6/19/2019 / News

Our contribution: insulbar RE

The numbers speak for themselves: There is no official statement yet from the Global Footprint Network, telling us on which day of this year we will have consumed as many resources as the Earth can regenerate in the whole year. In 2018 Earth Overshoot Day was on 1 August.  As recently as 1987 this day fell on 19 December. From an economic perspective, from Earth Overshoot Day onwards humanity is in deficit, because it has already used up its entire assets and therefore has to borrow “money” from the bank – which means the Earth – (Source: Wikipedia/Global Footprint Network).

 

High resource consumption by industrialised nations

A window insulated with insulbar RE bears a green thumbprint insulbar insulating profiles reduce heat losses in window, door and façade systems made from aluminium and thereby reduce the energy consumption. insulbar RE made from recycled polyamide additionally conserves valuable resources even at the production stage.

Owing to the high level of consumption in industrialised and newly industrialising countries along with rapid population growth, the date has moved further and further forward in the calendar (Source: Federal Environment Agency). This year’s figures are already available for the individual countries (see Figure). At the current time, all industrialised nations are living on credit. If all humans used as many resources as for example the Germans, the Earth would have already been overburdened on 3 May.

We would need three planet Earths to meet such consumption requirements in the long term. To push back the Overshoot Day again, major efforts are required. Halving CO2 emissions, for example, would shift the date by 89 days.

Image of the overshoot days of the individual countries for 2019 The Country Overshoot Day is the day on which Earth Overshoot Day would fall if everyone used as many resources as in that particular country.

A small contribution: thermal separation with insulbar RE

Every individual can make their contribution towards this daily: saving energy, leaving the car at home more often, buying regional and seasonal foods, or using products made from recycled materials. Like for example insulbar RE, our insulating bar with an excellent life cycle assessment.

insulbar RE made from 100 % recycled polyamide has successfully proved its worth in practice. Millions of linear metres of the material have been incorporated into buildings and so far have enabled a reduction of tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions. Compared with traditional polyamide bars, insulbar RE conserves energy and valuable resources even at the production stage. For example, the figure for insulbar RE is 0.76 kg CO2 per kg insulating profile compared with 8.81 kg CO2 for profiles made from standard materials.

Contact us if you also want to make your contribution and use green construction products in the future.