Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: Knauf Insulation has released its ‘Sustainability Journey: 2023 Highlights’ report. It reveals the company’s sustainability strategy achievements focusing on safety, employee engagement, decarbonisation and the circular economy.

The company reduced its absolute full-scope emissions for its mineral wool production by 8.2% year-on-year to 1.34Mt of CO₂e in 2022 from 1.46Mt in 2021, mainly due to a significant fall in Scope 2 emissions. it currently has a target to reduce its specific embodied carbon emissions by 15% from 2021 to 2025. The recycled content of its glass mineral wool products fell to 55% in 2022 from 64%, despite the company having a target of 65% by 2025. It explained that sourcing large volumes of recycled materials of sufficient quality had proved challenging in some markets. However, it did increase the recycled content of its rock mineral wool products to 13% from 11%, with a target of 25% set for 2024. It also reduced its total recordable incident rate by 8% to 5.9 from 6.4 against a target of below 5 for 2025.

Dominique Bossan, the chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East and Asia at Knauf Group, said “The report documents our progress towards achieving our 2025 sustainability targets. It shows the areas where we need to improve, celebrates where we have made positive progress and pays tribute to the hard work of our teams."

US: The National Insulation Association (NIA) has named three insulation producers as winners of its 2021 Premier Industry Manufacturer award. Armacell, Johns Manville and Owens Corning won the nationwide award. The association’s Platinum Safety Excellence awards were presented to six insulation producers: Armacell, CertainTeed Corporation, Dyplast Products, Johns Manville, Owens Corning and Canada-based Rockwool Technical Insulation. The award is the highest category of safety excellence award at the association’s National Insulation Association Awards 2021. It awarded Proto Corporation a gold Safety Excellence award.

Executive vice president and chief executive officer Michele Jones said, “Each year, we honour our member companies that prioritise safety and make continuous improvements to their programmes, and this year we do so knowing that a strong and well communicated safety programme is more important than ever.”

The association handed over the awards virtually at its Spring Summit in mid-March 2021.

UK: Recticel Insulation says that its production plant in Stoke-on-Trent is ‘Covid-19 Secure Certified.’ This confirmation is defined by the UK government and is designed to enhance safety and provide our staff with confidence in their workplace. Measures taken to meet this standard include conducting a risk assessment, implementing cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures in line with national guidance, encouraging remote working, maintaining social distancing in the workplace and minimising transmission risks where distancing is not possible.

The company also contracted an independent business risk management company to carry out an independent validation audit of its COVID-19 secure risk assessment. The insulation producer says it will, “continue to monitor the government’s advice, and will update measures as required to ensure safety is maintained for staff and visitors alike.”