At TECHNAL we believe we have the responsibility and the ability to tackle today’s and tomorrow’s most burning issue: climate change. Earth is warming, and it is caused by humans¹. This threatens every form of life and urgent action needs to be taken if we want our planet to survive.
Moreover, the world’s population is predicted to increase by 2 billion people in the next 30 years with a 70% of the population living in urban areas², which means at TECHNAL we will likely see a higher demand in the building and construction sector³. With more and more people living in buildings, this implies an increasing energy consumption and thus, skyrocketing CO2 emissions. The urge to rethink our products and processes has been even more challenging with growing pressure coming from regulations – from the European and international level with new norms and constraints for carbon neutrality; but also from national laws becoming more and more demanding⁴.
We are all aware of the climate crisis and environmental problems that we all need to work together to solve. The lifecyle of products - from manufacture to obolescence - needs to be a priority when it comes to choosing certain products over others.
The aim of a circular economy is to start up new industrial processes that respond to these needs for recyclability and reuse of products. Many products manufactured that uphold these principles are now certified with the Cradle to Cradle seal.
TECHNAL in line with these guidelines and aims already has some aluminium building systems with the Cradle to Cradle distinction.
You can view these online at www.c2ccertified.org
The building and construction sector represents 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions⁵. The carbon footprint of a building is made of two stages: use (“operational” emissions caused by heating, cooling…) and construction (“upfront” emissions caused by materials extraction and production, delivery, waste management…). The use phase represents 72% of the building’s total carbon footprint; whereas construction and production represent 28%.
TECHNAL goes beyond materials to provide the market with high-performance and circular products which contributes to reducing the carbon emissions caused in the use phase. At the same time we go beyond products to focus on upfront emissions, to contribute to reduce carbon emissions during both the production and construction phase. Using the UN Sustainability Goals as our compass we aim to reduce by half hour CO2 emissions by 2025 and commit to contributing quality education and capacity building for 500,000 people in our communities and for business partners from 2018 until the end of 2030.
In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with a set of 17 bold new Global Goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved the next years until 2030.
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 world-class low-carbon materials, to run every part of our business as sustainably as possible.
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¹ Kevin E Trenberth (2018), “Climate change caused by human activities is happening and it already has major consequences”, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, 36:4, 463-481, DOI: 10.1080/02646811.2018.1450895.
² United Nations, « Population », Population | United Nations.
³ BSRIA (2019), “Megatrends: demographics”, WP 10/2019 Megatrends: Demographics (bsria.com)
⁴ As an example the French RE2022 law aims at reducing carbon emissions coming from the building and construction sector by actually capping them. Manufacturers have less and less flexibility when it comes to sustainability now.
⁵ WGBC (2019). Bringing embodied carbon upfront. Coordinated action for the building and construction sector to tackle embodied carbon, https://www.worldgbc.org/sites/default/files/WorldGBC_Bringing_Embodied_Carbon_Upfront.pdf
