Closing The Loop
As designers and manufacturers, we believe that we have a responsibility to ensure our products are as sustainable as possible—from raw materials to recycling and reuse at the end of their life. To act on this belief, we have developed processes and policies that guide our decision making and behaviour.
Circularity is a move from the traditional design template—make, use, dispose—to a design template that looks at ways to feed the disposal stage into the creation of a new product. Our policies centre around the three R’s—reduce, reuse, and recycle—considering how we can minimise the production of waste, and repurpose what is left.
Recycled material
One of the key ways we design for circularity is through the use of recycled material. All of our products contain a percentage of recycled polyester fibre, dictated by the level of acoustic absorption required. We aim to include as much recycled content as possible without compromising the acoustic performance of the product. This is why you’ll see some products with a minimum of 80% recycled content, and others with 60%. To ensure our claims are accurate, our sustainability team calculates the amount of recycled polyester used annually—a calculation that is independently verified under ISO 14021.
ReForm<sup>™ </sup>is a collection of acoustic products made from reclaimed textile waste. As a truly circular material, ReForm responds to the need for the building sector to take action on building waste. With ReForm, we are able to close the loop on our products by reclaiming product manufacturing offcuts and Autex Acoustics® products at the end of their life and transforming them into new products.
Our ReForm material is made possible through our takeback programme. Developed in our New Zealand market, the Takeback Programme deals with construction waste generated as a result of installation, which is collected and returned for reuse. While the programme currently gives new life to installation waste, the dream is to eventually take back panels that reach the end of their life in buildings.
Manufacturing waste
Annually, our manufacturing processes generate less than 3% waste in the form of trims and off-cuts. We aim to minimise waste trimmings as much as possible by optimising material use in our designs, however, with current technology some waste is inevitable.
Recognising that we could influence the amount of waste our products created during production, we conducted rigorous testing and research to create a bespoke solution. The result was an industry-first technology that transforms acoustic panel trimmings into PET pellets that can then be moulded into new accessory products.
By introducing this chipper into our process, we can now operate a zero-waste manufacturing line. Since the installation of our machine in May 2022, over 140,000 kgs of repurposed material have been turned into new products. Through regular upgrades, we will increase our operational capacity, expecting to reach an annual amount of over 240 tonnes of repurposed material.
Next steps
To build a circular economy, sustainable policies and practices need to be put in place at every stage of the manufacturing and construction process. As a large manufacturer with a global footprint, we are dedicated to implementing sustainable processes to help close the loop. Our next steps include distributing our zero-waste manufacturing developments to all of our sites, extending our Takeback Programme to include products at the end of their lifetime, and establishing it globally. We hope that our actions inspire others in the industry to do the same.
