Wienerberger plans to build a new concrete roof tile plant next to its Smeed Dean brick factory in Sittingbourne.
At the same time, two of the production lines at its Broomfleet factory near Hull are getting an energy makeover, with electric kilns. Wienerberger says that Broomfleet will be Europe’s first clay roof-tile plant to eliminate the use of natural gas and the associated CO2 emissions from the drying and firing process, thus reducing the carbon emissions of these lines by 75%.
Keith Barker, chief operating officer of Wienerberger UK & Ireland, said: “We are aware of and want to tackle the issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource scarcity head-on by making sustainability the main driver of our company growth strategy. This investment demonstrates our commitment to expansion in the UK and Ireland market and, is fully aligned with our ambitions for the sustainable growth which will secure the future of our business.”
Operations director Simon Nevitt said: “We recognise the importance of rapidly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and we are achieving this through both product innovation, and manufacturing methods. This particular investment in two of our existing Broomfleet production lines eliminates our use of fossil fuels from the firing and drying processes, reducing carbon emissions (Scope 1 tCO2e) from this production line by 75%.”
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