1. What environmental impacts/benefits are there from using Rockwool?

The natural basic rock material for making Rockwool is an abundant resource. Great care is taken during both the manufacturing process and distribution of finished insulation products to minimise any environmental impact. Rockwool's operation team monitors the production processes carefully to ensure any emissions are within specified limits. It is Rockwool Group policy to adhere to environmental standards better than national or local requirements. The embodied energy in Rockwool is probably the lowest for any commercially produced insulation.

The environmental return on the manufacture of a square metre of Rockwool will vary depending on its application, but will typically be around 100-300 to 1 for wall insulation systems, and much higher for insulation of hot industrial pipes and processes, typically over 10,000 to 1. Energy saving is directly proportionate to the thickness of insulation applied. One square metre of 150mm loft insulation is associated with a once only cost of around 65 Megajoules of energy, but saves annually approximately 350 Megajoules. A bungalow with a properly insulated loft area of 100m2, will, over 50 years, save over 1.8 million Megajoules. In a similar way, one linear metre of 130mm Rockwool process pipe section on a 273mm diameter pipe, with an operating temperature of 450°C typically in service for one year, will save around 460,000 Megajoules, against a one-off energy cost of 300 Megajoules at installation. An Environmental Report for the Rockwool Group is available.

Eco-friendly products and good environmental management have earned Rockwool, high profile recognition as winner of the coveted Wales Environment Award 2002.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive method of evaluating the full environmental consequences of a product over its lifetime, from ‘cradle to grave’.  It evaluates the environmental impacts of the products and by-products of the manufacturing process - the use of resources, raw materials and fuel and the emissions into air, water and soil.
 
A Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is the identification and quantification of these inputs and emissions.
 
The sum of the energy used to manufacture a product and its feedstock is referred to as the embodied energy.

3. Has Rockwool carried out a Life Cycle Analysis on its products?

Rockwool is one of the few insulation companies which have carried out a full Life Cycle Assessment on a standard product which has been fully verified by an independent organisation (PWC). Please click here for the LCA Summary.

The Rockwool life cycle assessment, Rockwool LCI shows that:

. the embodied energy for Rollbatt is 17.3MJ/kg; expressed in the LCI table as 6.49E+3 MJ Total Primary Energy for 375kg of product,

. 150mm thick Rockwool Roll installed in a loft can typically save 273 times more energy than the energy used over the product’s Life Cycle (based on the use of gas heating).

The LCI is taken from a comprehensive Assessment of data obtained throughout 2001.  The Assessment was undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 14040 series of standards on LCA and was independently reviewed and approved by Price Waterhouse Coopers in August 2003.  Click here for a summary of the PWC Critical Review.

6. Do you have a material safety data sheet (MSDS) for Rockwool products?

Yes, please click here.

Not only are Rockwool off-cuts, other Rockwool production ‘waste’ and Rockwool returned from site recycled back into the manufacturing process but carefully selected by-products from other industries are also reused. The 1500ºC Rockwool production furnace is ideally suited to the substitution of virgin raw materials, such as rock or fuel, with waste materials of a similar chemical composition. These recycled or reused materials represent more than 50% by weight of finished Rockwool output. The ‘recyclability’ of Rockwool is in stark contrast to that of some other insulation materials.