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People

Put People First for a better world

By Sian Hughes
October 19, 2020

Our sustainability goal to Put People First focuses on ensuring that our communities and people can thrive safely. We’ve learnt valuable lessons from the COVID-19 crisis.

At Knauf Insulation our values — challenge.create.care — have defined everything we do, but these values came to life in ways we never imagined possible at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the words of our Group CEO Jean-Claude Carlin, “In moments of crisis — when the boat is facing a storm and people have to decide what to do to save that boat in quarter of a second — you see the power of a company’s culture.”

All our people around the world, responded quickly and efficiently to the challenges of the crisis, working together in unprecedented new ways — and under enormous pressure — to ensure our colleagues, our customers and our communities were all ‘As Safe As Home’.

Jean-Claude said: “We’ve always lived our challenge.create.care values but when the pandemic swept the world I was proud of the way these values translated into action. Instantly. Everyone showed care for what is really important… each other.”

Our new sustainability vision, which we’ve called For A Better World, capitalises on this incredible energy by Putting People First.

You can read about our long-term commitments here and how they support the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, but our priority is now achieving the short-term concrete targets we have set ourselves for 2025.

By this deadline we will achieve targets to reduce our accident rate by 55%, help diversity thrive, make mental well-being a priority, ensure our people are the leaders of our industry and create a global community of volunteers.

Over the past decade we have created solid foundations for these targets. Here are just a few examples:

  • Since 2010 we have reduced our Lost Time Accidents (LTA) by 56% with three of our plants going more than 1,500 days without an LTA.
  • On June 11, 2020, the entire company achieved one hundred days without an LTA.
  • Company-wide safety is being reinforced by our ‘As Safe As Home’ strategy and information campaign.
  • Throughout the pandemic, our teams are offered mental health and well-being support through telephone hotlines and online counselling sessions.
  • Last year we helped build new homes for Native Alaskans who were being forced to move because extreme weather is causing flooding and land erosion.
  • We helped install 8,000 square metres of Earthwool insulation in every building in Birdsville — one of the most remote towns in Australia where temperatures can reach 49ºC.
  • We encourage the best leaders to join us. There have been 1,300 applications for eight positions in the two years since the Knauf Insulation graduate programme started in 2018.
  • We want to recognise the achievements of anyone who shows leadership and share them with the world. That’s why we hold annual Leadership Awards.
  • We consistently support the communities where we work from sponsoring local sport teams and helping build playgrounds to our employees dedicating their time to local charities during six weeks of a plant closure due to refurbishment.

 

ABOUT FOR A BETTER WORLD

Knauf Insulation’s new sustainability strategy For A Better World focuses on four key goals: Putting People First, Achieving Zero Carbon, Delivering A Circular Economy and Creating Better Buildings.