Wavin – Europe’s leading supplier of water management, plumbing and drainage systems – has scooped top spot in the prestigious HouseBuilder Product Awards 2013 for its drainage products manufactured using innovative Recycore® Technology.
The company won the category for Best External Product and will now be put forward for the best overall product award. Recycore® Technology allows drainage products to be manufactured with at least 50% recycled content, whilst providing identical properties and performance to their 100% virgin material counterparts, and at the same cost.
Wavin developed the technology in response to demand from the market. Though carbon in use dominates much of the thinking around sustainability, the leading housebuilders now recognise that conservation of resources and reducing embodied carbon are equally important pieces of the jigsaw.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and reporting now play an important role in defining the value of housebuilding companies to shareholders. Their CSR or sustainable development strategies recognise the significance of materials selection, embodied carbon and whole-life impacts.
Reducing the carbon footprint of a housing development can often mean re-thinking design, procurement or installation – or all three. With Recycore® Technology, none of those changes are necessary.
To give an indication of how Recycore® Technology impacts on recycled content, using products made with Recycore® Technology on a typical new-build housing development would mean that 33% of drainage materials in, above and below ground were recycled.
Mike Shaw, head of marketing, Wavin said: “To win this category is great news and recognition that Recycore® Technology is becoming the choice of the leading housebuilders when it comes to meeting their procurement processes and environmental concerns.”
“We know that our customers are under increasing pressure to use more recycled materials and to lower their carbon footprint. Recycore® Technology has sustainability at the root of its design and means that you get all the environmental benefits without any compromise on quality, performance and durability,” he added.