Gypsum industry news

Spain: France-based Saint-Gobain has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Endesa. The 11-year agreement will start in 2024 and will cover around 55% of Saint-Gobain’s local electricity requirements. Endesa will supply 150GWh/yr of renewable energy. This agreement will enable a reduction in CO₂ emissions of roughly 39,000t/yr. This is the second renewable energy supply agreement signed by Saint-Gobain in Spain. Together, the two agreements will cover 65% of the group’s electricity needs in Spain.

France: Saint-Gobain’s sales grew by 14.5% on a like-for-like basis to Euro38.4bn in the first nine months of 2022 compared to Euro32.9bn in the same period in 2021. Strong sales growth was reported in all business lines although sales were driven in particular by the group’s High Performance Solutions business and its Asia-Pacific and North America regions.

The group noted that raw materials, freight and energy costs were growing, especially in Europe. It said that it had hedged around 80% of its natural gas and electricity purchasing needs for 2022 and around 60% for 2023. It has also been preparing continuity plans for its gas-consuming plants in Europe to ensure the flexibility of production to operate with less or alternative energy. The group said that its gypsum wallboard and construction chemicals production lines were “extremely flexible.”

By region the group said it had started the world’s first zero-carbon wallboard production at its Balsta plant in Sweden powered by biogas and ‘green’ electricity. In France it produced and marketed its Placo Infini 13 product, which is said is the first wallboard made from over 50% recycled gypsum.

UK: British Gypsum has started converting its heavy-good vehicle fleet fuel source to the biofuel Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) from diesel. The subsidiary of France-based Saint-Gobain expects to use 75,000l/week of HVO. This means that around 40% of its UK fleet will now operate on HVO fuel, with a further 10% using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The use of multi-fuelled vehicles at this scale is expected to reduce its carbon emissions by approximately 70% year-on-year.

To support the implementation of HVO vehicles, the company has made several upgrades to site infrastructure that include a HVO refuelling point at its Robertsbridge plant and a new fuel island capable of delivering 110,000l/week at its distribution centre in Gotham.

US: The city council of Glenwood Springs in Colorado is aiming to implement single-haul refuse collection in order to eliminate the dumping of recyclables by 2023, local press has reported. A review of waste management practices found that the city has a recycling contamination rate of just 8%, yet 80% of waste sent to landfill consists of recyclable materials. Eagle County Recycle operates the city's waste management facility. The company says that it supplies waste cardboard for gypsum wallboard backing production in neighbouring Oklahoma.

Manager Jesse Masten said “The mill in Oklahoma that we send the cardboard to actually makes the paper backing for wallboard. Then, that paper backing is potentially sent back to the American Gypsum gypsum wallboard plant in Gypsum and used for the wallboard that they’re producing.”

US: Saint-Gobain subsidiary CertainTeed's Buchanan gypsum wallboard plant in New York has successfully participated in a gypsum wallboard recycling pilot. Together with contractors Structure Tone and Cooper Recycling, it processed 20t of gypsum from waste wallboard in its gypsum wallboard production.

CertainTeed interior products vice president and general manager Jay Bachmann said "For us to achieve our sustainability goals, we must change the way we think. By partnering with organisations in the community like Cooper Recycling and Structure Tone, we can get there faster." Bachmann continued, "As the only gypsum manufacturing plant in New York, our colleagues in Buchanan were able to create a true circular economy. From the creation of drywall products to construction, to processing scraps and back into drywall production, the material is continuously used and never leaves the state. This maximises our company's positive impact while working to minimise our environmental footprint. Our Buchanan plant has increased our capacity to reuse recycled material, and we look forward to growing this successful pilot into a long-term programme, while working with builders and recyclers across the state. Partnering with CertainTeed, New York builders have the opportunity to not only reduce waste at their job sites, but also gain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) points on their projects."

The Buchanan plant joins CertainTeed's units at Nashville in Arkansas and Palatka in Florida in supporting the company's circular economic efforts in the US. The Nashville plant commissioned a 65,000t/yr line in May 2022, while the Palatka plant increased the recycled content of its wallboard by 18,000t/yr in August 2022. The Palatka plant plans to install a new 100t/hr Rotochopper grinding unit to replace its existing trommel machine in its reclaim processing and screening operations.

Poland: Saint-Gobain has signed a renewable electricity agreement (Power Purchase Agreement) with Tion Renewables AG (currently being renamed from Pacifico Renewables Yield AG), the German wind and solar power producer. The 15-year agreement will run from 2025 and cover around 45% of Saint-Gobain Poland's electricity needs.

"This power supply agreement is an important milestone for Saint-Gobain in Poland. It will contribute to a significant reduction in our CO₂ emissions, in line with the group's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050' said Joanna Czynsz-Piechowiak, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain Poland. "It will enable a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 135,000t/yr, i.e. nearly 20% of Saint-Gobain's scope 1 and 2 emissions in Poland.

The PPA foresees the purchase of approximately 190GWh of wind energy annually. This is equivalent to supplying about 100,000 European homes with renewable electricity each year. The total capacity of the wind farms is equivalent to circa 52MW spread over three sites and 20 wind turbines. This announcement illustrates how Saint-Gobain is stepping up the pace on its carbon neutrality roadmap and comes in the wake of the recent endorsement by the Science Based Targets initiative of the group's commitments to reduce CO₂ emissions by 2050.

UK: Knauf has maintained its 'Excellent' rating for BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing of its wallboard, laminated plasterboard and gypsum powder products, a rating that it has held since 2019.

The BES 6001 standard is a means of securing certification to demonstrate through independent, third-party certification, that raw materials for products certified against the scheme have been responsibly sourced and that Knauf manufactures these products in a way that minimises the impact on the environment and natural resources. Knauf said that this was a 'significant achievement,' requiring input from all areas of its business, from procurement and manufacturing activities to distribution to customers.

Belgium: Etex has launched its new Road to Sustainability 2030 circularity and decarbonisation strategy. The strategy sets out the company’s 2030 ambitions under five headings. Under health, safety and well-being, Etex aims to reach zero fatalities, burnouts or incidents of harm; under customer engagement, it aims to build a sustainable roadmap for each product platform by 2025; under diversity, equity and inclusion, it will extend its policies, procedures and practices across all teams. Meanwhile, under decarbonisation, Etex will reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 35% compared to 2018, and under circularity it will use over 20% of circular input as raw material, send zero waste to landfill, use 100% recycled packaging and reduce plastic packaging by 20% compared to 2018, offer a product take-back service across 80% of its European markets and dedicate 50% of its innovation resources to sustainability.

Chief executive officer Bernard Delvaux said “Today Etex has sustainability as a guiding compass of business transformation, with concrete objectives that reflect the company’s ambition. We are on an exciting journey towards improving sustainability in the short and long term. We know there is a long road ahead, which is why we invite all our stakeholders to further support us in becoming a leading benchmark in our industry.”

France: SaintGobain says that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved its CO₂ reduction targets. The group plans to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions, both direct and indirect, along its entire value chain by 2050. This will entail a reduction in CO₂ emissions of at least 90% in the three scopes by 2050, with additional sequestration projects planned for residual emissions.

Saint-Gobain's commitments to reduce, in absolute terms, by 2030 from 2017 its direct and indirect CO₂ emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 33% and its scope 3 emissions, mainly linked to purchasing and transport, by 16% by 2030 was already validated in 2020 by the SBTi. The group says it will continue to accelerate its roadmap, notably through improvements in energy efficiency, product weight reduction, increased recycled content and the use of green energies, in order to align its targets with the most demanding trajectory, which limits the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C.

US: CertainTeed plans to spend US$1.1m towards installing recycling equipment at its Palatka gypsum wallboard plant in Florida. The upgrade will increasing the recycled content of its wallboard products manufactured at the unit by 18,000t/yr while also reducing the site’s CO₂ emissions by 2260t/yr.

The new recycling equipment at the Palatka plant will work by grinding the waste gypsum and waste paper down into fine particles, allowing the plant to capture and internally recycle the materials, which are sorted and then reintroduced to the production process at the plant. The kit will be powered by electricity and will replace older machines currently powered by diesel, lowering the plant’s Scope 1 Emissions from its operations. Additionally, by consuming more recycled gypsum, the plant will become less reliant on feedstock that is shipped to the site from external sources, allowing the unit to also reduce Scope 3 Emissions associated with transporting the feedstock.

Jay Bachmann, the Vice President and General Manager of CertainTeed Interior Products Group, said, “The new technology in Palatka will allow us to increase the recycled content in our products, reduce our carbon CO₂ at the plant, and strengthen our operations at a time of unprecedented consumer demand for gypsum wallboard in the south-eastern US.”

The investment at the Palatka plant follows similar investments that will increase the recycled content of wallboard made at CertainTeed’s wallboard plants in Silver Grove in Kentucky and Nashville in Arkansas. Parent company Saint-Gobain continues to roll out its global ‘Grow and Impact’ strategy, which includes reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts at its manufacturing sites.