“In 2022 – proclaimed International Year of Glass by the United Nations – AGC did not fail to highlight its productions and its passion for this noble material. At the same time, we have also taken a big step towards our carbon neutrality. We are therefore pleased to end 2022 with the launch of our Low-Carbon Glass range, thanks to which our customers now have glass whose emissions, from the extraction of raw materials to the final installation, of CO2 have been reduced by more than 40% compared to our standard glass», says Davide Cappellino, President of the AGC Architectural Glass Europe and Americas Company.
To achieve this drastic reduction in CO2, AGC has redesigned each link in its value chain in order to lower direct carbon emissions during the production of the glass itself, but also to limit all CO2 emissions from the production of glass. electricity, upstream supply chain and other indirect emissions. For the production of Low-Carbon Glass, this holistic approach is centered on six strong axes:
- sustainable sourcing of raw materials
- use of high efficiency melting furnaces
- increased use of cullet (recycled glass)
- use of green energy
- optimization of transport between Group sites for finishing treatments (laminated glass assemblies, layer deposition)
- optimization of the transport of finished products
Following this in-depth review, AGC can now offer its new Low-Carbon Planibel Clearlite glass, a low-carbon float glass whose CO2 footprint has been reduced to 7 kg of CO2 per m² (4 mm thick glass ), i.e. a reduction of at least 40%.
The first production of Low-Carbon Planibel Clearlite has been successfully launched at AGC's Moustier factory in Belgium and is now available from stock. In 2023, the Seignbouse plant in France will also switch to the production of AGC Low-Carbon Glass.
Low-Carbon Planibel Clearlite can be used as the basis for AGC's main functional glass product lines:
- safety glass: Low-Carbon Stratobel and Low-Carbon Stratophone
- low-emissivity glass for insulating glazing: Low-Carbon iplus 1.0 and Low-Carbon iplus 1.1
- solar control and low emissivity glass: Low-Carbon Stopray and Low-Carbon Energy
These new low-carbon glass products offer the same appearance, the same quality and the same technical performance as conventional AGC products based on float glass.