INCREASE THE USE OF NON-VIRGIN AND RENEWABLE MATERIALS

1. Shift to renewable energy sources in manufacturing processes
2. Scale up non-virgin raw material sourcing from open and closed loops
3. Use renewable energy sources for transportation
4. Use renewable or cycled materials for packaging
5. Shift to bio-based binders

Shifting towards non-virgin and renewable materials will enable ROCKWOOL to close its circularity gap by decreasing virgin material consumption. Thereby, ROCKWOOL will be able to minimize environmental impacts associated with extracting and processing minerals and burning fossil fuels. Simultaneously, this shift may increasingly hold commercial potential due to changing material and energy prices and growing attention for sustainability among clients.

ROCKWOOL already uses a considerable amount of non-virgin materials from waste stone wool as well as other industries such as metallurgic and utilities industries. In addition, ROCKWOOL could actively engage in building new collaborations with other industries to increase its intake of non-virgin materials. In addition to collaborations with other industries, ROCKWOOL also plans to expand its own closed-loop reverse logistics programme. Especially, used stone wool materials from construction and demolition waste hold potential to close the loop in ROCKWOOL's value chain.

Shifting to renewable energy sources lowers the resource footprint of ROCKWOOL products. Most prominently, this would entail replacing fossil fuels used during manufacturing processes and transportation with renewable energy sources. Similarly, switching to bio- based materials in binders and packaging will further reduce the amount of fossil materials that end up incinerated and in waste streams.