Collaborations

Footprint Reduction

Owens Corning collaborates with a number of organizations to benchmark and gain new practices around footprint reduction and overall operations sustainability excellence. Here are some noteworthy relationships.

Science Based Targets initiative

The Science Based Targets initiative is a partnership between CDP, UN Global Compact, WRI and WWF, which helps companies determine how much they must cut emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

We embarked on new GHG goals in accordance with the methodology for science based targets in 2015.
Energy Star

Owens Corning has been engaged with Energy Star to continually learn from and share practices with the many partners seeking to reduce energy use in manufacturing.
Rocky Mountain Institute – Business Renewables Center

Owens Corning is among the first of member companies focused on advancing renewable energy progress globally.

Information and insight helped us achieve our Oct. 2015 announced power purchase agreements for 250MW of wind power to be in service in 2016. Since then we have provided best practice information to others pursuing wind power purchases.

Product and Supply Chain

Owens Corning has a commitment to product stewardship and transparency as well as supply chain sustainability. Collaborations in these areas inform us of best practices.

International Living Future Institute

Composed of leading green building experts and thought-leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

Owens Corning was one of the first to join the Institute’s Living Product Challenge, and in 2016 certified two products under this new standard.
Cradle to Cradle Institute

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, a non-profit organization, educates and empowers manufacturers of consumer products to become a positive force for society and the environment, helping to bring about a new industrial revolution.

Owens Corning was one of the first product manufacturers to have products certified under the Material Health Assessment, a breakthrough program to help product users understand both risk and exposure impacts of products they specify.
UL Environment

Owens Corning has had a long relationship with UL Environment for not only third party testing and certifications for safety and environmental aspects of our products, but also training and education of our industry through continuing education unit credit classes delivered by members of our sales force.
SCS Global Services

SCS third party verification services provide standards and certifications to assure specifiers and purchasers of products of attributes for sustainability including recycled content and renewable energy use.
Michigan State University Supply Chain Management Association

Owens Corning is a member of the MSU Supply Chain Management Association and also works directly with instructors from their Executive Education Program for consulting services to improve the capacity and capabilities of the Global Sourcing Organization. MSU continues to be recognized as the top Supply Chain Management program in the United States.
Procurement Leaders

Procurement Leaders™ is a global membership network, serving senior procurement and supply chain executives from major worldwide corporations, providing independent procurement intelligence, professional development and peer-to-peer networking. These services enable members to add more value to their business by delivering savings faster, reducing risks and transforming functional performance.

Owens Corning was recognized as a finalist for the annual Procurement Leaders’ awards in the areas of Procurement Leaders Academy Alumni Transformation Project and Corporate Social Responsibility Award, and was the winner for the Procurement Excellence Award, the highest award given.

Partnering for High-Performance Buildings

Owens Corning has a long history of developing innovative energy saving solutions, collaborating with others to design, build and retrofit buildings for improved performance, and supporting codes and standards organizations with its technical expertise.

ASHRAE advances the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world has adopted the AIA 2030 Challenge which is for all new buildings to be carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate).

Owens Corning supports this goal by actively participating in ASHRAE’s development of energy codes, standards and guides thorough membership in many of the standards committees including:

  • Standards 90.1 – Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings
  • Standard 189.1 – Standard for Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings
  • Standard 160 Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings
  • Technical Committee 1.12 Moisture Management in Buildings
  • Technical Committee 4.4 Building Materials and Building Envelop Performance
  • Advanced Energy Design Guides (11) – Current versions of these documents are targeted to achieve 50% energy savings towards the 2030 goal.

PHIUS is an organization committed to making high-performance passive building principles the mainstream best building practice, and the mainstream market energy performance standard.

Owens Corning building science professionals sit on the technical committee.

A federation of more than 700 state and local associations, NAHB represents more than 140,000 members. About one-third are home builders and remodelers. The rest work in closely related specialties such as sales and marketing, housing finance, and manufacturing and supplying building materials. Since it was founded in the early 1940s, NAHB has served as the voice of America’s housing industry. We work to ensure that housing is a national priority and that all Americans have access to safe, decent and affordable housing, whether they choose to buy a home or rent.

Owens Corning advocates for and influences the adoption of improved building practices that are consistent with our sustainability values. We are active participants in the NAHB and employees participate in or serve on committees or councils including the Building Codes Committee, Building Products Liability Committee and the Leading Suppliers Council. Field sales personnel engage with local home building associations in the communities they serve.

RESNET is a recognized national standards-making body for building energy efficiency rating and certification systems in the United States.

Owens Corning is active with RESNET on a number of committees and board of directors. Within RESNET, Owens Corning drove the creation of the RESNET Suppliers Advisory Board.

The (BPI) is the nation's premier credentialing, quality assurance and standards setting organization for home performance professionals. Since 1993, BPI has been setting technical standards for home energy auditing and energy efficiency upgrades.

Owens Corning is active with BPI with certified training proctors and with the board of directors.

EEBA provides an invaluable platform for insight, collaboration and education on building science. EEBA delivers unique and relevant, multi-platform educational resources with the intention to manifest sustainable and responsible building principles in the design, marketing and execution of the building process.

Owens Corning has been a supporter of the Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) for more than a decade.

Owens Corning has been a long standing participant in research and application of products for high performance building with the Home Innovations Research Labs.

Owens Corning sits on the Net Zero Council with the Canadian Home Builders Association promoting the adoption of their Net Zero Ready and Net Zero labeling program.  To date 60 Net Zero Energy Homes have been built and labeled through CHBA using OC enclosure solutions and 200 homes are in the pipeline.

Owens Corning is working with Natural Resources Canada leveraging enclosure solutions through their LEEP program (Leadership in Energy Efficiency Program), promoting cost effective solutions and technologies to help builders build more energy efficient comfortable and durable homes on the road to net zero.

In British Columbia we worked with 3 builders who have adopted OC solutions. These projects are profiled here: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/housing/leep/20619

The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) program is a global certification system designed to transform the built environment to sustainability by providing the building industry with consistent, credible standards for what constitutes a green building. Its points system focuses on the entire build for existing and new construction.

Owens Corning is a Gold member. Owens Corning provides LEED reference materials helping project teams specify the best Owens Corning products for LEED certification. Guides cover LEED v4 and 2009 for all building types. For more information about LEED certification, call 1-800-GET-PINK® (1-800-428-7465).

In addition to the U.S.-based Green Building Council, Owens Corning was a founding member of the India Green Building Council and active with Green Building Councils in Brazil and Canada.

ecoEII is a Canadian government program to promote long-term solutions to eliminate air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions from energy production.

Over $4 million in funding and in-kind contributions from ecoEII, Owens Corning Canada and the building industry provided for the construction of at least 25 net-zero energy homes (NZE) in four Canadian provinces. While construction is now concluded we remain active with ecoEII in monitoring the actual performance of the demonstration homes.

Energy Savings and Durability

Innovative uses of glass fiber reinforced polymers can enhance structures and end use products for durability, reduction of life cycle impacts, energy efficiency and renewable energy production. Owens Corning collaborates with organizations on research, education and standards to put these materials to new uses.

American Composites Manufacturing Association

The Green Composites Council (GCC) promotes sustainable practices and life cycle assessment of composite products. The Architectural Division seeks to educate and provide design guidance for the inclusion of composite materials in building construction. Composite materials can deliver performance attributes to enhance durability, energy efficiency and flexibility of design, to name a few. Through the GCC research on end of life recycling for composite materials is underway.

Owens Corning people serve on the board and many committees of the American Composites Manufacturing Association (ACMA) including the Green Composites Council (GCC) and the Architectural Division.

ACMA and Owens Corning have proposed a recycling collaboration project with IACMI to facilitate the growth of a profitable and sustainable composites recycling industry through technology which can recover energy and fibers from both glass and carbon fiber composites. The proposed collaboration project also includes GFS, Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), Xperion, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), CHZ Technologies, Purdue University and the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI).
Infravation

Infravation brings together funding from the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, U.S. and the EU into one common transnational call framework, in order to fund joint research projects.

SEACON aims at demonstrating the safe utilization of seawater and salt-contaminated aggregates (natural or recycled) for a sustainable concrete production when combined with noncorrosive reinforcement to construct durable and economical concrete infrastructures.

The aim is to reduce the use of critical resources by replacing them with alternatives that would extend the affordability and sustainability of constructed elements under aggressive environmental conditions without affecting their longevity and durability. Owens Corning continues to collaborate with a number of entities involved in this work.

Safety, Health and Wellness

A distinguishing feature of Owens Corning’s commitment to safety, health and wellness is our leadership and successful collaborations with other leading companies and organizations in this area. We truly can learn and improve together.

National Safety Council

Owens Corning has been a member of the National Safety Council since 1943 and has served on the board and committees. Owens Corning was awarded the National Safety Council Green Cross for Safety in 2014.
Campbell Institute

Owens Corning was a founding member of the Campbell Institute, a standing committee of the National Safety Council, which focuses on best practices, research, and collaboration among member companies. Representatives serve on projects and committees.
Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE)

The Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) helps corporations across all sectors measure and accelerate the ways in which they help the world become a healthier, more sustainable place.

In 2014, we collaborated with the SHINE, part of the Center for Health and the Global Environment based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to establish our global wellness baseline. The survey helped to point out needed areas of focus and expanded our global wellness work focused on preventive care, healthy mind, physical activity, nutrition, and tobacco-free. We incorporated feedback from the 33% of U.S. employee (both primary and salary) respondents into 2015 objectives that led to a new platform for our Healthy Living program.

We are pursuing standards around handprinting and net positive aspirations via the Net Positive Project officially launched in May, 2016. Business for Social Responsibility and Forum for the Future launched the project at the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego, California, U.S.

Community Vitality

As a part of our community impact, Owens Corning offers building science expertise, product and financial donations for building better with these organizations.

World Vision Storehouse

The World Vision Storehouse network is comprised of six warehouses across the U.S. that receive corporate donations of new, top-quality goods made available to local community partners for distribution. Goods that are distributed include building materials, school supplies, personal care items, and clothing to over 2.2 million people in low-income communities annually.

Owens Corning began supporting the Storehouse program in 2009 with donations of building materials. In 2018, World Vision presented Owens Corning with the coveted Crystal Vision Award which honors a manufacturer that has supported the World Vision Storehouse program for at least five years. Since 2009, Owens Corning has donated enough product to insulate more than 11,000 homes for people in need.
The Gary Sinise Foundation

The Gary Sinise Foundation serves the nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need by creating and supporting unique programs designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen, and build communities. Through their R.I.S.E. Program (Restoring Independence, Supporting Empowerment) The Gary Sinise Foundation provides specially adapted smart homes to America's most severely wounded heroes and their families as well as home modifications, mobility devices, and adapted vehicles to injured, wounded, ill, and/or aging heroes from all military conflicts.

Owens Corning entered its first agreement to support the RISE Program in 2017. Through that agreement, Owens Corning will donate all of the roofing and insulation materials for homes built in 2018. Additionally, the company will identify contractors to donate their labor to install those products on each home.
Habitat for Humanity International

Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity International works in nearly 1,400 communities across the U.S. and in approximately 70 countries and has helped 9.8 million people achieve strength, stability and independence through safe, decent and affordable shelter.

Owens Corning is in the midst of its third 3-year $1.2 million agreement through which we help members of our communities achieve the dream of home ownership.   We also work with Habitat China and Habitat India to help people in the communities where we have facilities.
United Way WorldWide (UWW)

United Way is engaged in nearly 1,800 communities across more than 40 countries and territories worldwide. We are focused on creating community-based and community-led solutions that strengthen the cornerstones for a good quality of life: education, financial stability and health.

Owens Corning has partnered with UWW for three years to provide basic health and educational opportunities in our communities in China and India.