Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

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.

US: Demilec has been awarded the 2018 Polyurethane Innovation Award at Polyurethanes Technical Conference in Atlanta by the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC). It won for its Heatlok HFO product, a two component, closed cell, spray applied, rigid polyurethane foam system. Other finalists included ICL-IP America, for its VeriQuelR100 phosphorus-based, reactive flame retardant product, and SWD Urethane, for its Quik-Shield 108YM open-cell spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation product.

US: Johns Manville has launched Cavity-Shield, a formaldehyde-free fibreglass batt insulation product intended for use in the concealed spaces of multifamily buildings. The National Fire Protection Association-approved product is being marketed as an alternative solution to sprinklers in the interstitial space. The batts are designed to serve as a passive fire solution for limiting potential flame spread between and through floors. It is also intended to reduce construction costs by reducing the time and resources required for installers to complete the job.

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.

South Korea: Hankuk Glass Industries (HGI), a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, has launched a tender offer to acquire the 23% of its shares owned by minority shareholders. As a result of this successful offer, Saint-Gobain, together with HGI, now holds 96.8% of the share capital of HGI, with a delisting planned. HGI manufactures insulation for the construction and automotive markets and glass products for markets in South Korea and Asia.