Environmental Product Declarations are important validation tools for Kingspan Insulation. Not only do they provide transparency of data and overall environmental performance cradle to grave but they embed a pathway to Green Star building certification and continued improvement.
Kingspan Insulation recently published its first environmental product declarations. The EPDs are for products in the Kooltherm range, which offer high thermal performance moisture and water vapour resistance alongside premium fire performance.
For Kingspan the decision to go down the EPD route was a no brainer. EPDs have thrived since they hit the sustainability marketplace in 2014 and in recent times they’ve grown exponentially.
Not only do these declarations offer transparency but they also provide comparable data and other relevant environmental information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products” as certifying body EPD Australasia says.
With the growing appetite for net zero carbon emissions in buildings and high performing environmental materials in construction, EPDs, as measures of achievement, are now embedded in the industry.
Kingspan was one of five companies that published their first EPD in the second quarter of 2023, helping to create a “flood” of 20 new EPDs that have newly landed in the building and construction industry.
Strategic alignment with sustainability ambitions
According to Kingspan Insulation Australian managing director Scott Gibson EPDs align well with the company’s sustainability strategy. It wants to slash carbon emissions from its primary supply chain by 50 per cent by 2030.
“Kingspan is deeply committed to this path through its Planet Passionate global initiative that constantly assesses the environmental impacts of its products,” Gibson says.
Obtaining an EPD is not so much an end goal, but a first step towards a deeper commitment to reduce the embodied carbon of products and improve overall sustainability performance, he says.
“We use EPDs as this first step and then find ways of reducing these impacts by innovating and seeking lower-impact raw materials.”
Kingspan – which was first established in Ireland in 1965 and now has more than 22,000 employees – has put its money where its mouth is, not just through EPDs but with achievements through the Planet Passionate program.
In 2022 for instance, the Kingspan global group showed a 26 per cent reduction in scope 1 and scope 2 of its greenhouse gas emissions versus its 2020 baseline year.
Pairing good performance with EPDs makes sense
To keep the pressure up on improving targets, however, Kingspan relies on strong relationships with its key industry partners – and collaborating to meeting their needs. And it’s here that EPDs can help.
Property developers, architects and builders for instance need to know they can pass the growing environmental tests for their products in the marketplace, both from investors demanding reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and their customers and stakeholders.
There are growing policy mandates to consider, such as the improved energy efficiency requirements in the National Construction Code being rolled out across the country.
And there is the clear bell of green ratings such as Green Star through the Green Building Council of Australia and Infrastructure Sustainability Council.
EPDs are a big part of achieving all these expectations and goals by providing a common language, Gibson says. “They communicate data; they create a tool to identify collective ambitions – and they provide a way to measure achievements.”
They also provide a clear way of assessing the overall embodied carbon from materials that will be used in a building.
And he adds that the system has the added authority of “an internationally recognised process that uses approved verifiers and accredited certification bodies”.
Kooltherm and why it works for the new high performance demands
So how does Kooltherm work and why is it a good sustainability choice?
According to Gibson, the material in the Kooltherm product range, known as K10 Plus, K10 G2, K10 G2W and K17, has great thermal qualities.
It’s ideal for modular construction, which is often used for specialist buildings such as hospitals and schools that need consistent temperatures for occupants while minimising energy consumption.
And “insulation is critical in providing indoor comfort,” Gibson says.
This also dovetails well with residential developers and builders seeking to achieve 7 Star NatHERS performance or above and the product’s moisture and water vapour resistance deals with another common bugbear in buildings.
Kooltherm is also fire resistant. The material it’s made from chars and hardens in a fire, giving off very little smoke.
There’s always more to achieve when it comes to the environment
But for Kingspan Insulation, the possibility emerged to take the environmental achievements of the Kooltherm range further. The resin that forms the backbone of the products was originally imported from the United Kingdom. But this year a new supplier was identified in Malaysia, much closer to home, thereby reducing carbon miles in the production process.
Kingspan will continue down the EPD road with a second Kooltherm publication set for December 2023 to include its K8, K3, K12, Koolduct and Kooltherm duct insulation.
It’s all part of the story of ever-improving environmental performance.
