Owens Corning has been recognized as a 2021 Manufacturing Leadership Award recipient for its outstanding achievement in material science innovation supporting environmental sustainability. Additionally, Owens Corning was named a “High Achiever” for receiving the highest score among awardees in the “Sustainability Leadership” category.
The innovation – FOAMULAR® NGX™ (Next Generation Extruded) extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation – reflects Owens Corning’s goal to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030. FOAMULAR® NGX™ features a proprietary blowing agent that delivers a 90% reduction in global warming potential (GWP) compared to legacy FOAMULAR® insulation blowing agents. Researchers evaluated more than 100 blowing agent formulations and developed proprietary manufacturing processes to achieve a greater than 80% reduction in total product embodied carbon.
The new product was launched on January 1, 2021, as a growing number of U.S. states and Canada enacted new environmental regulations. Given intense interest in green building, Owens Corning is making the new product available throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“Moving beyond complying with regulations and codes, we’ve found that sustainably-minded architects have a fierce interest in creating more sustainable buildings, and our products have an important role in meeting their needs,” said Frank O’Brien-Bernini, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer at Owens Corning. “Collaborating around customers’ goals is a foundation for evaluating how to reduce embodied carbon and improve the overall efficiency of buildings.”
Awardees were selected by an expert panel of high-level digital manufacturing executives, who evaluated nominations based on five criteria: technology use, scale throughout the organization, business impact, process impact, and strategy impact.
