Sustainability is a process of continuous improvement. At Knauf Insulation we are committed to constantly finding new ways to drive change. We must do more for our people and our environment. That’s why we’ve created our new sustainability strategy.
Our products save energy, cut emissions and are designed to make sure buildings are good for the environment and keep people healthy, safe and well.
Across our company, we have been working on all three pillars of sustainability for over a decade. We have focused on zero harm, reducing our energy use and emissions, recycling our production waste, incorporating circular economy principles, and constantly campaigning for better and more sustainable buildings.
Over the past decade we have achieved great things and we are proud of how we have changed our company, helped our colleagues, communities and customers and reduced our impact on the environment.
Our commitments and targets
We have created commitments and 2025 targets that everyone at Knauf Insulation can start working towards now.
We’re passionate about working today for a better world tomorrow and believe that our teams today must make a commitment towards achieving our goals.
COMMITMENT
We are committed to zero harm and building a culture of health, safety and wellbeing.
TARGETS FOR 2025
In 2019 our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) was 9.2. By 2025 we will reduce this figure to a maximum of 5.
We are making mental health and wellbeing a priority. All managers, newcomers and recently promoted colleagues will have received mental health, wellbeing and resilience training by 2025.
Employee Assistance Programs support people facing personal challenges such as issues at work, at home or in connection with their health. We are working to make this support resourceful and available to everyone at Knauf Insulation by 2025.
COMMITMENT
We will have the most engaged employees and committed and focused leaders in our industry.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We will carry out company-wide engagement surveys to understand our employee experience and identify where we can be better. By 2025 we commit to ensuring that the positive results of these surveys are higher han the industry average, in every country.
By 2025 we will have rolled out Global Leadership & Change programmes to give our leaders at all levels – from first-line managers to top managers – the insight, skills and capabilities to sustain Knauf Insulation’s success.
unique mineral wool growing media, achieve optimal water distribution, improved plant growth under the panels and higer fire resistance of the roof (Euroclass A1 of non-combustibility is confirmed for Urbanscape® Green Roll growing media).
COMMITMENT
We will build on the diversity that has made the company such a success.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We will develop and make available core diversity and inclusion (D&I) training for employees as part of our education and training offering.
All leaders, managers, new joiners and all recently promoted employees will undergo the training to equip them with the skills, language and behaviours to maximise inclusion
COMMITMENT
We will be a positive force in the communities where we work.
TARGET FOR 2025
By 2025 we want all our colleagues to become a global community of volunteers, participating in social and environmental projects in their local communities in every country where we have a site — as well as abroad.
Our commitments and targets
To achieve our carbon neutrality goals, we have put targets for 2025 in place that our whole community can start on now.
We don’t believe in leaving this problem for future generations to deal with – we must act now to make a change.
COMMITMENT
We will aim to deliver net zero embodied carbon products and solutions.
TARGETS FOR 2025
By 2025, we have set a goal of reducing the embodied carbon of our products by 15% (compared to 2019).
A sustainability fund of 10% of general capital expenditure will be dedicated to new projects that reduce our carbon emissions and/or cut our waste to landfill.
By 2025 we want to have created roadmaps that give us practical insight into new carbon-friendly technologies that we plan to introduce to our manufacturing processes in the future.
COMMITMENT
We are committed to reducing the environmental footprint of the entire organisation beyond embodied carbon.
TARGET FOR 2025
We will set up a process to calculate our environmental footprint as an organisation and reduce this footprint by at least 25%.
TOWARDS GREEN TRANSFORMATION
By voluntary assessing and scoring our own “green performance” through different environmental disclosure systems we aim to become one of the leaders on environmental transparency and action.
Our commitments and targets
We have set ourselves three key commitments for 2025 to achieve a circular economy. We’ve already started work on these targets and will continue to strive for change.
At Knauf Insulation, we know that being environmentally sustainable is an issue that we all have to pay attention to today – for the sake of tomorrow and beyond.
COMMITMENT
We will find ways to use resources that have a minimal environmental impact.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We are committed to using external recycled material in our batch (indicative targets for Rock Mineral Wool: >25%, and Glass Mineral Wool: >65%). We will continue to monitor improvements through LCA results.
By 2025 we will have reduced SOx emissions from our plants by 50% compared to 2019 levels and we will have made significant reductions in relation to cutting NOx emissions.
We will have implemented a range of new projects to reduce the amount of fresh water we use in five plants.
COMMITMENT
We will send zero waste to landfill.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We will be sending zero production waste to landfill from our Rock, Glass and Wood Wool plants by 2025.
We will take back 25% of the waste generated by our customers on job sites wherever possible. This waste will be either fed back into our processes — through briquetting — or transformed into new products by other companies.
We will have programmes in place in (at least) five countries to recycle insulation from demolition sites.
COMMITMENT
We will reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We will reduce our virgin plastic film packaging by more than 25%.
Where possible, between 25% and 50% of our plastic film will be recycled. 35% of our wooden delivery pallets will be collected, sorted, repaired, and reused or recycled.
DISCOVER HOW OUR BUILDINGS ARE LAYING FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE.
Our commitments and targets
At Knauf Insulation we have put targets in place to achieve eco-friendly and sustainable building goals, by 2025.
We’ve already started building for a brighter, better and more sustainable future, but there’s still much more to do.
COMMITMENT
We will continue to innovate and create new eco-friendly solutions.
TARGET FOR 2025
By 2025, eco-design will be fully integrated into our Innovation Program. The eco-design tool will be based on a multi-criteria assessment, with results expressed in simple terms that are easily understood by non-experts.
COMMITMENT
We will continue to campaign for safer, more efficient and more sustainable buildings that are fit for the future – including our own.
TARGETS FOR 2025
We will step up our campaigning to put energy efficiency and building fire safety at the top of government agendas. Building on the success of our new company Knauf Energy Solutions we will also work to put real performance at the centre of any new standards.
We will ensure all new Knauf Insulation buildings or any renovation of our buildings will meet the sustainability guidelines of our demanding internal specifications.
