Glass is one of the materials in the construction industry that makes a significant contribution to climate protection. Effective thermal and solar control coatings ensure that energy consumption for heating or cooling buildings is reduced to a minimum, even in large-scale applications. Production costs for glass are amortised correspondingly quickly as soon as it is used in the building. At the same time, however, production is also an important lever for further reducing the carbon footprint, and that's why we are constantly working to reduce carbon emissions for the float glass we produce ourselves as part of the "Green for Generations" sustainability initiative. Here, the focus is on improving the values for the entire range and not just individual product lines.
According to the latest calculations, the flat glass produced by Glas Trösch performs significantly better than the industry average. A current EPD confirms that the CO2 equivalent of the standard EUROFLOAT float glass with a thickness of four millimetres is just 9.83 kg CO2eq/m2. The value is therefore almost 20 per cent (19.7%) lower than the 12.24 kg CO2eq/m2 in the model EPD for the industry issued by the German Flat Glass Association (declaration number: M-EPD-FEG-001000). The advantages of climate-friendly standard glass are obvious: Not only is it available in large quantities, but it's also offered without a surcharge. Last but not least, it also benefits logistics, as separate storage areas are no longer required.
The low CO2 equivalent was made possible by manufacturing processes that have been optimised over many years, in which all available cullet is used in full for the standard float glass and renewable energy sources are used. We also focus on modern energy recovery processes. Thanks to the expertise of the highly qualified production team, the efficiency of the specially developed melting furnaces has also been further improved.