A Guide to Sustainability by Deceuninck

A guide to
SUSTAINABILITY by Deceuninck
Start your sustainability journey with Deceuninck today
and open a world of possibilities
www.deceuninck.co.uk 1

A guide to
SUSTAINABILITY by Deceuninck
CONTENTS
Introduction 4
Research Overview 6
Deceuninck’s commitment to Science Based Targets 8
How to calculate your carbon footprint 10
How to reduce your carbon footprint 12
Tell your sustainability story 14
About Elegant 16
Start your sustainability journey with Deceuninck 18
www.deceuninck.co.uk 3

doors with a higher recycled content
over and above products that don’t
contain recycled content, or which did
so at lower levels.
Lowering their carbon footprint had an
impact on the purchasing decisions of
more than 70% of respondents.
And it’s not just about recycled product
or lowering carbon in manufacture. High
energy prices have put home energy
efficiency front and centre.
The sustainability story is as much
about energy efficiency and the pivotal
part that collective as an industry
we can play in lowering UK energy
consumption and homeowner bills.
INTRODUCTION
by Rob McGlennon,
Managing Director, Deceuninck
Sustainability will define the UK window
and door industry in the next decade.
While some fabricators and
installers have, and are, embracing
the commercial opportunities that
sustainability delivers, others still have
work to do.
This is despite the influence that
sustainability is already having on
homeowner purchasing decisions.
Independent research commissioned by
Deceuninck and conducted by YouGov,
shows that more than two-thirds of endusers
(68%) would choose windows and
Deceuninck is doing this through our
pioneering recycling programme and
the commitment we have made to lower
our operational carbon footprint through
the Science Based Targets programme,
making our approach to sustainability
‘real’ - and evidence based.
We are also working to make UK
homes more energy efficient in the new
generation of products including Elegant
and Phoenix, our 100% recycled window
which we have developed for the future.
We aren’t as sustainable as we want
to be but we’re working to get there.
Most importantly we’re supporting our
customers to do the same.
This includes through the products
that we supply, support to help them
to reduce their environmental impact
and dedicated resource and marketing
support, so that they can tell their
sustainability story.
We hope you’ll join us in making the UK’s
homes greener.
4 A Guide to Sustainability

Sustainability
will define the UK
window & door
industry in the
next decade.
We’re prepared to pay more for sustainability!
Conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Deceuninck, our exclusive
research found that 63% of homeowners would be more likely to purchase home
improvements which they saw as being more ‘sustainable’.
Even better, of these, 38% would be prepared to pay more for home improvement
products that had higher recycled content and reduced impact on the environment.
www.deceuninck.co.uk 5

RESEARCH
OVERVIEW
Headline findings
What homeowners think about
sustainability
Our homes account for around 17% of
the UK’s CO 2
emissions (ONS).
Cutting the amount of energy that we
use to keep them warm in winter is now
a key infrastructure priority, something
only reinforced by historically high
energy bills.
Homeowners
are buying
sustainably
"
It creates a direct link between heat
loss and hard economics.
This is driving a shift in expectation.
The energy efficiency of their homes
has new resonance with consumers,
something which, despite the pressures
on household incomes, creates
21%
Much
more likely
"
41%
A bit more
likely
33%
Neither more
nor less likely
opportunity for the window and door
industry if we’re effective in driving the
energy efficiency message.
Homeowners are buying
sustainably
SUSTAINABILITY JUNE 2022
Homeowners are making purchasing
decisions based on how sustainable
they see products as being. According
to our study 62% of respondents said
that, it would either make them, more
likely or significantly more likely to
purchase a product over a comparable
product that they didn’t see as being
sustainable.
"lowering their
carbon footprint
influenced the
purchasing decisions
of more than 70% of
homeonwers"
Does the sustainability of a product
mean you are more or less likely to
purchase this product, or does it make
no difference?
Does the sustainability of a
product mean you are more
or less likely to purchase
this product, or does it
make no difference?
4%
Don't
know
1%
A bit less
likely
1%
Much less
likely
6 A Guide to Sustainability
4

Recycled content
is a positive
Recycled content is a positive
Homeowners have no issue with
recycled content in windows and doors.
In fact, if offered products with equal
levels of performance and the same
appearance, the only difference being
that one used recycled content, YouGov
research shows that the majority of
homeowners, some 66%, would choose
the product that used recycled material.
High energy prices have left a scar
Despite stabilisation in the energy
markets, Deceuninck commissioned
YouGov research found that 90% of
homeowners remained worried about
the price of energy.
Of these, 44% said that higher energy
costs made them more likely to spend
on energy saving home improvements,
with energy-efficient windows and
doors Recycled topping content homeowners has been a bone list of contention of home in
energy the window efficiency and door measures industry, driven (13%). by historical
concerns about material stability and the reaction
from the end-user. What our research shows is that
today, the second of these points is unfounded.
Consumers care about carbon
reduction
Homeowners have no issue with recycled content
While energy efficiency remains an
in windows and doors. In fact, if offered products
‘evergreen’
with equal levels
driver
of performance
of window
and
and
the same
door appearance, sales alongside the only difference security, being that one
appearance used recycled and content, price, YouGov the Deceuninck
research shows
that the vast majority of homeowners, some 66%,
commissioned YouGov study found that
would choose the product that used recycled
a desire material. to lower their carbon footprint
influenced the purchasing decisions of
more
And many
than
of us,
70%
more
of
than
respondents.
a third of homeowners, would be
prepared to pay a premium for products which had a higher
recycled content.
Would you choose a home
improvement product
(e.g. windows and doors)
with a higher level of
recycled content over
make no difference?
one with lower level of
recycled content if both
delivered the same level of
performance and cost the
same, or would it make no
difference?
Would you choose a home improvement product
(e.g. windows and doors) with a higher level of
recycled content over one with a lower level of
recycled content if both delivered the same level
of performance and cost the same, or would it
“Homeowners
have no issue with
recycled content
5
in windows and
doors”
2%
I would
choose the
product
with less
recycled
content
6%
Don't
know
27%
It would
make no
difference
66%
I would
choose the
product
with more
recycled
Download a copy of our Sustainability Research White Paper here:
www.deceuninck.co.uk 7

DECEUNINCK’S
COMMITMENT TO
SCIENCE BASED
TARGETS
Highly recyclable and energy
efficient, windows and doors
by Deceuninck are making the
UK’s homes warmer and more
sustainable.
Deceuninck is committed to being
part of the solution to climate change,
making UK homes warmer and more
energy efficient.
Measurable and clear targets
We’ve signed up to Science Based
Targets, the corporate climate action
programme. It’s important because it
means that we’ve made a commitment
to meaningful change in the way that we
work and to measure what we’re doing.
It’s evidence-led, based on the latest
climate science, and what we need to do
together, to meet the goals of the Paris
Climate Change Agreement.
Our journey to net zero
Our baseline is the carbon we created
in 2021. The total figure for all of our
global activities was 673,095 tCO 2
.
From this starting point, we made the
following commitments in summer
2022:
• To cut CO 2
emissions from
our operations (Scope 1&2
emissions) by 60% by 2030
• To lower emissions from our
supply chain (Scope 3) by 48%
per tonne by 2030
• Achieve net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions by 2050
It’s an ambitious commitment going
far beyond the SBTi minimum target of
42%.
How we’re lowering our carbon
footprint
While we’re doing lots of different things
to lower our carbon emissions, including
sourcing renewable energy and
investing in solar, our state-of-the-art
recycling facility plays a massive part in
what we’re doing.
Opened in 2017, we can reprocess up
to 45,000 tonnes of post-consumer and
post-manufacturing PVC-U per year.
That’s the potential to stop more than
three million old windows and doors
going to landfill annually.
It also delivers big CO 2
savings. Using
recycled PVC-U in windows and doors
delivers a 90,000 tonne CO 2
saving
compared to virgin feedstocks. It also
lowers energy usage by 90%.
Major progress in the last year
We’ve have made impressive progress
against our commitments in the first year.
This includes lowering CO 2
by 21%,
down from 673,095 tonnes in 2021 to
530,836 tCO 2
e at the end of 2022.
We’ve been able to do it through a series
of practical initiatives operationally, but
also a cultural shift in our attitude to the
environment.
In addition to expanding our inhouse
recycling facility and sourcing more of the
raw materials we use in the manufacture
of our energy efficient window and door
ranges from suppliers who share our
commitment to lowering CO 2
emissions,
this has included the following:
8 A Guide to Sustainability

Lowering CO 2
from energy
Ultimately, our goal is to run on 90%
green electricity by 2030. While we’re
not there yet, the biggest single change
has been our effort to reduce energy
consumption and to source the energy
that we do use from renewable and
lower carbon sources.
This dual strategy of lowering usage
and sourcing energy from renewable
resources (which accounted for 17.7%
of energy used last year compared to
15% in 2021), contributed to a total 35%
saving.
A roadmap to lower carbon
Logistics make up another major slice
of our carbon footprint accounting
for more than 8% of Deceuninck’s
emissions in 2022. While we still have
work to do, this, however, represented a
15% reduction on our 2021 baseline.
Other savings
Investment in new refrigerant
technologies also helped us to lower
emissions from refrigerants by 47%.
Although representing a much smaller
contribution to our emissions overall,
this still represents a very sizeable
achievement.
This equates to a direct commercial
advantage to our customers. The
greener we are, the greener Deceuninck
fabricators and installers are.
And our research shows that that is
already influencing the purchasing
decisions of homeowners.
www.deceuninck.co.uk 9

HOW TO CALCULATE
YOUR CARBON
FOOTPRINT
Small simple changes to how you work
can make a big difference cumulatively.
Doing more to recycle, and source
renewable energy, are relatively
straightforward ways for you to lower
the impact of your business on the
planet.
Others, like working out your carbon
footprint, require a little more work.
It’s worth doing because if you want to
benefit from sustainability you need the
figures to back up your claims. You also
need a line in the sand, so you can set
targets to make your business greener.
What is the standard for measuring
carbon footprint?
The standard for measuring the carbon
footprint of businesses is the Green
House Gas Protocol.
It sets out three key areas for
measurement: very broadly Scope 1 and
2 emissions are the things that you have
control over, for example road miles, or
energy supply. Scope 3 are emissions
that you don’t have direct control over,
for example emissions generated by
your supply chain.
What should you be measuring?
We recommend starting with Scope
1 and 2 emissions before building up
to Scope 3, which will require a bigger
input of time and resource.
What’s important is that your calculation
captures the largest and most relevant
sources for your business.
You will need to decide exactly what you
track but you may wish to consider the
following:
1. Electricity use:
The total kilowatt-hours of electricity
that you use annually
2. Natural gas usage:
Total kilowatt-hours used annually
3. Water supply:
Total cubic metres of water used
annually
4. Company vehicle fuel spend:
Litres of fuel purchased or annual fleet
mileage
5. Tonnes of waste to landfill:
The general waste-to-landfill in your
business
6. Tonnes of waste recycled:
The tonnage of manufacturing or postconsumer
waste that you recycle
Once you’ve collated your data you then
need to work out the greenhouse gas
emissions associated with each activity
and then total these to get to your
carbon footprint.
This is represented in the following
calculation:
The data you’ve
collated against a
specific activity
(For example, your annual
energy usage or fuel spend)
The emission factor
(This gives the relationship
between the amount of pollutant
produced and the raw material
processed or burnt. For example,
the amount of pollutant
produced, by the number of
vehicle miles travelled.)
x =
Greenhouse gas
emission
10 A Guide to Sustainability

The Department for Energy & Climate
Change has created a simple-to-use
reference tool, Greenhouse gas
reporting: conversion factors 2021.
https://www.gov.uk/government/
publications/greenhouse-gas-reportingconversion-factors-2021
Sounds
complicated?
The Deceuninck Carbon
Calculator makes working out
your Carbon footprint simple.
If the prospect of working out
emissions factors has given you
a headache, don’t worry, we’ve
done the heavy lifting for you.
The Deceuninck Carbon
Calculator allows you to input
key metrics that you’ll already
have to hand, for example
your annual energy usage or
fuel spend, and work out your
headline carbon footprint in an
easy-to-understand dashboard.
We’ve also developed a guide
designed to help you take steps
to lower it!
Scan to access the Deceuninck
Carbon Calculator here
www.deceuninck.co.uk 11

AND WHEN YOU
KNOW WHAT
YOUR BUSINESS’S
CARBON FOOTPRINT
IS ... IT’S TIME TO
REDUCE IT!
Deceuninck is committed to being
Set targets to lower your business’s
CO 2
emissions and save money in
the process, by stripping out waste
and working more efficiently.
How can fabricators and installers
lower their CO 2
emissions?
There are lots of different things you can
do to lower your carbon footprint but
there are three which deliver big wins
and don’t require a huge input of time on
your part:
1. Switch to renewable energy
Moving to energy generated by solar or
wind immediately lowers your CO 2
. It
doesn’t mean that you need to invest in
your own panels or wind farm. Simply
subscribing to a renewable energy
contract will deliver big savings - and
with prices for renewable energy supply
going down, you’ll also make potentially
big savings.
Take Deceuninck customers as an
example. Deceuninck has committed to
lower our Scope 1&2 emissions by 60%;
and our Scope 3 emissions by 48% by
2030. We’re working to be net-zero by
2050.
As we make progress to that 2030
target, so do you as a Deceuninck
customer. And if you’re not already a
Deceuninck customer, it’s an even more
instant win. Switch suppliers and lower
your carbon footprint overnight!
3. Recycle more
Increasing the amount of material you
recycle – stopping it going to landfill and
returning it to production as part of the
circular economy – is another big and
comparatively simple win for fabricators
and installers.
The investment that we have made
in one of the world’s most advanced
PVC-U recycling facilities makes
recycling post-industrial and postconsumer
waste simple, and it also
delivers big carbon savings of up to
90,000 tonnes a year. That’s equivalent
to 90,000 return flights between London
and New York!
2. Choose a supply chain which is
lowering its carbon footprint
As we highlighted, the biggest source
of carbon emissions for small and
medium-sized businesses is, in most
cases, their supply chain and the CO 2
generated in the manufacture of the
materials and products their suppliers
make.
12 A Guide to Sustainability

www.deceuninck.co.uk 13

TELL YOUR
SUSTAINABILITY
STORY
Our research demonstrates that
homeowner purchasing decisions are
directly influenced by how sustainable
they see a product as being, and on
the strength of the commitments
companies make to the environment.
You don’t have to have every answer,
or to be perfect, but you do need to be
able to demonstrate that you’re working
towards change, and that means
starting somewhere.
We’ve created dedicated Deceuninck
fabricator and installer toolkits which
are designed to help our customers to
tell their sustainability story effectively.
The Deceuninck Energy Calculator
We know energy efficiency is a key
driver of window and door sales, so
we’ve created the Deceuninck Energy
Calculator to help our customers to
communicate the energy and carbon
savings that new energy efficient
windows and doors can deliver.
Available to Deceuninck fabricators and
installers as a website i-frame, it’s built
around an easy-to-use dashboard.
Homeowners input details on their
current windows and what they’re
considering upgrading them to, and
the Deceuninck Energy Calculator does
the rest, giving them a potential annual
carbon and financial saving, based on
current energy prices.
It acts as another data-driven tool
which is helping installers to tell a
sustainability story based on fact, while
also generating leads.
Extensive market segmented
support collateral to help
fabricators and installers tell their
sustainability stories
We’ve also invested in the creation of an
extensive bank of marketing materials
to help fabricators and installers to tell
that story.
With distinct positioning for b2b and
b2c audiences this includes positional
statements; sustainability brochures;
plug-and-play website content; presenter
packs; social media decks; through to
showroom stands and door-drop leave
behinds (printed on recycled paper of
course!)
Get in touch with us here:
“We’ve created
dedicated Deceuninck
fabricator and
installer toolkits to
help our customers to
tell their sustainability
story effectively.”
14 A Guide to Sustainability

www.deceuninck.co.uk 15

THE FUTURE TODAY
As part of our commitment to creating
a circular economy in window and door
manufacture, we are also designing new
products so that they perform better and
are easier to recycle at end of life.
This includes Elegant. Launched by
Deceuninck in the UK last year, it’s been
designed to be easier to recycle and to
generate less carbon in manufacture.
Elegant also redefines expectations
of performance through life including
U-values as low as 0.88W/m2K. This
goes far beyond current building
regulations, future proofing our offer to
the specification sector.
We also offer a fully recycled window –
Phoenix. Like Elegant it uses Linktrusion
technology which combines glass fibre
reinforced PVC profiles and an extruded
reinforcement profile with embedded
steel wires in a low-density insulating
foam core.
As a result, windows manufactured
using Linktrusion are as strong as steel
reinforced windows, but are 30% more
thermally efficient with 40% savings
on materials and weight. They are also
100% recyclable.
16 A Guide to Sustainability

“Elegant redefines
expectations of
performance with
U-values as low as
0.88W/m2K.”
www.deceuninck.co.uk 17

18 A Guide to Sustainability

We believe in facts, not fiction, which is why
Deceuninck have signed up to the
SCIENCE BASED TARGETS (SBTi)
Corporate Climate Action Programme
Deceuninck have made the following commitments:
Cut CO2 emissions from our operations
(Scope 1&2 emissions) by 60% by 2030
Lower emissions from our supply chain
(Scope 3) by 48% per tonne by 2030
Achieve net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions by 2050
www.deceuninck.co.uk 19

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Deceuninck Sustainability Assets
Stanier Road, Porte Marsh Industrial Estate, Calne, Wiltshire SN11 9PX
20 A Guide to Sustainability
T 01249 816 969 • F 01249 815 234 • E deceuninck.ltd@deceuninck.com
www.deceuninck.co.uk