Sustainability in construction

Minimising energy consumption and waste production through using renewable and recyclable building materials lies at the foundation of sustainable construction. Being part of the European construction industry, a sector that alone accounts for approximately 38% of Europe's annual CO2-emissions, and within an industry that is reported to be responsible for 35% of Europe’s total waste generation, taking big steps to be more sustainable is imperative in our industry.

As a building materials supplier and manufacturer, CPG Europe is committed to continuing to bring sustainable methods into our daily practices, from production and distribution of products at our manufacturing facilities, to reducing our energy usage in office buildings. This is how we are not only contributing to our company’s sustainability approach but making our own contribution to the construction industry’s need to change, as outlined in continent-wide plans, such as the European Union Green Deal. 

A more sustainable European Union

As the EU’s main new growth strategy to transition the EU economy to a more sustainable economic model, the main objective of the EU Green Deal, presented in December 2019, is for the European Union to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050, resulting in a cleaner environment, more affordable energy, smarter transport, new jobs and an overall better quality of life. The first step in reaching this goal is a target of emission reduction by 55% in 2030 – compared to 1990 emissions. 

The main elements of the EU Green Deal are:

• Climate action. 
• Clean energy.  
• Sustainable industry. 
• Buildings and renovations. 
• Sustainable mobility.  
• Eliminating pollution. 
• Farm to Fork.  
• Preserving biodiversity.  
• Research and development.  
• Preventing unfair competition from carbon leakage. 

The most significant elements that can affect our processes in the construction industry are highlighted above in bold. 

To play our part in becoming more sustainable, we are contributing to our parent company, RPM International Inc.’s sustainability approach – Building a Better World. By 2025, we aim to:

• Reduce energy consumption in our facilities by 10%.
• Reduce waste to landfill from our facilities by 10%.
• Increase recycling in our facilities by 20%.
• Reduce scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions by 20%.
• Implement opportunities for water reuse and conservation.

As well as focusing on these targets, we also follow a three-pillar approach consisting of Our Products, Our Processes and Our People. You can find out more about these pillars in the sustainability section of our website.

Our commitment to becoming more sustainable is unified across Europe. The sum of our efforts contributes to RPM’s 2025 goals and beyond, but here we take a closer look at the steps taken in our specific region.

[Example]How CPG Poland is becoming more sustainable

In order to reduce the volume of waste at our production facility and warehouse sites in Poland, we use precision technologies on our production lines also to allow for 100% waste elimination that could be caused by faulty or imprecise products. The little waste that is generated, such as plastic, paper and mixed waste is pressed to reduce its volume. 

To reduce energy consumption in our production facilities and warehouses, the buildings have been designed in a way that allows maximum natural daylight to flood the buildings, through the use of skylights. 

[Specific products sold in Poland, such as illbruck sausages or LDE Filler products for flooring can also be mentioned here.]

If you’d like to find out more about the steps we are taking to be a sustainable construction company, read more about our sustainability commitments on our website.