Kingspan Insulated Panels wins Manufacturer of the Year

Kingspan Insulated Panels has won ‘Manufacturer of the Year’ at the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2016, the prestigious awards programme that recognises the businesses, NGOs and executives across the UK that are turning sustainability pledges into reality.

Explaining the award win, the judging panel said “In a highly competitive category, Kingspan Insulated Panels stood out for both its development of energy saving products and its rapid progress towards becoming a ‘Net Zero Energy’ company. The judges were particularly impressed by its commitment to renewable power, its zero waste sites, and its halving of carbon emissions inside five years.”

Kingspan’s Net-Zero Energy programme began in 2011 with a firm commitment to achieve net-zero energy across Kingspan’s operations by 2020. Kingspan Insulated Panels has reduced its carbon emissions by almost 50% since beginning this process. Furthermore, in 2014, over a third of the energy used by Kingspan Insulated Panels came from renewable sources, with carbon emissions from non-renewable electricity down 44%.

On the products side, the award win recognises Kingspan’s achievement in the development of ^IPNQuadCore – a groundbreaking new insulation core technology.

Commenting on the win, Phil Smith, Managing Director of Kingspan Insulated Panels UK & Ireland said:

“We’re delighted that our sustainability initiatives are being recognised through awards like this, especially in the context of so many other strong entries. But our ambition is that our Net-Zero Energy programme serves as a useful model for the construction industry, and the wider business community as a whole, to follow. By demonstrating that its possible to both reduce carbon emissions and improve the bottom line, we hope to press home the strong business case for sustainability. Making this case clearly could well be the single biggest driver for sustainability improvements the business community will ever see.”

You can learn more about Kingspan Insulated Panels’ Net-Zero Energy journey by visiting http://www.sustainability.kingspanpanels.com.

BusinessGreen Leaders Awards

Kingspan Insulated Panels has been shortlisted in the ‘Manufacturer of the Year’ category at the upcoming 2016 BusinessGreen Leaders Awards, the prestigious awards programme that recognises the businesses, NGOs and executives across the UK that are turning sustainability pledges into reality.

Kingspan has been recognised for its Net-Zero Energy programme. The programme started in 2011 following a commitment to achieve net-zero energy across Kingspan’s operations by 2020, by using its own products and solutions to reduce carbon emissions while remaining profitable and productive.

Since the start of this initiative, Kingspan Insulated Panels has almost halved its carbon emissions across its global facilities. Performance in the UK has been particularly impressive, with a 57% reduction in emissions and over 34% of energy coming from renewable sources. Importantly, the efficiency measures undertaken across the Kingspan Group between 2013 and 2014 saved 15GWh of energy, which translated to an additional €1 million in profit.

Commenting on the shortlisting, Phil Smith, Managing Director of Kingspan Insulated Panels UK & Ireland said:

“We’re very proud that Kingspan’s own sustainability initiatives are being recognised through awards like this, but our real hope is that our Net-Zero Energy programme serves as a useful model for the wider construction industry to follow. We’re committed to making the business case for sustainability by demonstrating that its possible to both reduce carbon emissions and improve the bottom line.”

The awards ceremony will take place at The Brewery in central London on the evening of 6^th July, where winners of the 24 award categories will be announced.

Flying the Net-Zero Energy Flag at EUROCONSTRUCT

Written by Mel Courtney – General Manager, Kingspan Energy

At today’s excellent EUROCONSTRUCT event in Dublin, I was proud to talk about Kingspan’s Net-Zero Energy programme.

In 2011, we committed to achieving net-zero energy across our entire global operation by 2020, with an interim goal of 50% by 2016. The commitment is extraordinary in scale, encompassing operations in 85 countries, across four divisions.

Our Net-Zero Energy programme is an unambiguous and very public commitment from Kingspan to practise what we preach – using our own products and solutions to reduce carbon emissions while remaining profitable and productive. This has made success imperative to Kingspan, with potential for a direct impact on our reputation and the commercial viability of our solutions.

So far, the results have been impressive. Globally, Kingspan Insulated Panels has reduced its carbon emissions by almost 50% since 2011. In the UK, emissions were reduced from 12,883 tCO₂ in 2013 to just 5,719 tCO₂ in 2014 – a 57% saving. In 2014, over 34% of energy came from renewable sources, with carbon emissions from non-renewable electricity down 44%.

At a Kingspan Group level, the energy efficiency measures undertaken between 2013 and 2014 saved 15GWh throughout the year, adding circa €1 million to our net profit.

The construction industry has needed a model to follow for stepping up to the sustainability challenge and reduce the 36% of European carbon emissions associated with buildings. My intention at today’s event was to show how our Net-Zero Energy initiative proves the business case for sustainability, and helps Sustainability Directors persuade their own organisations to begin a similar Net-Zero journey.

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