Help limit our carbon footprint with insulation

Ways to manage the consumption of resources

What is a carbon footprint? We hear this term a lot and how it relates to climate change, but what does it mean? 

Its exact definition is the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted during the lifecycle of a specific product. Carbon footprint is generally associated with the usage of fossil fuels, but there are a lot of other factors involved. With this is mind, it becomes easy to see why companies are looking for ways to cut energy use and CO₂ emissions - especially in buildings that account for 30% of global energy use and 28% of global CO₂ emissions. 

Now that we know what it is, the question then becomes: How do companies reduce their carbon footprint? One answer comes from building insulation.

What these insulation products do is lower energy demand and consumption - decreasing emissions associated with heating and cooling - while also lowering costs. Overall, insulation products make the building envelope more efficient.

In order to show just how insulation benefits us and the world we live in, let’s use a practical example. All building insulation sold in 2017 alone by the ROCKWOOL Group will save 850 terawatt-hours of heating energy during its lifetime, as well as saving 190 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to 80 times the carbon emitted in its production.

Cost-savings balance the cost

With these numbers in mind, why would you not want to install the same kind of environmentally beneficial products within your home or business? The most common answer tends to come from the cost of a renovation and new building project.

However, when considering the savings that new insulation would provide, its long term advantages will outweigh the cost of its implementation.

Yes, it may be a challenge to keep our world clean and lower our emissions as much as possible, but these challenges are within our power to fix. Looking at our world in its present state, we all want to find new ways to consume energy that can lessen the burden on the environment. The building sector is the sector with the most cost efficient carbon emission abatement potential – that is, where you get most carbon emission reductions for your money.

Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, it has become imperative to reduce our carbon footprint. With the right insulation in the buildings we live and work in, there is potential for us to lessen the negative impact and increase the positive impact we can have. 

Source(s): 

<sup>1. ROCKWOOL, Renovation Report 2018.
2. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report 2018.</sup>