The building and construction industry has a significant role to play in addressing climate change, as the built environment accounts for 39% of the world’s global GHG emissions:  28% are from “operational carbon” or carbon that is emitted as result of operating the building, and 11% from “embodied carbon” or carbon that is emitted from across the life cycle of the materials used to construct the building.  As part of the global solution to address climate change, the building industry must address both operational carbon and embodied carbon to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As of January 1, 2021, the Styrofoam™ Brand Insulation family of products includes lower GWP options that deliver reduced embodied carbon while enabling the same reductions in operational carbon that result from using Styrofoam™ to meet building energy efficiency goals. This product innovation will significantly reduce our operational GHG emissions and comply with adopted and upcoming state and provincial HFC regulations throughout the United States and Canada. Integrating these changes will help us deliver GHG reductions in support of the Paris Climate Agreement even faster than called for by the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement aimed at reducing HFC usage. 

The transition to lower-GWP Styrofoam Brand products will help the building industry achieve more sustainable performance, and will advance the newly released DuPont Performance Building Solutions and Corian® Design 2030 sustainability goals. The reduced GWP formulation will continue to deliver the high level of performance expected by our customers while featuring the same sustainability benefits as the rest of the portfolio. This product will be:

·         Manufactured with 100% renewable electricity and with a zero-ozone depletion formula

·         Reusable in many applications

·         Certified by UL Environment Inc. to contain an average of 20% pre-consumer recycled content

·         Produced with BluEdge™ Polymeric Flame Retardant Technology, a stable polymer with an enhanced environment, health and safety profile.

This is just the latest part of our commitment to reduce the GWP of our products, as we continue to "use building science to innovate as if our future depends on it (because it does).”