Our UK Manufacturing Facility’s Accelerating Sustainability Drive

We are helping to spearhead a path for better environmental stewardship and lower impact at our manufacturing facility in Hull, not just in raised access floors, but across the building sector. Our achievements appear in the latest Planet Passionate report 2023 published recently.

What is Planet Passionate?

The construction industry has a pivotal role to play in the drive to transition to net zero global carbon emissions.

Within the sector, Kingspan is uniquely placed to support this process of decarbonisation through its extensive range of high-performance energy-saving systems and product portfolio. 

The Group’s ambitious 10-year Planet Passionate sustainability programme, which began in 2020, aims to have a positive impact on three big global challenges: climate change, circularity and the protection of the natural world.

Through the momentum created by Planet Passionate initiatives Kingspan will contribute to the world’s renewable energy mix, reduce carbon emissions, divert waste from landfill, conserve water, provide upcycling solutions for plastic waste and help clean the world’s oceans and protect biodiversity.

Our UK Manufacturing Facility: Current Sustainability Highlights

At our manufacturing facility in Hull, we are:

• Embracing renewable energy - just under 80% of the energy we use in our operations now comes from renewable sources and we generate 17.7% of what we need on-site from rooftop solar panels (for electricity) and our three biomass boilers (for heating the facility).  Our biomass boilers are fuelled by shredded chipboard panels and factory offcuts (keeping it circular!) and in 2023 generated c.573mWh of renewable energy Meanwhile, our solar panels extend across 3,200m2 of rooftop and these are expected to generate 450,000 kWh of electricity pa., saving c. 116 tonnes of CO2.
• Sending zero waste to landfill from Hull
• Expanding the “Take Back” scheme, further minimising landfill waste and supporting a circular economy by recycling the floor components
• Harvesting thousands of litres of rainwater every year.  We have 22 toilets on-site and, in 2023, we captured 83,000 litres and significantly reduced our reliance on mains water
• Continuing with our electrification programme.  We have invested on an onsite electric gantry crane to remove reliance on diesel forklifts, and we are transitioning our forklift fleet across to fully electric 
• Using reusable thermal cups and water bottles on-site to reduce plastic waste
• Using low carbon steel in our ground-breaking RMG600+ range.  We’ll soon be sharing the first case studies that feature it

Find out more about the latest Planet Passionate updates 2023.