Kingspan’s manufacturing facilities and offices in Columbus Ohio, are now a 100% powered by renewable energy, the company announced this Tuesday.
Firstly, in those facilities the company manufactures its Benchmark line of insulated metal panels; and now they are going to be fully and directly powered by wind energy, coming from a wind farm operated by WGL Energy; and distributed by the Columbus Southern Power Company.
Secondly, the switch to renewable energy is part of two Kingspan’s global initiatives: its commitment to achieve Net Zero Energy status by 2030; and the Planet Passionate initiative. Aligned with these strategies, Kingspan’s manufacturing facilities in Caledon, Ontario; and also Langley, British Columbia, will be the next to shift to 100% renewable energy.
On the other hand “having a large manufacturing facility powered by 100% renewable energy is an important step; but it’s just the first step in a long journey to reduce the impacts of climate change.” Said Brent Trenga, company’s Director of Sustainability.
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Manufacturing, key element in Kingspan’s circular economy strategy
Moreover “we want to do our part by improving our own operations; also help our customers by providing products that contribute to more sustainable buildings; while leading by example to show other companies how this can be done.”
On the other hand, the Planet Passionate initiative consists of 12 ambitious targets focusing on four key areas; energy, carbon, circularity and water; while commitments for 2030 include: in energy, powering 60% of all Kingspan operations directly from renewable energy; with a minimum of 20% of this energy generated on manufacturing sites.
On carbon: achieving net zero carbon manufacturing and a 50% reduction in product C02 intensity; from primary supply partners. On circularity, also, the upcycling of 1 billion PET bottles annually into insulation products, plus zero company waste-to-landfill across all sites.
In addition, on water, the company commits to harvest a 100 million liters of Kingspan’s water usage from rainwater. Finally, after these commitments, Kingspan became a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 (CE100); the world’s leading circular economy network.
