Owens Corning releases Sustainability Report

Owens Corning has released its sixth annual Sustainability Report, which showed year-over-year intensity reductions in all environmental goals set and a list of innovation-driven achievements.

Among the accomplishments highlighted is a reduction in waste-to-landfill intensity by 22% in 2011, which represents an absolute reduction of more than 37,000 metric tons. Owens Corning also reduced its toxic air emissions intensity by 37% last year. That amounts to an absolute reduction of 236 metric tons.

This is the first year the company is reporting against its new 2020 goals. Introduced last year, the company's 2020 goals are designed to expand the scope and further raise the bar on its commitment to sustainability. 

"At Owens Corning, sustainability is a core business strategy," said VP and chief sustainability officer Frank O'Brien-Bernini. "Operationally, this drives decision-making that considers the economic, social and environmental impacts of everything we do."

Other highlights include:

• Achieved a tenth consecutive year of safety improvement;

• Made progress toward achieving 2020 goals, including year-over-year intensity reductions across all environmental footprint reduction goals;

• Transformed entire Residential Insulation product line to EcoTouch, made with 99% natural materials; this led to the most significant product transformation in the company's history;

• Sponsored volunteer opportunities to revitalize neighborhoods and provided insulation products and enough shingles to reroof more than 370 homes for those in need;

• Updated the board of directors' Code of Conduct to define sustainability expectations in corporate governance;

• Leveraged sustainability efforts through the deployment of a Supplier Code of Conduct as an integral part of the company's supplier management program;

• Led industry collaborations to establish standards for Life Cycle Assessment of product categories and end-use applications;

• Integrated Environmental, Health & Safety functions into the Sustainability organization;

• Elevated the depth, breadth and transparency of the company's sustainability reporting, moving from a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting level of B to A; and

• Earned placement again in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, a listing of the top 10% of the world's 2,500 largest companies based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria.

Also new in 2011 was an increase in the recycled content in several Owens Corning products and the initiation of an end-of-life shingle recycling program. 

The full report is available online at sustainability.owenscorning.com.