Waste is a huge problem in construction. An estimated 42.4 billion tonnes of materials are consumed by the industry globally each year, with 11% of all energy-related carbon emissions produced by the energy used to make them, known as embodied carbon of products.
At the other end of the process, 25-30% of all waste in the EU is estimated to be from construction and demolition. If we are to protect our planet for future generations, we must look beyond the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model to a more circular model that reduces the need for extraction to manufacture new products.
At Kingspan we want to work with the industry in understanding and addressing the true environmental impacts of construction products. This means enabling improvements at all stages, including sourcing, production and lifetime performance.
Transitioning to a circular economy for Kingspan means that we will support and enable our products to be held at highest value within the economy and work so that our actions as a business transition to be more circular, with lower environmental impact. We have developed a 5-step LIFECycle framework to guide our product circularity journey.
How are we addressing Circularity with QuadCore?
Using our LIFECycle framework we are identifying ways to make our entire product portfolio more sustainable. Our LIFECycle framework approach enables us to target every stage of the product life cycle:
Lean and Circular Design, bespoke to the product and industry needs;
Input Materials that are circular and responsibly sourced;
Factory Processes without waste or pollution;
Extended Life Models including potential reuse and/or repurposing where appropriate; and
Cycling – products can be broken down all the way back to their basic material level if required, thereby allowing those materials to be remade into new products.
Learn more about the LIFECycle framework.
1. Lean & Circular Design
QuadCore insulated panels are lightweight and offer superior performance, providing potential savings in building structure and enabling leaner design. Thinner and lighter panels without compromising thermal performance mean fewer work disruptions and deliveries, less transport and more efficient resources allocation. The improved thermal efficiency of QuadCore insulated panels means using fewer and thinner panels to achieve the same U-value as mineral wall fibre panels twice as thick and the composite nature of the panel allows for easy disassembly, opening up the possibility of a second life through reuse.
The team at our IKON Global Innovation Centre are working on further improving QuadCore insulated panels thermal efficiency. Learn more about IKON.
2. Input Materials
Over the last 2 years, Kingspan Group has upcycled 573 million PET bottles into our manufacturing processes, reducing the need for virgin materials. All QuadCore insulation will contain recycled PET bottles by 2025, with ongoing R&D at IKON, our Innovation Centre, to further increase the recycled and bio-based content. Today, the steel procured for QuadCore insulated panels manufactured in the UK and Ireland contains up to 25% recycled content.
We have also recently invested in H2 Green Steel, a company pioneering new green production methods for steel manufacturing using hydrogen, which can accept more scrap steel into the process, increasing our QuadCore recycled content and reducing the embodied carbon of our QuadCore insulated panels by up to 45% when it comes online in 2026.
3. Factory Processes
We are driving out waste from our processes and will be working with third party auditors to ensure we meet our Zero Waste to Landfill target. Our Zero Waste to Landfill commitment recognises waste as a resource and Kingspan has many ongoing projects to develop more avenues for this waste, aiming to keep it at its highest material value for as long as possible.
Learn more about our Planet Passionate commitments from this electronic copy of our Annual Report.
4. Extended Life Models
QuadCore panels are easy to dissemble and segregate from other materials at demolition. Kingspan Insulated Panels have highly resistant paint coatings of 55 and 200 micron as standard. QuadCore insulated panels benefit from an extended warranty, guaranteeing take back at the end of life, or 25 years of use. The panels will be kept at the highest material value as possible through either reuse, cycling or waste to energy recovery. We are actively supporting pilots for reuse projects to ensure these don’t go to waste at the end of their first life. Learn more about how our panels have recently been reused.
5. Cycling
For end-of-life, our team at IKON has proven a technology at lab scale to recycle QuadCore insulation core into raw material for new products. We will progress plans for a pilot hub to take back site waste and end-of-life panels from buildings, making them into new products on our journey towards a more circular business model.