Saint-Gobain, through its building products subsidiary CertainTeed LLC, today announced the company has completed the installation of water recycling technology at its Kansas City insulation plant, which will reduce the plant’s consumption of water by 227 million gallons per year. The ambitious project comes only weeks after the company announced its new global Grow and Impact strategy, which includes reducing its consumption of natural resources at its production sites.

The CertainTeed plant in Kansas City is the largest insulation manufacturing site in the world and began operations in 1951. The plant uses water to help cool equipment and molten glass, which is eventually fiberized into fiberglass-based insulation material.

The technology installed this month will allow the plant to capture and reuse the vast majority of water used on its K11 and K12 production lines. Previously, this water would otherwise travel into the plant’s sewer drains. A team of 15 engineering, production and design professionals at CertainTeed worked over the past seven years to conceptualize and implement this $4.3 million project.

“Our water recycling project in Kansas City is a massive step forward in our company’s broader mission of maximizing our positive impact, for our customers and the communities where we do business, while minimizing our environmental footprint,” said Andrew Goldberg, Vice President and General Manager of CertainTeed Insulation Product Group. “We know that part of being a good business means being a good neighbor, and we strive to lead our industry toward a more sustainable future.”  

CertainTeed’s water recycling efforts in Kansas City follow several other major investments this year towards improving CertainTeed’s environmental sustainability:

• In March, the company signed a 12-year power purchase agreement for 120 megawatts of renewable energy from a wind farm in McLean County, Illinois.
• In August, the company launched "Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities," a program that will bring more sustainable construction to neighborhoods across North America.
• In September, the company announced its intent to build a new gypsum logistics facility that will be integrated into the remediation of a vacant Superfund site along the St. Johns River.

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About CertainTeed

Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has helped shape the building products industry for more than 115 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm’s slogan “Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed,” inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed is a leading North American brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, solar, fence, railing, trim, insulation, drywall and ceilings. www.certainteed.com.

About Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility, healthcare and other industrial application markets. Developed through a continuous innovation process, they can be found everywhere in our living places and daily life, providing wellbeing, performance and safety, while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and the fight against climate change.

This strategy of responsible growth is guided by the Saint-Gobain purpose, “MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER HOME,” which responds to the shared ambition of all the women and men in the Group to act every day to make the world a more beautiful and sustainable place to live in.

€38.1 billion in sales in 2020
​More than 167,000 employees, located in 70 countries
Committed to achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2050

Media Contacts

Saint-Gobain in North America:

David Rosen
Saint-Gobain Corporate Communications
Media@saint-gobain.com