Kingspan Insulated Metal Panels has released a whitepaper designed to help building owners and architects make more informed choices when it comes to reducing embodied carbon in commercial and industrial buildings.

The whitepaper details a study conducted by architectural research and planning firm KieranTimberlake, which looked at the embodied carbon created when designing an industrial building. The firm performed a life cycle assessment of four different industrial claddings – mineral fiber insulated metal panels, insulated concrete, tilt-up concrete and Kingspan QuadCore insulated metal panels - used on a virtual 150,000-square-foot industrial warehouse in Philadelphia. The study used an R-value of 20, based on the building code climate zone for the area. The full cradle-to-grave analysis focused on material manufacturing, maintenance, replacement and end-of-life.

The study compared 2.5-inch-thick Kingspan KS Series panels utilizing the company’s QuadCore technology to 5-inch-thick mineral fiber IMPs, 12-inch-thick insulated concrete wall utilizing polystyrene insulation and 9-inch-thick tilt-up concrete wall insulated with fiberglass batts. The doors, windows, roofing and floor slab were kept the same across all materials. However, the wall assembly, vertical structure and foundations varied for the different applications.

KieranTimberlake utilized Tally, a Revit-integrated LCA tool, to generate a complete bill of materials for each type of assembly and assessed each for their impact on global warming, acidification, eutrophication, smog formation, ozone depletion and non-renewable energy demand.

In assessing the global warming potential, the study found that the building using Kingspan’s QuadCore IMPs had the lowest levels of all the wall assemblies - 28% lower than both the insulated concrete and tilt-up wall assemblies, which had the highest levels of embodied carbon.  That reduction in embodied carbon for just this single building scenario is the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions from the average car driving 27 times around the world or the CO₂ emissions from burning 149 tons of coal.

“Studies show that embodied carbon alone is responsible for 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This analysis shows how switching out just one material can make a world of difference,” said Brent Trenga, Director of Sustainability. “The effort to reduce the carbon footprint of a building starts with the selection of materials and making more informed choices. We only get one chance to cut embodied carbon when designing a new building.”

Kingspan’s QuadCore is the most thermally efficient closed cell insulation core on the market (R-8.0 per inch) and was the first closed cell insulation panel to achieve FM 4882 fire certification. Kingspan panels with QuadCore are also GREENGUARD Gold certified and have earned Material Health Silver certification. When Kingspan panels are ordered with QuadCore™ and Valspar Fluropon coatings, the entire panel earns a Red List Free classification.

To download the full report visit: https://www.kingspan.com/us/en-us/about-kingspan/kingspan-insulated-panels/reducing-embodied-carbon.

For supplemental information on the report, including a video, visit this link.

For more information on Kingspan Insulated Panels North America, visit www.kingspanpanels.us.