By Liz White, UT staff
Roydon, UK-IFS Group says that the UK government's February 2006 announcement of a new directive for the UK building sector is likely to see demand surge for polyurethane insulation, and specifically for IFS's latest Envirofoam 16.335 polyurethane insulation.
IFS points out that the UK government is implementing the new EU Climate Change Regulations, and has recently given the building sector a 12-month transition rather than the usual three years.
Revisions to the UK building regulations to increase energy efficiency standards for new buildings, together with the stronger Building Regulations from 2002, will improve energy efficiency by 40 per cent, according to a statement from the office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
The new standards take effect 6 April this year for new buildings and work on existing buildings. Developers will need to make greater use of energy saving insulation, more efficient boilers and consider using Low or Zero Carbon Systems such as solar panels and mini-wind turbines to demonstrate compliance, the statement added.
"By increasing energy efficiency standards by 40 per cent our changes to building regulations make a significant contribution to the Government's effort to tackle climate change and offer householders reduced fuel bills too," said Housing and Planning Minister Yvette Cooper.
IFS claims to be "the first company in the world to provide the market with a zero-ozone depletion-potential polyurethane foam insulation product," back in 1988. And the firm now says it has set a new standard by introducing an "efficient insulation materials which meets the most stringent requirements in terms of low global warming potential."IFS's Envirofoam meets the standard set by the UK's Building Research Establishment, which has been stressing the importance of using blowing agents with low global warming potential in insulation for some time, said a statement from Roydon, UK-based IFS Group.
BRE has an environmental assessment method (BREEAM), that requires an insulation material which avoids use of ozone depleting blowing agents and has a global warming potential of less than 5-a standard which IFS says Envirofoam 16.335 meets.
"Tackling climate change is one of the biggest long term challenges we face," Cooper said, adding that this is why "we need the building industry to comply with the new regulations much more rapidly."
IFS is happy to help suppliers to the building sector "whose material specifications will have to be changed to ensure compliance with this new directive," said the company's managing director Barrie Colvin, in the company statement.
Pic: IFS Chemicals' Envirofoam is used in supermarket cold stores, for example.
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