2018 Sustainable Building Awards

7 2018 Sustainable Building Awards Build Over the years REHAU has always been aware of the impact of its actions international manufacturer of polymer products operating worldwide – both on people and the environment. Globally, REHAU has a huge product portfolio, with UK focuses including manufacturing polymer pipework, the latest heating and cooling systems, thermally efficient PVC-U windows and doors and furniture solutions such as edge-banding. Even with such a wide portfolio of products REHAU has remained determined to continue to develop new and innovative technologies and processes to stay at the forefront of the sustainable movement specifically within the building and glazing industries. This dynamic, creative approach has been a constant since the beginning REHAU, which has spent more than 70 years been designing and manufacturing energy efficient products. Products have long achieved the PassivHaus standard: but to offer this has not been considered enough by the business, which has also looked internally at how to achieve real sustainability. This has included making changes to areas including transportation and logistics, material usage, design, energy usage in all facilities and creating a recyclable product to utilise former material and avoid landfill. As a transparent and open firm, REHAU has also been clear and open about its intentions and aims in this arena. In February its third annual sustainability report was released digitally, introducing its ‘Fit for the Future’ strategy. The firm’s commitment to recycling is cemented as the company has aligned its targets with those laid out by VinylPlus. Key to its position in the sustainable building market is the work undertaken at the REHAU PVCR factory in Manchester and how this contributes to REHAU’s co-extruded TOTAL70 window profile, which uses up to 100 per cent post-consumer waste in the core, with only a virgin PVC-U casing. The product is based on the TOTAL70 range and as such presented a challenge to REHAU as it strove to replicate the appearance and performance of the existing range. However, this was overcome by REHAU and a product has been created that now offers a replacement in quality and performance. The creation of the co-extruded TOTAL70 product has also opened a new door for many fabricators enabling a move to ensure that in the near future all REHAU customers will utilise the new co-extruded product. This again presented a challenge to make sure that a smooth transition process would be in place for fabricators and within REHAU’s own factories, whilst also balancing the production of the new and old profiles. Already though this has allowed REHAU customers to market the sustainable and greener product, something we know is popular to the end consumer. This was made clear by the Sheffield Window Centre which has adopted the new co-extruded profile in a move to be greener. It also offers a strong sales argument for specifiers tendering new commercial projects. Despite having overcome many challenges there is still a need within the windows industry to educate on the benefits of using polymer and the sustainable opportunities that it has to offer: both now and into the future. REHAU hope to contribute to this change in perception with constant innovation into the market. Therefore, moving forward, for REHAU the future will see all customers transition to using the co-extruded TOTAL70 product ensuring that the circular window economy is developed and less virgin PVC-U is put into the market place. This will take time, but it has already begun the firm is completely committed to achieving this ambitious target. The business as a whole will continue to invest in further innovation and development, investigating other window profile systems that could also begin to use post- consumer waste to establish even more green PVC-U REHAU products. Company: REHAU Ltd Type: Extrusion Plant Feb18 Photo credit: REHAU Ltd Contact: Irene Smith