In order to meet growing market demand and reduce the environmental impact of its production processes in line with its carbon neutrality roadmap, AGC Glass Europe is launching its low-carbon glass range, featuring a significantly reduced carbon footprint, say officials.
“In 2022—the United Nations International Year of Glass—AGC turned the spotlight on glass and our passion for this noble material. We also took a big step towards carbon neutrality during the year and are now delighted to close out 2022 with the launch of our low-carbon glass range offering customers glass, which—from the extraction of raw materials to final installation—generates more than 40 percent less CO2 than our standard glass,” says Davide Cappellino, president of AGC Architectural Glass Europe & Americas Co.
How AGC created the low-carbon range
To achieve this CO2 reduction, officials examined every link in the value chain. This included limiting direct carbon emissions from the glass production processes as well as lowering all CO2 emissions from electricity production, the supply chain upstream of the company’s processes and other indirect emissions. AGC’s holistic approach to sustainably producing its Low-Carbon Glass covers six key areas:
- sustainably sourcing of raw materials
- using highly efficient melting furnaces
- increasing the use of cullet (recycled glass)
- using green energy sources
- optimizing transport between Group sites for finishing processes (lamination, coating)
- optimizing transport for finished products
As a result of this in-depth process, AGC is now producing low-carbon Planibel Clearlite, a low-carbon float glass whose carbon footprint has been slashed by 40 percent to just 7 kilograms of CO2 per square meter, for 4-millimeter thick glass.
Where and when is the glass available?
The first low-carbon Planibel Clearlite was successfully produced at the AGC plant in Moustier, Belgium, and is available and in stock now. In 2023, the AGC plant in Seingbouse, France will also start producing Low-Carbon Glass.
Low-carbon Planibel Clearlite is available for AGC’s key ranges of functional glazing products, including:
safety glass: Low-Carbon Stratobel and Low-Carbon Stratophone
thermal insulation glass: Low-carbon iplus 1.0 and Low-Carbon iplus 1.1
solar control glass: Low-carbon Stopray and Low-Carbon Energy
These new Low-carbon Glass products deliver the same aesthetics, quality and technical performance as traditional AGC float glass products, say officials.
