Sustainable Future
From a net zero ambition to repurposing fishing nets for carpets, Roscom is championing sustainability and urban living. For Roscom, sustainability means thinking about the future sooner. In a fast-changing energy and technological landscape, we’re rising to the challenge of future-proofing the design, construction and operation of properties economically, ecologically and socially.
Roscom is doing this by using industry-leading tools and ideas to find the best future potential for products and materials, driving higher sustainability standards for us and the partners we work with. Today, cities account for 75 percent of worldwide energy use and 80 percent of all greenhouse gases so this relentless rise of urban areas needs innovative thinking on how we plan, source, build and connect living and work spaces.
360° SUSTAINABILITY Our 360° sustainability approach is based on the entire lifecycle of a product, from the initial decision through to design, manufacture, installation and use. We then ask how the product can be dismantled and fed back into the recycling process. We’re leading practitioners of the Cradle to Cradle initiative (C2C), a kind of super-recycling process for biodegradable, nondurable and durable consumer goods broken down to their raw materials and reused. The forward-thinking in C2C means every product must prove it is free of pollutants and made using renewable energy. All recycled materials retain their quality and there’s no waste.
Rsocom currently has various systems making them easily convertible for future use. FROM OLD TO NEW, AGAIN AND AGAIN As a leading construction company, it's a shared responsibility. With 50 percent of global consumption of raw materials attributed to the construction industry, it’s vital we keep driving high-quality recycling and ways to recirculate resources and materials. Our pioneering approach to sustainability includes a focus on UPVC and steel as materials most suitable for recycling – 98 percent of all UPVC windows and facades are fed back into in the recycling loop.
The entire life cycle in view
A comprehensive approach is required to assess whether or not a building is sustainable overall. In principle, therefore, all building materials and building elements must be considered, from their manufacture through their use to the end of their life cycle. Added to this are the energy and resources required for construction and ultimately also for demolition. Even for a small, simple building, such a detailed analysis would require enormous effort. It is greatly simplified by the fact that individual balances are already available for most components, for example for the window.
Keep valuable energy in the building
In addition to the manufacture of the window profiles, the insulating effect of the windows is an important aspect of sustainability. This becomes particularly clear when comparing the energy losses of outdated and modern buildings: In the former case, about half of the heat losses are due to the windows, in the latter it is only about one tenth. Replacing old windows with modern windows with their more effective thermal insulation alone is therefore a worthwhile modernization measure that has a noticeable effect on heating requirements.
Added to this are the solar gains - here, the trend towards ever larger elements has a further reinforcing effect. In addition to more daylight, modern, large-area windows and doors also mean more thermal energy, which they retain very effectively in the building. When outside temperatures are cool or cold, they achieve a significant reduction in heating requirements in this way. Excessive heating in summer can be easily prevented with modern shading solutions.