Every year, the built environment consumes 41 billion tonnes of resources, most of which end up landfilled or downcycled to low value applications at the end of product life cycles. In fact, a third of global waste production originates from the construction sector, which makes it the largest producer of waste by mass. By transitioning to a fully circular model, ROCKWOOL can address this global ecological and social challenge and simultaneously explore new commercial opportunities. This also reinforces the company's long-term commitment to combating climate change and limiting negative environmental impacts from operations.

In 2018, ROCKWOOL partnered with Circle Economy to analyse gaps in our value chain and to identify more opportunities for circular economy thinking. Thanks to this partnership, we have identified ways to strengthen ROCKWOOL's business model. ROCKWOOL Sustainability Report 2019

ROCKWOOL has a long standing ambition on sustainability, as is exhibited in its contribution to climate mitigation or limiting the negative impact of its operations. A circular business model is part of this and represents a natural step for ROCKWOOL in building a stable and prosperous future with its key stakeholders.

ROCKWOOL is commited to contribute towards shaping a Circular Economy. Building on the existing commitment towards improving on the circularity of its business model, ROCKWOOL has set out to analyse and assess the current status of its value chain and identify leverage points throughout the products' life cycle.

"ROCKWOOL has shown its commitment to becoming a profitable business with a strong commitment to sustainability goals and ambitions at its core. At Circle Economy, we are delighted to welcome Rockwool as a member and further deepen our collaboration by connecting them with other frontrunners in the circular economy. This formula for radical collaboration is an effective and proven route to inspire scalable action in the built environment and beyond" Harald Friedl, CEO, Circle Economy

ROCKWOOL aims to to extend circular economy thinking in its business model. ROCKWOOL is already upcycling secondary materials from other industries, recycling its own waste in closed loops and designing products for long life and indefinite recycling. In addition, ROCKWOOL has set ambitious goals to reduce the amount of production waste going to landfill by 85% as well as to offer recycling services for its products in 30 countries by 2030. With the Circle Scan analysis used in this report, Circle Economy set out to assess and challenge ROCKWOOL's business model and value chain by identifying circular hotspots and levers to accelerate circular impact.

In upcoming years, ROCKWOOL plans to initiate a number of new collaborations to realize its circular economy agenda. Thereby, they can become change agents spreading their circular vision throughout the construction sector and inspire action beyond the company.