Cutting carbon, not corners

The project

Working with FSEW freight specialists to reduce Scope 3 emissions from ROCKWOOL Ltd’s delivery operations to support ROCKWOOL Group’s ambitious global goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the business.

The challenge

ROCKWOOL Limited, as part of the ROCKWOOL Group, is a leading supplier of stone wool products that are well placed to tackle many of today’s biggest sustainability and development challenges, from energy consumption to noise pollution, and water scarcity to flooding.

ROCKWOOL Group has set ambitious, SBTi-verified decarbonisation targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the global business, aiming for net zero by 2050, with an interim target of cutting emissions by one third by 2034.

While significant progress has been made on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, driven by technical innovation and major investments, tackling Scope 3 emissions from third-party haulage in the UK has presented a challenge due to:

• A competitive landscape with multiple third-party operators
• No consistent approach to lower carbon options across operators
• HGV market heavily dependent on diesel
• Scope 3 transport emissions being difficult to measure

The solution

ROCKWOOL partnered with FSEW freight specialists at the end of 2023 to explore solutions to this major Scope 3 challenge and help drive ROCKWOOL Group’s decarbonisation ambitions.

Cardiff-based FSEW stepped in with a UK-wide, scalable solution built around its carbon-reducing vehicle fleet. The solution involved: 

• Electric and 100% biomethane-powered fleet
• Full route and refueling feasibility analysis via digital twin mapping 
• Immediate implementation of low-carbon solutions on short and medium-haul routes

ROCKWOOL shared its workload, delivery points, and operational windows, and FSEW ran a full simulation, route by route, showing where electric and biomethane vehicles could be deployed immediately.

Digital twin route mapping was used to ensure the electric and biomethane vehicles were able to comfortably refuel on their delivery journeys without any disruption.

The result

The use of electric and biomethane-powered HGVs on selected routes from ROCKWOOL’s insulation factory in Bridgend, Wales, resulted in a 630-tonne reduction in CO2 emissions in just 15 months. This is equivalent to the levels that can be removed from the atmosphere by 15,000 mature trees each year.

In its first full year in 2024, the partnership reduced ROCKWOOL Limited’s logistics footprint by over 433 tonnes of CO2. By the end of the first quarter in 2025, a further 200 tonnes had been saved. The partnership means 22% of ROCKWOOL’s UK deliveries are now made using low carbon vehicles, but the work to reduce haulage emissions hasn’t stopped there – ROCKWOOL is planning to expand the number of routes served by low carbon vehicles in 2025 and 2026, including on longer-haul routes into North England and Scotland.