‘World first’ for responsible sourcing in aluminium
27th September 2016

KAWNEER is claiming a world first as supplier of architectural aluminium products to achieve BES 6001, the framework standard for the responsible sourcing of construction products.

The company says this accreditation was so ‘ground breaking’ that the governing body, BRE Global had to create a category especially for the product group.

Kawneer’s overall assessment of “Good” (certificate number BES 650797) for the sales, design, manufacture and supply of aluminium architectural products was carried out by the BSI and now sets the benchmark for others.

The scheme provides manufacturers with a means by which their products can be independently assessed and certified as being responsibly sourced. The scheme is recognised by the BREEAM family of certification schemes where credits can be awarded for construction products independently certified through BES 6001.

Specifiers benefit from using accredited manufacturers by securing additional BREEAM credits for their buildings, reducing risk down the supply chain and demonstrating corporate reputation and leadership.

Kawneer’s assessment covered three areas – organisational management, supply chain management and environmental and social issues.

Organisational management covered the company’s responsible sourcing policy, legal compliance, and quality management and supplier management systems. Supply chain management covered material traceability, environmental management systems (its top mark) and Health and Safety management systems.

It also scored particularly highly under environmental and social issues, specifically on greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and life cycle assessment but as well as energy management, waste prevention and management, water abstraction, eco-toxicity, transport impacts, employment and skills, local community engagement and business ethics.

Examples of how Kawneer achieved accreditation include a focused site-wide team which has reduced average power consumption by 26.38%, gas consumption by 33% and water intensity usage by 83.77% since 2008.

In addition, in production the Runcorn-based company uses recycled aluminium billets 100% of the time and all of the production waste is recycled back to a smelter to be re-used. Then by having extrusion, paint and thermal break rolling all under one roof, the number of miles products travel in the supply chain is minimised.

Dr Shamir Ghumra, director, Centre for Sustainable Products, BRE, said: “Kawneer is the first aluminium company in the world to achieve certification to the BRE BES 6001 Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing.

“The successful audit by BSI and listing on GreenBookLive means that customers of Kawneer can now have even more confidence with the aluminium products sourced from the company. BES 6001 is recognised in the leading sustainability rating schemes for buildings (BREEAM) and infrastructure (CEEQUAL) which will give designers more reasons to specify Kawneer products.”

Alaister Downie, Kawneer’s environmental health and safety manager at Runcorn, said: “We were being asked by our customers if we were approved so we decided to go for accreditation and were delighted to find we were the first aluminium products company to achieve this standard.

“At Kawneer UK we are conscious of the impacts that our products and their manufacture have on not just our local environment but also globally. I think the accreditation to BES 6001 shows that we as a business are working in an ethical manner and committed to reducing these impacts through responsible sourcing and efficient resource use.”