The idea of creating stone wool from basalt was fostered in Hawaii, where natural volcanic activity created the first stone wool from basalt. Nowadays, the basalt that we use to produce Rockpanel facade cladding is mined in Germany. This location is close to our production site, limiting our CO2 footprint.
Rockpanel and the ROCKWOOL Group are committed to running their business on ethically and environmentally-sound principles. Every supplier for Rockpanel and the ROCKWOOL Group needs to meet our high standards, and sustainability and the environment are important aspects here. To secure this, all our suppliers either have to accept the ROCKWOOL Supplier Code of Conduct or need to have their own Code of Conduct approved by the ROCKWOOL Group. We regularly evaluate how they are doing and re-assess our suppliers based on that. *Source
It is of course a demand from us that all necessary permissions are in place for the supplier to mine the basalt and that they are ISO 14001 certified. But it goes much further than this. We need our suppliers to our suppliers live up to the Rockpanel standards and values. That means that they will need to meet our strong demands we have for nature protection. And should a supplier stop mining at a certain location, then they are also obliged to re-establish nature there. This way, we take utmost care of our planet together.
Read more about our approach to raw materials and recycled content in our sustainability report from the ROCKWOOL group.