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CREATING BETTER BUILDINGS TO IMPROVE PEOPLE'S LIVES

Improving the comfort and wellbeing of buildings to Make the World a Better Home

We help improve daily lives by creating, designing and advocating for building solutions that improve the performance and comfort of buildings. We do this through collaboration with partners to create new products and systems to meet our customers’ and societies needs, reduce carbon and improve wellbeing for all. This is central to our purpose to Make the World a Better Home.

Mike Chaldecott, CEO Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland

WE'RE HELPING TRANSFORM CONSTRUCTION TO MEET SOCIETY'S NEEDS

Construction is undergoing a period of transformation to meet the demands of a changing society. To support this change we continue to focus on how our products, solutions and expertise can be used to support and help accelerate these changes.

 

Saint-Gobain UK transforming construction

 

SOLUTIONS THAT IMPROVE WELLBEING AND REDUCE CARBON FROM BUILDINGS

We have developed a range of solutions and services that meet the needs of our customers and society at large. At the heart of our strategy is the creating of solutions that enhance the comfort and performance of all types of buildings. We believe that a high-performing building fabric is essential to ensure buildings are energy efficient, saving carbon and energy costs, well lit, air tight and well ventilated, and effectively manage acoustics. When designed in this way, buildings have a positive impact in many environments improving occupants wellbeing as well as improving healing in hospitals, results in schools and productivity in offices.

Our solutions combine together to offer customers the widest range of solutions to improve wellbeing and building performance.

 

Saint-Gobain fabric first

 

CREATING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS, AND BETTER BUILDINGS THAT HELP MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE

 

Discover some of our stories below

RE-USING RESOURCES - SAVING CARBON

The efficient use of resources is a major priority for Saint-Gobain to ensure we can protect natural resources and reduce carbon. We seek to recover resources for re-use in our manufacturing, to reduce our landfilled waste and to help customers do the same. We know that increasing the amount of recycled material in our manufactured construction products has a number of benefits. It reduces waste to landfill, reduces the amount of primary raw materials needed and can reduce energy use and carbon emissions. For example, at our building glass plant in Yorkshire, for every 1,000 tonnes of waste glass (cullet) we use, we save 1,200 tonnes of natural raw materials, 322,000 kWh energy and 246 tonnes CO2.

INVESTING IN OFF-SITE BUILDING MANUFACTURING

Manufacturing whole buildings, or building components [e.g wall panels] in factory conditions is a key focus for Saint-Gobain. We have developed a range of systems for customers in timber or steel frame, from individual components to whole buildings.

This investment means buildings can be constructed with less labour, less waste and a 20% saving in time. It also results in a more comfortable and consistently high-performing external fabric resulting in a reduction in noise from the outside and better energy performance. We have recently acquired the Roofspace Solutions business and Scotframe business to further advance our expertise in this area. In 2017 we delivered 1.5 Million sq m2 of the system to customers.

CREATING THE MULTI COMFORT BUILDING CONCEPT AND RESOURCE / EVIDENCE HUB.

To help raise awareness and create better information about the role building performance has on people we the Multi Comfort building concept and our online resource hub.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY - MOVING AWAY FROM TAKE-MAKE-USE-DISPOSE

We recover resources from Construction and Demolition sites either directly as services for our customers, or by acquisition via third parties, which is then used in our own manufacturing processes or recycled by our suppliers. By doing this we recover over 175,000 tonnes of resources for re-use.
In the future we will be exploring the potential for processes to enable us to measure and report on our performance in waste recovery split by pre-consumer (i.e. waste created in the construction of the building) and post-consumer (i.e. end of life/demolition/refurbishment waste).  We recover resources through British Gypsum & Gyproc Ireland [Plasterboard],  Isover [Glass for insulation manufacture], Weber [EPS Insulation], Saint-Gobain [Glass].

SAP ASSESSMENTS - HELPING CALCULATE A BUILDING'S ENERGY PERFORMANCE

SAP ASSESSMENTS - HELPING CALCULATE A BUILDING'S ENERGY PERFORMANCE

SAP Assessments form the standard method to measure the energy rating of a building.  Our Build Aviator brand, helps support building designers, housebuilders, contractors and those renovating homes  calculate a home's CO2 emissions and the likely energy costs for space, water heating and lighting per square metre. Homes must achieve a ‘pass’ on these calculations for the project to pass Building Regulations. 

SAP ASSESSMENTS - HELPING CALCULATE A BUILDING'S ENERGY PERFORMANCE

SAP ASSESSMENTS - HELPING CALCULATE A BUILDING'S ENERGY PERFORMANCE

SAP Assessments form the standard method to measure the energy rating of a building.  Our Build Aviator brand, helps support building designers, housebuilders, contractors and those renovating homes  calculate a home's CO2 emissions and the likely energy costs for space, water heating and lighting per square metre. Homes must achieve a ‘pass’ on these calculations for the project to pass Building Regulations. 

AIR TIGHTNESS - A KEY COMPONENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY

AIR TIGHTNESS - A KEY COMPONENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY

All new buildings in the UK must undertake air tightness testing to understand how much air escapes from the building.  Doing this is a requirement of Building Regulations Part L.

The more air that leaks from a property the more heat that can be lost, having a significant effect on energy costs and energy efficiency.

AIR TIGHTNESS - A KEY COMPONENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY

AIR TIGHTNESS - A KEY COMPONENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY

All new buildings in the UK must undertake air tightness testing to understand how much air escapes from the building.  Doing this is a requirement of Building Regulations Part L.

The more air that leaks from a property the more heat that can be lost, having a significant effect on energy costs and energy efficiency.

SUPPORTING SKILLS TO HELP CREATE BETTER BUILDINGS

FUTURE PLACE TRAINING ACADEMY - GIVING YOUNG PEOPLE SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE

 

Our Future Place training academy in Lewisham, London, developed in partnership with Barnardos' and YouthBuild helps some of the most vulnerable young people providing both life and construction skills. The intensive training, and personal support the Future Place Academy provides, has a transformational impact on many of these young people. 38 young people graduated from the Academy in 2019, almost all with recognised industry qualifications and, as result, 24 of those went on to secure direct employment as a result of their training with customers of Saint-Gobain who we introduced to the Academy.

A VISITOR CENTRE FOCUSSED ON LOWER CARBON BUILDING

Our Multi Comfort Visitor Centre on Great Portland Street in London, is a place for people to learn more about and undertake training on how buildings can help improve the wellbeing of occupants. More than 10,000 people visited the centre in 2019. The centre also hosts a large number of organisations, all of whom have a role to play in improving our buildings. 

TRAINING ACADEMIES COMMITTED TO SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Our 8 UK training academies in the UK & Ireland support building contractors and young apprentices to learn more about how to install energy improvement measures. Training is conducted face-to-face in installing internal and external insulation measures. Training for contractors is also provided to enable them to achieve TrustMark accreditation and PAS 2025 and PAS 2030 and participate in the Green Homes Grant to help renovate poorly insulated homes in England.

DISCOVER HOW WE ARE COMMITTED TO TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE

Discover our actions towards net zero carbon