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REDUCING WASTE AND PLASTICS
TRACEABILITY AND LIFE-CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY Alongside our focus on emissions, ecology and waste reduction, our businesses have undertaken a range of initiatives looking more closely at the environmental sustainability of our products and how we can share this information in a trusted and transparent way with our customers. Winstone Wallboards achieved Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) this year, while GBC, Tasman Insulation and Pacific Coilcoaters have begun the process. EPDs provide customers with transparent information on the life-cycle environmental impact of a product from raw material sourcing and energy source and use, to emissions to air, soil, and water, and waste. They are independently verified and registered. Easysteel recently launched its new service promise to customers, which includes a commitment to the certification and traceability of its products, providing reassurance on the quality of the steel being purchased. In Australia Rocla is progressively converting its concrete recipes and processes to self-compacting concrete (SCC). Traditional concrete processes tend to end with a sticky concrete and poor flow requiring a lot of artificial vibration to ensure the concrete fully settles into Rocla moulds. The vibration is noisy and jarring, potentially impacting the amenity of the work environment for local neighbours. SCC removes these issues, is almost silent during casting and results in a better quality surface finish on our products as well.
With an increasing community focus on reducing waste, and specifically single- use plastics, our businesses have been looking at how they can contribute to these efforts across our operations. In FY18 Mico became the first in the New Zealand building trade industry to go plastic bag free. The initiative was kicked off by some particularly passionate employees who wanted to make a difference. It was rolled out in 14 branches from New Plymouth to Nelson in October 2017 and then expanded to the rest of the country in April 2018. Reusable bags and boxes have been made available for customers to use as alternatives. Mico estimates that the change will prevent around 168,000 plastic bags from entering either our rubbish tips or the environment each year. The team is also looking at ways to reduce shrink wrap on pallets by 30%. PlaceMakers is also progressively phasing out single-use plastic bags and will be plastic bag free by 1 September 2018. Reducing waste is also a key focus in our product innovation. Leading the charge, in 2016 Formica’s designers commissioned the development of a special technical paper called Paper Terrazzo®, which is made from paper off-cuts. These small fragments of post-production solid colour paper are being diverted from landfill and instead reused to create a new paper sheet. The final product is 30% reclaimed material. Formica North America and Formica Asia launched Paper Terrazzo® late 2017. Laminex Australia and Formica Europe will launch Paper Terrazzo® in Spring 2018 and August 2018, respectively. Some of our manufacturing processes have even been able to incorporate 100% of the product waste created during production back into the production line. Tasman Insulation New Zealand, which manufactures Pink® Batts®, recycles off-cuts from the process back into the product and
Single-use plastic bags, while convenient, come at great cost to our environment particularly our beautiful oceans. By going plastic bag free, we estimate that we will prevent around 168,000 plastic bags from entering either our rubbish tips or the environment each year.
Richard Doig Mico General Manager
Formica designers commissioned a special technical paper called Paper Terrazzo® which is made from paper off-cuts – creating a new paper sheet that is 30% reclaimed material.
Firth’s new masonry plant recycles waste blocks back into production.
48 Fletcher Building Limited Annual Report 2018
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