Basalt, the volcanic stone that forms the basis of Rockpanel facade cladding, is a sustainable raw material that is sourced in a responsible way close to our factory. It’s a unique material that offers many advantages, such as fire resilience, high durability, dimensional stability and resistance against moisture. We’ll tell you more about the origin of basalt and how it’s mined.
An important aspect of sustainability is how we all are dealing with the valuable resources the earth gives us. The availability of basalt, the raw material that we use to produce our facade boards, is virtually infinite, as the earth creates thousands of times more every year than we can use. Because of this high availability, it’s a responsible choice for now and in the future.
The idea of creating stone wool from basalt was fostered in Hawaii, where natural volcanic activity created the first stone wool from basalt. Nowadays, the basalt that we use to produce Rockpanel facade cladding is mined in Germany. This location is close to our production site, limiting our CO2 footprint.
Rockpanel and the ROCKWOOL Group are committed to running their business on ethically and environmentally-sound principles. Every supplier for Rockpanel and the ROCKWOOL Group needs to meet our high standards, and sustainability and the environment are important aspects here. To secure this, all our suppliers have to accept the ROCKWOOL Supplier Code of Conduct. We regularly evaluate how they are doing and re-assess our suppliers based on that. *Source
It is of course a demand from us that all necessary permissions are in place for the supplier to mine the basalt.
And when it comes to all our other suppliers, e.g. paint, coatings etc – they are all located in Europe (one supplier in each of these countries: Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and France) which minimizes our footprint from transport.
Read more about our approach to raw materials and recycled content in our sustainability report from the ROCKWOOL group.
Source
Sustainability Report ROCKWOOL Group 2021
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The core ingredient of Rockpanel facade cladding is a unique natural material: basalt. But what is basalt exactly? And why is it such a sustainable material?
Basalt, the volcanic stone that forms the basis of Rockpanel facade cladding, is a sustainable raw material that is sourced in a responsible way close to our factory. It’s a unique material that offers many advantages, such as fire resilience, high durability, dimensional stability and resistance against moisture. We’ll tell you more about the origin of basalt and how it’s mined.
How Rockpanel facade cladding is produced? From spinning lava to coating the pressed boards: we will take you through the production process of Rockpanel step by step.
One of the many naturally built-in strengths of Rockpanel facade cladding is its fire resilience. And because Rockpanel is firesafe by nature, we don’t need to use toxic fire retardants. We’ll tell you more about how our built-in fire safety contributes to the sustainability of our products.
Rockpanel exterior cladding is made from basalt: a volcanic stone which can withstand extremely high temperatures by nature. This naturally built-in strength of stone is a very important aspect of the fire resilience of our sustainable facade boards.
At Rockpanel, we use the natural properties of stone to create products resistant to the toughest conditions. One of the assets of stone fibres, where Rockpanel exterior cladding is made of, is that it’s resistant to humidity and moisture by nature.
Building in a sustainable way means building for the long run. After all, the longer things last, the more sustainable they become. When buildings are built to last, less new resources need to be used. Rockpanel cladding, made of stone wool fibres, is durable by nature for many reasons.
Being part of the ROCKWOOL Group, Rockpanel is strongly committed to continuously improve on our sustainability goals. When it comes to sustainability, limiting the use of new valuable resources and reducing waste are very important. Rockpanel products enable you to contribute to that.
You will probably know that Rockpanel exterior cladding is made from basalt: a volcanic stone that’s abundant in nature. We use stone wool fibres to create a very solid, yet light-weight board with many natural strengths. But apart from basalt and recycled stone wool content, we also use recycled material from other industries that would often end up as landfill.
When it comes to sustainability, being transparent and sharing relevant information backed by facts is vital. Many factors concerning sustainability are clearly measurable and at Rockpanel, we want to be as transparent as we possibly can. As a supplier of building materials, we want to provide the necessary facts and figures for our customers to declare and build according to sustainability building schemes.
EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration. An EPD is a document in which you can find data about the environmental impact of a certain building material.
An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) shows what the environmental impact of a product is during its full life cycle.
Circularity, life cycle assessment, cradle to cradle, cradle to grave, LEED, BREEAM… but what does it mean? We are more then happy to explain it to you.
BREEAM – Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method – is a certification system that recognises sustainable buildings that exceed national standards. It’s the oldest sustainability certification scheme that’s still exists.
Using Rockpanel contributes to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system.
The DGNB (DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen – German Sustainable Building Council) – is one of the most balanced sustainability schemes out there. Their conceptual principles revolve around a holistic understanding of sustainability, and it therefore looks at both environmental, economic and sociocultural factors.
Sustainability is becoming more and more important in the (business) world. As there’s no clear definition on what ‘sustainable’ means, many companies are using the term. Sustainable might mean that a product is durable, it might say something about recyclability, energy efficiency, ecological benefits or about responsible use of raw materials. And in some cases, none of those are applicable to a product. As sustainability is such a broad term, greenwashing is lurking. But how can you tell whether a (cladding) product is sustainable?
Wood has always been a very popular material. Not only as furniture and decoration inside and outside your house, but also for building the house itself. Building a house completely made out of wood may seem the most sustainable choice there is. After all, wood is a natural material and you would think that means it’s also sustainable. Unfortunately, the reality is much more complex.
If you’re looking for sustainable building materials, you might get a bit lost between all the possibilities out there. Green buildings, natural materials or recyclable or recycled materials… What is the best option if you want to build in a sustainable way?
We manufacture board material mostly used in ventilated constructions, for facade cladding, roof detailing, soffits and fascias.
