Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: Knauf Insulation has announced its new sustainability strategy, entitled ‘For A Better World.’ The company says, “The strategy is defined by clear concrete targets for 2025, focussing on four key sustainable goals: Putting People First, Achieving Zero Carbon, Delivering A Circular Economy and Creating Better Buildings.” Its targets include reducing total recordable incident rate from 9.2 to 5.0, reducing the embodied carbon dioxide (CO₂) of products by 15%, investing 10% of general capital expenditure (CAPEX) in new projects to reduce emissions or landfill waste, cutting the carbon footprint of business travel by 25%, reducing virgin plastic packaging by 25%, using more than 25% of external recycled material in mineral wool and more than 65% recycled material in glass wool and sending zero production waste to landfill. Chief executive officer (CEO) Jean-Claude Carlin said, “These clear, concrete short-term targets for 2025 support our long-term commitments in ways that everyone can start achieving now.”

Director of sustainability Vincent Briard said, “Sustainability defines everything we do. Our products save energy, cut emissions and make buildings fit for the future. We have the experience and expertise to ensure all our customers achieve their sustainable ambitions. We are also here to help. We are supporting our customers as they navigate market forces and regulatory landscapes that are increasingly demanding more sustainable building solutions.”

US: DuPont plans to launch new extruded polystyrene foam insulation products in its Styrofoam brand with reduced global warming potential (GWP) from the start of 2021 to meet its 2030 Sustainability Goals and comply with adopted and upcoming state and provincial hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) regulations throughout the US and Canada. The company also expects a reduction in embodied carbon to be reflected in an updated Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which will be available with the new products.

"We are taking a thoughtful, phased approach to launching this latest Styrofoam innovation to ensure we are providing a sustainable, code-approved solution that does not sacrifice the performance our customers have come to trust," said Tim Lacey, Global Vice President & General Manager, DuPont Performance Building Solution.

US: In 2019 Owens Corning sourced 1.58GWh of energy renewably (49% of total consumption), down by 14% year-on-year from 1.84GWh (52% of consumption) in 2018. Direct CO₂ emissions were 2.78Mt, down by 2.0% from 2.83Mt in 2018 due a reduction in carbon intensity of insulation production, such as the use of electric rather than coke-fired furnaces.

Spain/Portugal: Knauf Insulation Iberia met its company growth objective of 5% year-on-year growth in 2019, a year in which it supplied two major developments: the Government of Catalonia’s administrative complex and the VP Plaza Hotel in Madrid. The latter won the US Green Building Council (GBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate, the first hotel to achieve this certification.

Interempresas News has reported that the focus of Knauf Insulation Iberia’s strategy in 2020 will be on maintaining its leadership in the sustainable building sector and in the search for products and solutions aimed at zero energy consumption building conversions and construction. Knauf Insulation Iberia CEO Oscar del Rio said, “Bearing in mind the economic uncertainty derived from the coronavirus crisis, our objective will be to maintain our penetration objectives.”

The company’s growth in 2018 was 10%.

US: Owens Corning has announced its 2030 sustainability goals. These represent the company’s third set of long-term goals and are designed to expand the company’s business impact through sustainability, continuing its commitment to incorporate material environmental, social and economic initiatives into its global practices and operations.

“These goals advance our business priorities by pushing us to discover increasingly more sustainable solutions, which is becoming more important to our customers and other key stakeholders,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Brian Chambers.

Owens Corning’s 2030 sustainability goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, sourcing 100% renewable electricity to reduce product embodied carbon, maximising product sustainability and building and supporting inclusive and diverse teams that reflect the communities where they live, work and serve. The greenhouse gas emission goal is in line with guidance to hold global warming to 1.5°C degrees and it was approved by the Science Based Target Initiative.

US: The chief executive officers (CEO) of 13 US companies, including BASF and DuPont, are lobbying the President and Congress to enact business-led climate change legislation. This initiative, known as the CEO Climate Dialogue, urges the government to put in place a long-term federal policy as soon as possible, in accordance with a set of six guiding principles. The group aims to build bipartisan support for climate policies that it says will, “… increase regulatory and business certainty, reduce climate risk, and spur investment and innovation needed to meet science-based emissions reduction targets.”

Companies involved in the CEO Dialogue include BASF, BP, Citi, Dominion Energy, Dow, DTE Energy, DuPont, Exelon, Ford Motor Company, LafargeHolcim, PG&E, Shell, and Unilever. Four environmental groups have also supplied input to the initiative. These are the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute.

The six principles include: ‘significantly’ reducing US greenhouse gas emissions; allowing an effective timeline for reductions that will enable capital intensive industries to adjust in an ‘economically rational manner’; instituting a market-based price on carbon; making the policies durable and responsible; doing no harm to the competitiveness of the US economy with particular attention to carbon leakage; and promoting equity. Specifically the initiative says that US policy should ensure the country is on a path to achieve economy-wide emissions reductions of 80% or more by 2050 with ‘aggressive’ short and medium term emissions reductions.

“DuPont is pleased to be part of the CEO Climate Dialogue and support its guiding principles to accelerate the development of federal policy on climate change. At DuPont, our science and innovation is inextricably linked with sustainability practices that deliver specialised materials that contribute to a safer, healthier, more sustainable world. We believe strong, consistent policy measures and a cohesive regulatory environment are needed to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and foster innovation, investment and economic growth,” said Marc Doyle, CEO-Elect of DuPont.

US: Knauf Insulation has won a 2019 Greenbuild Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to sustainable building by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The insulation producer was recognised for providing innovative solutions that both reduce energy consumption and save resources. The USGBC said that Knauf set an ‘outstanding’ example for the international green construction industry through its commitment to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and other green building practices and its corporate social responsibility commitment.

“Knauf Insulation serves as a model for the international community. Your commitment to corporate social responsibility and improving the quality of life is an inspiration," said Mahesh Ramanujamm, the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of USGBC and Green Business Certification.

The award was received on behalf of Knauf Insulation by its Sustainability and Product Regulatory Affairs Director Vincent Briard at Greenbuild Europe, an annual USGBC forum for sustainable building experts held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Ireland: Kingspan Group has highlighted its membership of Science Based Targets initiative (SBT) to set targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Kingspan has set a 10% reduction in emissions by 2025 from the base year of 2017. It also plans to reduce its absolute emissions from purchased goods and services, business travel, transport and distribution, and end-of-life treatment of sold products by 10%. It committed to its target in February 2018.

“At Kingspan, we are dedicated to sustainable business practise, from our products, to our processes and our people, which is why we are delighted to sign up to the Science Based Targets Initiative. This provides measurable targets for our business to achieve and will ensure that we continue to match our words with actions that make a real difference,” said Gene Murtagh, chief executive officer (CEO) of Kingspan.

The SBT initiative is the result of a partnership between the World Resource Institute, the World Wildlife Fund, CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) and the United Nations Global Compact, which looks to support companies across the world to do their part in tackling the worst impacts of climate change by supporting them to determine how much they must cut their emissions by. It provides participating companies with a clearly defined pathway to future-proof business growth by specifying how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. These targets are set in line with the level of decarbonisation required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C, consistent with the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, which 195 countries signed up to.

In 2017, 69% of the total energy used by Kingspan’s operations came from renewable sources, and the group says it is on target to achieve its goal of Net Zero Energy (NZE) status by 2020. As part of its journey to achieve NZE status, Kingspan Group has seen a 77% reduction in carbon intensity across its operations, and is benefitting from 34.5GWh of on-site energy it is generating.

Denmark: Rockwool is working with engineering company FLSmidth and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) on a research project to develop sustainable process technologies that will increase the use of renewable fuels and raw materials and reduce CO₂ emissions. The project has received a Euro2.7m grant from Innovation Fund Denmark.

The project plans to investigate and optimise high-temperature processes throughout the entire production chain in both companies. The DTU holds experience in this field from the CHEC research centre at DTU Chemical Engineering, which has focused on combustion research and emission abatement in recent years. Rockwool intends to lower CO₂ emissions and reduce its fuel consumption to make its production become more sustainable. FLSmidth plans to explore using alternative cement formulas and production methods to enable the company to launch more efficient technologies for using renewable fuels and reducing emissions.

US: Owens Corning has earned a place in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) for its sustainability performance for the ninth consecutive year. For the sixth straight year, Owens Corning was named the Industry Leader for the DJSI World Building Products group.

“We are honoured to be recognised on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the ninth straight year and as the Industry Leader for the sixth year,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Mike Thaman. “Our 19,000 employees continue to take action and drive real impact for the betterment of our business, employees, customers, partners and the world around us.”

Owens Corning also earned placement on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, which includes the top sustainability leaders from the largest 600 North American companies in the S&P Global BMI.