Spain: Rockwool Peninsular plans to invest €60m to decarbonise production at its Caparroso stone wool insulation plant in Navarre by 2028. The upgrade centres on a €48.8m replacement of the plant's furnace with electric burners. It will receive €18m of Spanish government Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation funding. The project will reduce the plant's CO₂ emissions by 74%, to 13,300t CO₂-equivalent/yr. It also includes a hybrid wind and solar power plant expansion to generate 24GWh/yr for use at the plant. The Navarre government designated the project of ‘chartered region interest’ on 29 July 2026, approximately halving administrative procedural timeframes.

UK: Flintshire County Council has approved an application for Knauf Insulation to remediate 17.7 hectares of land at Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, Wales. The company is awaiting permission to build its planned €212m Shotton stone wool insulation plant at the site on the English border, 20km from the Port of Liverpool on Merseyside. Local press has reported that the site formerly hosted a Tata Steel metallurgical complex and is now ‘mostly scrubland.’

India: Sarda Energy & Minerals subsidiary Sarda Metals & Alloys approved a US$31.4m capital expenditure plan on 25 July 2026 to expand its Vizianagaram mineral wool plant in Andhra Pradesh. The investment will also cover the construction of a new waste heat recovery (WHR) plant at the plant.

Ireland: Kingspan has pledged €3m to the Innovate for Ireland doctoral research programme to support postgraduate research into increasing the sustainability of building materials. The Irish Times newspaper has reported the first beneficiary as materials scientist Abhishek Kaitheri Edathil. His work at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Westmeath, and Kingspan’s Ikon Innovation Centre in Kingscourt, Cavan, explores new avenues for polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation recycling. Edathil holds a master’s degree in Materials Science from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, West Bengal, and bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, Kerala – both in India.

Kingspan head of innovation Sandra Del Bove said “By connecting research excellence with industry, we can help transform breakthrough ideas into practical applications with global impact.”