Recycled and low carbon materials

Fulfilling the deeply entrenched idea of sustainability in a unique way, is the use of recycled and low-carbon aluminium from Hydro. Hydro CIRCAL is a range of prime quality aluminium made with a minimum of 75% recycled, post-consumer scrap. Hydro CIRCAL has a carbon footprint among the lowest in the world: 1.9 kg CO2 per kilo of aluminium. Since 2018, more than 300 Hydro CIRCAL projects have been built around the world, estimated to save more than 28 kilotonnes of CO2 compared to the European primary consumed average (based on the European Aluminium Report 2018) - equivalent to the annual emissions of 6222 cars.

Hydro REDUXA® is our low carbon aluminium range, produced with renewable energy from Hydro. The highest threshold of CO2 for Hydro REDUXA is 4 kg CO2 per kilo of aluminium. As we are committed to provide the highest level of transparency, both aluminium ranges are EPD certified. In addition, all our extrusion plants in Europe are ASI-certified.

“Following our journey on the path to a certified, circular economy, all of our key products will contain at least 80% recycled and 100% recyclable content within the next four years. This is an efficient and effective way to reduce the impact of materials on the life cycle of a building."

Henri Gomez - Senior Vice President, Hydro Building Systems

The use phase is an important part of the lifecycle of a building¹. The most efficient way to reduce operational emissions is to offer high performance products to optimize energy consumption once the building enters the use-phase. Therefore, we develop high performance products which meet high requirements for thermal insulation, low maintenance, energy performance, comfort and acoustics. Produced using at least 75% recycled and 95% recyclable content, our new products are also easily reusable, dismantlable and recyclable. The rest of the CO2 emissions are generated upfront, with the use phase accounting for 1/3 of the total CO2 emissions.

Together with the other building system brands of Hydro we aim to cut by 50% our carbon emissions by 2025.

Windows and doors are not only made of aluminium. In order to be consistent, we decided to work with suppliers with the same values and all of our Hydro CIRCAL profiles are now made with recycled thermal breaks – made of recycled polyamide. The insulbar® RE-LI by Ensinger indeed offers 92% less fossil fuels used during manufacture; 91% less CO2 (with a footprint of 0.8kg of CO2 per kg of recycled polyamide, instead of 8kg of CO2 for not recycled polyamide); 78% less water reduction; and is EPD-certified.

By using less and by optimising packaging materials, we have managed to reduce by 8 times the carbon footprint of our packaging. Additionally, thanks to improved truck technology, fuel changes, distance reduction and route optimization, we managed to deliver better and more efficiently saving both emissions and costs.

Circular product design based on the Cradle to Cradle Certified® philosophy

It all starts at the very beginning – the design process. All of our new products are designed for the circular life cycle and follow the C2C CERTIFIED principles, which means that products are made from known components that are easy to disassemble, in order to create new products (a process called “up-cycling”) in both the biological and technical cycles. Produced using at least 75% recycled and 95% recyclable content, our new products are easily reusable, dismantlable and recyclable. With recycled polyamide, we are working towards 100% recyclable windows.

To ensure maximum transparency, we provide EPDs for all our products and projects that meet international norms and regulations, like BREEAM, LEED, DNGB and similar building certifications. 

We believe that to be truly sustainable, we must look to a world beyond four walls and work to make it a reality – starting today. That´s why we go beyond simply world-class low-carbon materials, to run every part of our business as sustainably as possible.

WICONA has a holistic approach to sustainability and act within 3 main areas:

• Product: We go beyond materials to reduce the carbon emission in the use phase.
• Company: We go beyond products to reduce the upfront and embodied emissions.
• Society: We go beyond company to see the bigger picture.

¹WGBC (2019). Op. cit.