Knauf Insulation makes strategic commitment to sustainability

Knauf Insulation has unveiled ambitious commitments for 2025 as part of its new global sustainability strategy ‘For A Better World’.

The strategy outlines the company’s long-term goals of ‘Putting People First’, ‘Creating Better Buildings’, ‘Achieving Carbon Zero’ and ‘Delivering a Circular Economy’.

“Responding to the climate crisis is one of the most critical challenges facing businesses today, so it is imperative that we take significant steps to reduce our global impact,” says Neil Hargreaves, managing director at Knauf Insulation Northern Europe.

“That’s why ‘For A Better World’ includes specific and ambitious commitments for 2025 for each of our long-term sustainability goals. These include pledges to reduce our carbon footprint, minimise waste and develop innovative new solutions, all of which will make a difference to our customers and our communities.”

Some of the specific targets Knauf Insulation has set for 2025 are:

• Reducing the embodied carbon of its products by 15% compared with 2019;
• Investing 10% of its general capital expenditure on new sustainability projects;
• Cutting its organisational carbon footprint by at least 25%;
• Sending zero waste to landfill from its manufacturing plants across the group;
• Reducing virgin plastic packaging by 25%;
• Setting new higher minimum levels of recycled materials in products and packaging.

‘For A Better World’ builds on Knauf Insulation’s sustainability successes over the past decade. Between 2010 and 2019, the company cut its global energy consumption and emissions by 23% and reduced its landfill waste by 67%. For example, Knauf Insulation already uses up to 80% recycled content in the manufacture of its Glass Mineral Wool insulation. Each year the Veolia-owned glass recycling facility next door to Knauf Insulation’s St. Helens plant processes over 60,000 tonnes of used glass bottles and jars into high purity raw material ready for insulation manufacture. The proximity of the facility also saves around 375,000 miles of road journeys each year.

Hargreaves adds: “We are here to support our customers as they respond to market forces and navigate regulatory landscapes that increasingly demand more sustainable building solutions. We’ll continue to offer our customers the products and expertise they need to address the sustainability challenges that our industry faces.”

The newly-published Group Annual Review highlights Knauf Insulation’s sustainability strategy ‘For A Better World’. It looks back at the company’s achievements of 2019, and celebrates its people, its values and its commitment to sustainability.