Building a sustainable future

Glass Times editor, Luke Wood, visits Deceuninck’s state-of-the-art, 15million Euro recycling facility, a tour that also coincides with the launch of Elegant, a new, ultra-energy efficient system that redefines the potential of PVC-U.

The first couple of months of 2022 felt like a fresh start. The misery of Covid, or at least Covid lockdowns, were behind us and most people were looking forward to getting back to business as usual.

And there was one word that was dominating the news agenda – sustainability.

It felt as if green issues had taken a step back during the pandemic, but if anything, research revealed that Covid enforced lockdowns actually served to bring sustainability into a sharper focus in the minds of consumers.

Businesses that had a strong sustainability message were quick to promote their green credentials.

While the war in Ukraine, combined with political and economic turmoil at home in the UK, has since served to dial down the volume on sustainability, it is still one of the biggest areas of opportunity for the industry. If not, the biggest…

For Rob McGlennon, managing director of Deceuninck, sustainability ‘will define the UK window and door industry in the next decade’.

Deceuninck commissioned an independent survey 12 months ago that was conducted by YouGov and designed to measure consumer awareness of sustainable home improvement products. The results revealed that 68% of homeowners said they would choose windows and doors with a higher recycled content, over ones that contained no recycled material, or which did but at lower levels. 63% of respondents said they would be more likely to purchase home improvements which they saw as being more ‘sustainable’ and of these – crucially – 38% would be prepared to pay more for products that could demonstrate a higher recycled content and a reduced impact on the environment.

The results of the survey not only show the importance of being able to offer consumers a genuine, sustainable product but also the potential to add value to a sale.

It’s certainly true that not all homeowners will pay a premium for recycled windows. But then it’s also true that not all consumers shop at Waitrose and are prepared to pay more for organic produce…the right demographic is key.

Either way, when you consider the size of the investment that Deceuninck has made on its recycling facility, then it’s clear that the industry needs to move away from the old fashioned narrative that windows and doors manufactured with recycled content are somehow cheaper or inferior to those made with ‘virgin’ profile.

Deceuninck has spent more than 15million Euros on one of the world’s most advanced recycling and compounding facilities. It can reprocess up to 45,000 tonnes of post-consumer and post-manufacturing PVC-U per year – roughly the equivalent of three million windows diverted away from landfill.

The high quality, recycled material it produces is then cleverly combined with ‘virgin’ polymer and co-extruded into new profile. Up to 50% of that will include recycled material, isolated at the core of the product to ensure optimum surface finish and performance.

According to Deceuninck, 90% of all the materials it uses can now be recycled and it is working hard to develop new technologies to recycle the remaining 10%.

In addition to ‘closing the loop’ on manufacturing material, Deceuninck has also committed to ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse emissions through the corporate carbon reduction scheme, Science Based Targets (SBTi).

This includes a commitment to cut the CO2 emissions from its own operations by 60% by 2030 (from a 2021 baseline) as well as reducing emissions from within its supply chain by 48% per tonne by 2030. The company is aiming for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Deceuninck’s sustainability messaging is clearly very powerful and that puts its customers in a very advantageous position considering the demand for ‘greener’ products from consumers as well as, increasingly, for businesses operating in the commercial sector.

Sustainability, however, is as much about energy efficiency as it is about carbon reduction and recycling.

That means designing new products that include recycled material, and which are easier to recycle at the end of their life, but which also raise the bar for energy efficiency and overall performance.

Introducing Elegant

Engineered to maximise thermal performance and design reach, while minimising stock-holding, Deceuninck’s new Elegant window and door system is built around i-COR, a modular, ultra-energy efficient outer frame.

Available in three different frame depths, including a standard 76mm system plus 84mm and 115mm options, each frame is compatible with five different sashes. These include a flush sash option called Elegant Abstract, and ThermoFibra Infinity, Deceuninck’s glass-fibre reinforced sash, which has a rebate of only 7mm, while achieving U-values of as low as 0.88W/m²K.

Deceuninck’s Rob McGlennon introduced Elegant to the trade press as part of the recent tour of the company’s recycling facility.

“Our standard offer is the 76mm frame,” he said.

“If you took that in isolation and disregarded the 84mm and 115mm frames you can manufacture five different windows including what we believe will be a very popular flush sash option, Elegant Abstract.

“You don’t have to hold masses of stock. Production is easier because outer frame dimensions don’t change, so it’s less complicated to cut, mill or rout, also saving time, and the U-values are incredible,” Rob explained.

In addition to the flush Elegant Abstract and ThermoFibra Infinity, Elegant is also available in Infinity, which features a subtle transition between the frame and sash; Elegant Origin which has a classic detailing; and the more pronounced square chamfered, Elegant Grando.

ThermoFibra Infinity employs Deceuninck’s patented ThermoFibra glass fibre reinforcement system eliminating steel from the sash.

It combines this with Forthex, Deceuninck’s extruded insulated thermal reinforcement, which maximises design potential without the need for traditional steel reinforcement using embedded steel wires in a low-density insulating foam core.

As strong as steel reinforced windows but 30% more thermally efficient with 40% savings on materials and weight, ThermoFibra and Forthex are also 100% recyclable.

Rob continued: “Elegant moves PVC-U into a different space, through the way that it is made; and with the through-life performance and the high-end architectural aesthetic that it delivers.

“Elegant shifts the conversation from a discussion limited to one about PVC-U and aluminium, to one about next generation, premium low maintenance and energy efficient composite windows and doors

“There is a powerful sustainability story which underpins Elegant and which gives it immediate reach in the commercial sector, as an alternative to and alongside, aluminium products,” he said.

“It also has very strong end-user appeal, as a low maintenance and ultra-energy efficient, composite window and door system.

“Our homes account for around 14% of the UK’s CO2 emissions,” continued Rob. “Cutting the amount of energy that we use to keep them warm in winter is now a key infrastructure priority, something only reinforced by the current cost-of-living crisis.

“It creates a direct link between heat loss, hard economics and sustainability. Heat loss through poorly insulated properties is not sustainable environmentally or economically. It is also not sustainable politically.

“This is driving a shift in expectation,” he concluded. “The energy efficiency of their homes has new resonance with consumers, something which, despite the pressures on household incomes, creates opportunity for the window and door industry if we’re effective in driving the energy efficiency message.”