Kingspan has been named for the third year in a row on The Climate ‘A List’ by CDP, the international not-for-profit that measures the environmental impact of thousands of companies around the world.

Featuring on the ‘A List’ recognizes Kingspan’s actions in the last reporting year to cut emissions, mitigate climate risks and develop the low-carbon economy. In 2016 Kingspan passed the half way mark along its path to Net Zero Energy (NZE) by 2020, with renewable energy accounting for 57% of its total energy use. In the past 5 years Kingspan’s products have helped customers reduce their annual energy consumption by over 600 million megawatt hours– the equivalent to over 372 million barrels of oil.

The building sector contributes 30% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 40% of global energy consumption. Unless more action is taken by Governments and corporates, the United Nations Energy Programme (UNEP) predicts that greenhouse gas emissions are set to double over the next 20 years.

Thousands of companies are independently assessed against CDP’s scoring methodology in a report compiled at the request of 827 investors who represent $100 trillion of assets under management. Only 5% of the companies who submit information are awarded position on the Climate A List, in recognition of their actions to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change in the past reporting year.

Kingspan has taken a three-pronged approach to reducing its energy foot print:

  • Save more energy: Energy efficiency measures introduced by Kingspan have reduced the company’s overall lighting and heat costs by over 30% and achieved almost a four-fold decrease in carbon intensity levels. Use of Kingspan’s own products including high-performance insulation, roof lighting and LEDs has played a key role in delivering these savings. 
  • Generate more renewable energy: Kingspan’s on-site renewable energy generation has jumped from 6.6 GWh in 2012 to 32.2 GWh in 2016 through use of solar, wind and biomass technologies. On- site generation across multiple sites globally currently supplies 7.6% of the company’s total energy use, and more projects are now under construction. 
  • Buy more renewable energy: Kingspan has taken steps to ensure that where renewable energy can’t be produced on-site, it is procured from fully-certified sources. In 2016 all the electricity used at manufacturing sites in North America was procured from certified renewable sources. Globally in 2016, the Group used 164.2 GWh of renewable electricity, almost a six- fold increase from 2011 (and equivalent to not burning 55m tonnes of coal). 

The Climate A List and full company scores are available on CDP’s website: https://www.cdp.net/en/scores-2017