SUSTAINABILITY


BMJ: What is Knauf Insulation doing to push the sustainability agenda? Vanessa Rae, Knauf Insulation Sustainability Director: As a company, our mission is to provide low-carbon products, that deliver real performance, for low-carbon built environments. We continue to invest heavily in resources, skills, tools and technology to reduce the embodied carbon of our products. In the past two years, we have invested more than £45 million in our UK infrastructure to increase our production capacity and efficiency.


There is no path to net zero or energy security without improving the energy efficiency of the UK’s poorly insulated homes. We need buildings that deliver their designed performance in the real world and that means regulatory and cultural change.


We’re working closely with the government and provide expertise to improve regulations governing building energy efficiency and real performance. Sharing our knowledge on sustainability, helping our stakeholders to make educated product choices and focusing on the quality of installations allows us to drive cultural change.


BMJ: How is Knauf Insulation changing its processes to improve sustainability? VR: In 2023, we invested more than £5m to upgrade packaging equipment at our Cwmbran manufacturing plant in Wales. The new equipment allows the plant to produce glass mineral wool slabs alongside its current roll and blowing wool capability. Being able to produce rolls and slabs at Cwmbran means that combined orders no longer require additional transport. This has helped to optimise logistics by reducing our truck miles by approximately 1.5 million each year and reducing transport CO2 emissions by 1,700 tonnes. The new manufacturing equipment is also 40% more efficient. The £40 million upgrade of our St Helens plant in 2024 increased production by up to 25,000 tonnes and reduced the embodied carbon of the products.


Additionally our new forming technology enables us to create the next generation of low thermal conductivity, non-combustible glass mineral wool products and add thicker options to our existing ranges.


BMJ: What has Knauf Insulation done to be more sustainable? VR: Sustainability has always been at the centre of our business, going back to 2009 when we introduced our unique plant-based binder ECOSE®. Over the years we have looked at every aspect of our processes to


WALKING THE SUSTAINABILITY WALK


It’s not enough to just sell products that help to reduce carbon, Knauf Insulation is working hard to reduce its own carbon footprint, too. Kevin Stanley asks how.


reduce our environmental impact. Since 2020, Knauf Insulation has been delivering on its ‘For a Better World’ sustainability strategy, which has four pillars: Put People First, Achieve Zero Carbon, Deliver a Circular Economy and Create Better Buildings. For example, under Achieve Zero Carbon, we are on track to reduce the embodied carbon of our products by 15% this year, compared to 2021. Our short-term sustainability goals feed into the ambitious Knauf Group’s longer- term strategy, which is to achieve net zero by 2045, with a 50% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions, and a 30% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2032.


BMJ: How will this benefit customers? VR: Many of the measures or technologies we’ve implemented in our drive for sustainability have added benefits to installers and building occupants. ECOSE®, our unique plant-based binder, is a perfect example. Most of our range is manufactured with


ECOSE®


, which is low-carbon and low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs). ECOSE® contains no added formaldehyde and is made from rapidly renewable sources. Because it’s manufactured using biogenic sources of carbon, it has a lower carbon footprint than traditional binders. Products made with ECOSE®


Left: Vanessa Rae, Knauf Insulation Sustainability Director.


We also hold a BES 6001 certification with a ‘very good’ rating, demonstrating that our products are made from responsibly sourced constituent materials.


are also more pleasant to handle. They generate low levels of dust, have been awarded the Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort Gold Certificate, and our customers tell us they are less itchy or irritating than those made with traditional binders.


We’re the first manufacturer in Europe to achieve a Declare ‘Red List Free’ label for our whole glass mineral wool range and our unfaced rock mineral range. Declare is a voluntary scheme that brings transparency to construction product labelling. The label includes where a product is made, its life expectancy and end-of-life options, its ingredients, VOC levels, and whether it contains chemicals featured on the ‘Red List’. Accreditations help customers make those informed decisions that are crucial to achieving net zero.


March 2025 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


BMJ: What do merchants need to know about what Knauf Insulation is doing? VR: In early 2024, Knauf Insulation announced a major investment of approximately €200 million in a new state-of-the-art rock mineral wool factory to serve the UK market. The new facility will have an annual capacity of more than 100,000 tonnes and will use cutting- edge, low-carbon electric melting technology. The investment will help the company with decarbonising and increasing its UK supply of rock mineral wool.


We are the merchants’ partner for low- carbon insulation products that help create high-performance buildings. We’re committed to continually reducing our products’ environmental footprint and we are the only insulation manufacturer in the UK to provide product-specific EPDs to the latest standard for our entire product range. We will always share information about our products, regulations and labels in a transparent way to educate and empower merchants to advise their customers. BMJ


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