We talk to John McComb, technical services director at Reynaers UK, who explains more about how the company is working towards stricter energy efficiency requirements for 2025.

With the latest iteration of Part L of the building regulations now in place, industry focus has moved to 2025 when the next stage of emissions targets need to be met.

The UK Government has committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to support that, the Future Homes Standard now dictates that all new buildings must reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2025.

After taking a leading role in reassuring the industry over the Part L updates, Reynaers Aluminium UK is already looking ahead to this next stage as it plans to continue to improve the thermal efficiency of its products, alongside an ambitious sustainability strategy – Reynaers Act.

In meeting future environmental targets, the focus will continue to be on U-values as well as British Fenestration Ratings Council (BFRC) window and door energy ratings (WERs and DERs), as they measure how well materials insulate buildings. When the U-value is lower, heat flow through buildings will also be lower.

Following the changes that came into force in June 2022, U-value requirements stand at 1.4Wm/2k. While a figure has not yet been set for 2025, there will be a significant reduction in this value.

To support a reduction in the U-values of its products, Reynaers continues to invest in innovation, research and testing. This allows the business to meet regulations in a robust manner, with some product performance already surpassing the current required standards and offering U-values as low as 0.8W/m²K.

John McComb explains: “Thermal efficiency has been at the forefront of our design criteria, and we have embraced technologies such as the development of complex thermally efficient polyamide sections in our window and door designs to improve thermal efficiency whilst also reducing sightlines.

“Alongside product innovation, we use new technology to rigorously test the thermal values of our range of current products – windows, doors, sliding doors, folding doors, and curtain walls – and planned new products, to ensure they not only meet the new regulations, but exceed them to meet regulatory changes in the future.

“We use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to determine product thermal calculations and have employed a BFRC simulator on site to show compliance on thermal values and conducted additional product analysis with the BFRC. Their rainbow rating labelling system confirms our products are independently verified by experts to give specifiers, fabricators and installers the evidence they need to make the right choice of product.”

Through its Reynaers ACT sustainability strategy, the company has also signed up to the science-based target initiative (SBTi) to ensure rigorous and ambitious sustainability targets are set and actioned across the organisation.

This includes a commitment to creating circular products and cutting the carbon footprint of the company. This will enable architects, specifiers and fabricators to have clear, accessible information on the sustainability of products beyond U-values, such as Passive House certification, Cradle-to-Cradle certifications and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

Several of Reynaers products from its MasterLine, Hi-Finity, MasterPatio and ConceptWall ranges already meet the high standards of Passive House, and the company intends to continue to expand the number of such products in its portfolio.

John added: “The Paris Climate Agreement is a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. It is mandated by law. The industry now needs to make the same commitment.

“Reynaers is proud to take a leading stance both in terms of our product development and more broadly through Reynaers ACT. This has put us in a strong position to continue to make ecologically sound improvements to our products, enable greater levels of thermal efficiency and reduce energy emissions.”