Knudsen and the Environment
Responsible and climate-friendly production with minimal environmental impact and low energy consumption
As a manufacturing company, we have a special obligation to protect the environment.
We deliver on this responsibility by constantly seeking new ways to optimise and energy-proof our production, to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact, while keeping our production costs stable and maintaining our customers’ competitiveness.
80% recycled, industrial raw materials
As durability, properties, and high quality are essential to the vast majority of our products, requirements are high for the raw materials we use. We cannot compromise on these properties or the importance of delivering the same quality to our customers every time.
This requires us to tread carefully when using recycled plastic and to ensure its quality by continuously testing our products.
100% of our solutions for blocking-up joist floors and 80% of our total product range are currently manufactured from recycled, industrial LD-PE.
This is recycled plastic from the industry, which we always know the source and quality of, so that we can continue to document its good properties, and a lifespan of more than 75 years for all our products.
By using recycled plastic for our floor elevation products, we reduce our carbon footprint by 75% – benefitting both the buildings and the environment. This equates to a reduction of 468 kg of CO2 per 100 m2 of flooring.
Our aim is to push our production to 100% recycled raw materials, and we are constantly looking for new ways to achieve this target.
Green transition – recycling excess production heat
In mid-2022, we explored the possibility of recycling excess heat from our production – initially for our own consumption, but also with a view to supplying households in the surrounding area.
In autumn 2022, we commenced the first phase of this project by shutting down our oil furnace to instead reuse excess production heat to warm up our facility.
Phase 1 – completed
- Oil heating has been removed, cutting an annual consumption of 9-10,000 litres of oil
- This corresponds to a CO2 reduction of 30,000 kg of CO2
Phase 2 – in its exploration stage
- Reuse of excess production heat to the public district heating network
- Excess heat will supply up to 2-3% of households in Halsnaes Municipality
- This corresponds to a CO2 reduction of 230,000 kg annually
- The project is supported by SMV Green voucher 2 via Erhvervshus Nord
Once phase 2 has been realised, the new initiatives and green transition will lead to a total reduction of 260,000 kg of CO2, corresponding to a reduction of more than 60% of CO2 emissions from electricity at our facility.
DGNB - certification of sustainable buildings
Sustainable building is becoming increasingly pertinent for everyone in the construction industry, and the demands to reduce CO2 emissions are getting higher and higher.
As we want to be at the forefront of these developments, we have started our journey towards sustainable building with a membership in the Raadet for Baeredygtigt Byggeri (formerly Green Building Council) where we continuously educate ourselves in DGNB building and its regulations.
DGNB is a German sustainability certification which – after being compared and measured against the three other leading international sustainability standards (BREEAM, LEED and HQE) – was launched in Denmark in 2012. The Danish version has been adapted to Danish building regulations, standards, building traditions and legislation.
The DGNB system evaluates and certifies buildings based on 6 main areas:
- Environmental quality
- Economic quality
- Sociocultural quality
- Technical quality
- Process quality
- Site quality
LCA & EPD - Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Product Declaration
The climate impact of a building is calculated in life cycle assessments (LCA) of buildings and building materials.
In order to contribute to the DGNB certification of building projects supplied by Knudsen Kilen, our products have EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) drawn up in collaboration with Sweco Denmark.
EPDs are used in life cycle assessments and are therefore essential to obtaining DGNB certifications for building projects.
Please find the EPD below:
Nviro Papiruld & Knudsen Kilen - great interplay for the environment and people
A joist floor construction elevated by wedges emits significantly less CO2 compared to cement-based floors.
Based on this documented fact, we believe that construction projects should be outlined with the aim of finding the right constellations and best possible conditions for people and the environment, and we know that our floor elevation products have a smaller impact on the environment than other types of floor levelling.
This prompted us to explore which constellations emits the least CO2 when using our products – and, as a side bonus, also allows for a much more flexible workflow for the people handling our products.
By using paper insulation with wedge elevation, CO2 reductions are significantly increased compared to mineral wool and concrete insulation.
We have therefore entered into a collaboration with Nviro Papiruld with the aim of providing information about the environmental benefits of joist floors elevated by wedges and insulated with paper wool.
In addition, the constellation of wedges and paper wool has further benefits, such as:
- Better logistics on the construction site, as they come in smaller units that are easy to move around, allowing for great workflow flexibility when and where needed.
- Does not require large or special machinery
- No moisture (in either wedges or insulation) and high insulation performance, ensuring a good indoor climate
UN’s Sustainable Development Goal & Knudsen Kilen
Knudsen Kilen contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 in the following areas:
Green transition by reusing excess heat
- The oil furnace was shut down in 2022, cutting an annual consumption of 9-10,000 litres of oil. Instead, excess production heat is used to warm up the facility
- Any excess production heat not used at our facility will be distributed to the public district heating network, where it can supply up to 2-3% of households in Halsnaes Municipality
Using recycled, reusable raw materials in our production
- 80% of our products are made from recycled, industrial LD-PE, which minimises our carbon footprint significantly
- All our products can be repurposed after use
DGNB – sustainability certification + preparation of environmental product declarations (EPD)
- Knudsen Kilen is a member of the Green Building Council, where we continually educate ourselves in DGNB building and its regulations in order to contribute even more to future sustainable building
- We are currently drawing up EPDs (environmental product declarations) for all our products in collaboration with Sweco Denmark
- EPDs are used in life cycle assessments and are therefore crucial to obtaining DGNB certificates for building projects
