. A scheme that shows we are all about inclusion.
Our resource-sparing measures
We live in a world where there is a shortage of labour, clean water and electricity.
This places a demand on our products and processes – on us as an industry.
Therefore, in both production and our development department, KEN continuously focuses on
how we, as a company, can minimise our environmental impact.
We work with several different specific initiatives and projects:
We develop products with a minimum service life of 10 years, and our spare parts remain available for at least 10 years after a product has been discontinued
At least 90% of the steel used in the production of each machine is ResponsibleSteel-certified steel
We sort residual materials from our manufacturing – metal, glass and plastic – for recycling
We offer to take back end-of-life products from our customers. The products are disassembled, and the raw materials sorted for recycling according to ISO 14001
We are part of «Grøn omstilling i sundhedssektoren» – an interdisciplinary group of Danish stakeholders across the healthcare sector, meeting four times a year to share knowledge about challenges, development potential, trends, etc. to promote the green transition in the healthcare sector in Denmark
We participate in a Danish development project seeking a solution to enable recycling of blood collection tubes. The project is based in one of the Danish Regions (the Region of Southern Denmark, which alone uses approximately 7 million blood collection tubes per year, to be destroyed after use as hazardous waste). Initial pilot studies have been carried out, and the first milestone is for all blood collection tubes in the Region of Southern Denmark to be recycled as of January 2025. Next, there are plans to implement this nationwide, and the final goal of the project is to spread it to as many countries as possible
We are continuously working to reduce our power consumption and have already achieved significant savings. By investing in 500 sqm of solar cells, we’ve converted 13% of our power consumption to green power, and by replacing power-hungry machines in production, we’ve reduced our total power consumption by 24%. This means that overall, in one year, we have achieved carbon savings of 37% in 2024 compared to 2023. This corresponds to about 35 tonnes of CO2
Washer disinfectors with low water, power and chemical consumption
KEN Hygiene Systems always strives to provide our customers with the best hygiene solutions in the market. Solutions with the lowest possible carbon footprint.
That’s why, in 2015, we launched our first IQ series washer disinfector. Today the series comprises seven machines (IQ3, IQ4, IQ5, IQ6, IQ10, IQ10e and IQ10e Compact), all designed to wash with minimal water, power and chemical consumption.
An example based on the IQ6
The IQ6 uses only 22–25 litres of water per wash cycle – without compromising on wash quality. The low water consumption translates into correspondingly low power and chemical consumption. Power consumption is reduced because there is less water to heat, and less water requires less chemicals in the form of soap and detergent. The IQ6 consumes 8.6 kWh and 88 ml of chemicals per wash.
The low water, power and chemical consumption of the IQ6 is also attributable to the short 35-minute wash cycle and large 18-rack capacity.
The larger the capacity, the fewer the wash cycles, resulting in even less water, power, chemicals and – not least – time consumption.
The large capacity of the IQ6 also has the added benefit of needing fewer machines to meet daily capacity requirements.
Ergonomic considerations and minimal noise
In developing the IQ series, we focused on ergonomic considerations to reduce monotonous and exhausting work processes.
The AL10 robot is a breakthrough development – an innovative, patented solution that works with the IQ Series. This solution automates processes and ensures efficient workflows, including in central sterile supply departments. More specifically, the robot moves the filled racks to and from the IQ machine, eliminating repetitive heavy lifting from the employee’s working day.
We also focus on noise levels. All IQ Series machines are designed with a maximum noise level of 60.5 dB(A) and can achieve as low a level as 52.6 dB(A) in some wash cycles. This restricts maximum noise exposure to at least 19.5 dB(A) below the 80 dB(A) limit value applicable in countries including Denmark.