An Open Letter — Investing in 2023 and the Future of Our Planet
The true value of insulation is a sum of energy savings, personnel and equipment safety, process control, condensation prevention, freeze protection, fire safety, noise reduction and greenhouse gas reduction.
Ask a friend or family member to name a benefit of insulation, and odds are good they’ll make a reference to staying warm. Then, ask them to name seven more benefits insulation offers and they’ll look at you like you’ve just spent seven minutes too long soaking in the hot tub. Those of us in the insulation sector appreciate that thermal performance is just the tip of the proverbial benefit iceberg. The true value of insulation is a sum of energy savings, personnel and equipment safety, process control, condensation prevention, freeze protection, fire safety, noise reduction, and greenhouse gas reduction. The magnificent seven.
Among this long list of insulation’s virtues, reducing greenhouse gas presents a powerhouse of potential — particularly when we’re talking about mechanical insulation’s ability to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Insulation plays a critical role in reducing operational carbon — the amount of CO2 equivalents emitted during the operational or in-use phase of a building. The large savings in operational carbon typically means a short payback for the embodied carbon — the carbon footprint of an insulation material from cradle to grave as documented by an environmental product declaration (EPD).