CEO Insight: an outstanding year

In 2019 we saw the launch of our €110 million plant at Illange in France, started the countdown to our new site in Malaysia in 2020 and a new President and CEO was appointed to Knauf Insulation North America — a very warm welcome to Matthew Parrish.

Around the world we campaigned for a more sustainable urban environment, continued developing innovations to make buildings more resilient such as Knauf Energy Solutions or our new Knauf Insulation Experience Centers and helped create new homes for a remote Alaskan community that is being forced to move as result of climate change.

Customers continue to be at the heart of everything we do. We have stepped up our building fire safety support for customers, focused on installers’ needs though our new Captain K partner program and even introduced anthropological studies on construction sites to serve customers better.

Most significantly, we have built on our sustainability successes and continued to reduce energy use, carbon emissions, waste to landfill and Lost Time Accidents despite a record breaking year of production.

However, sustainability is a journey and we are continuously improving, finding new ways to minimise our environmental impact and, critically, achieve the behaviour change that results in zero harm.

Finally, I was delighted that in 2018, Knauf Insulation was voted the Global Insulation Company of the Year. Then, in 2019, there were three more reasons to be proud of our work when we were presented with Global Awards for best plant; best innovation and insulation personality of the year. 2020 has a lot to live up to. And a lot to look forward to.

Jean-Claude Carlin, Group CEO, Knauf Insulation