Raw Material Acquisition

Utilize recycled content

Our plants use 60 – 80% recycled content – which translates to about 10 railcars of recycled glass cullet a day. By leveraging so much recycled content, we reduce the energy required to form glass fibers by 20%. If we use even 60% recycled content, then mining impacts are reduced proportionately.

Pursue sequestration potential

Manson products use Knauf Insulation’s bio-based ECOSE Technology is derived from corn. The Knauf Family Farm produces the same amount of corn we use on an annual basis, which is equal to 15,000 acres. While growing our own corn is not currently part of the life cycle assessment of our products in North America, we have the potential of growing the very corn that we use in our products. Life cycle analysis suggests about a 9% reduction in our manufacturing operation from the sequestration impacts of the corn growth cycle. If that corn and stubble were completely used in our ECOSE formulation, then corn absorption of carbon might be a plausible approach to help meet the zero carbon goals of our company.

Manufacturing

Develop bio-based formaldehyde-free binder

In 2008, Knauf Insulation launched perhaps the nation’s largest formaldehyde-free green chemistry initiative called ECOSE Technology. Offering this into the building materials marketplace quickly transformed the entire glass mineral fiber industry toward bio-based chemistries. Today phenol-formaldehyde (PF) based resins are largely a thing of the past with regard to large volume mineral fiber based insulation products. Knauf has also launched a new business venture to assist other industries in accessing ECOSE Technology for their processes. In a given year, using corn-based ECOSE Technology instead of phenol & formaldehyde avoids the equivalent of more than 100,000 barrels of oil in North America alone.

Lead green chemistry efforts

Following the launch of our ECOSE Technology in 2009, we had transformed all of our products and processes to this new technology. Using our bio-based ECOSE Technology has removed phenol and formaldehyde from our stack emissions. By 2012, the entire light density industry had followed our lead. This initiative not only established Knauf Insulation in a leadership position, but it had a transformative impact on our industry in general.

Green manufacturing Processes

• Regenerative thermal oxidizers Knauf Insulation uses regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTO) to capture and recycle much of the energy we used to cure our products. RTO is equipment used for the treatment of exhaust air. Our ovens exhaust into a ceramic heat exchange media to capture and reuse the heat in the exhausted air. Therefore, the amount of energy required to cure our product is reduced substantially.
• Recycling As you can see below, everything we do starts with recycling. Our plant uses as much as 80% recycled content. While our only option is to landfill our products at end of life, that doesn’t stop us from encouraging consumers to recycle other products, particularly glass bottles.