At VELUX, we like to think of ourselves as more than just a skylight company. We want to make the world a better place by opening it up to more daylight and fresh air. That's why when it comes to our skylight production and overall sustainability, we aim to lead the way in energy-efficient daylighting.
VELUX has always been one of the world's biggest proponents of daylight and fresh air. Now, we're taking things up a notch with our Sustainability Strategy 2030 and our commitment to becoming Lifetime Carbon Neutral.
Together with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International, we are capturing our historical CO2 emissions through forest conservation. We've also pledged to reduce our future carbon emissions from our entire value chain, which is in line with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C reduction target. By 2030, we commit to halving our products' CO2 emissions and making our packaging single material, zero plastic, and 100% recyclable. By 2041, VELUX's 100th birthday, we commit to being Lifetime Carbon Neutral by capturing 100 years of CO2 emissions and reducing our future carbon footprint. By investing in forest conservation projects from 2020-2041 and working to reduce our production carbon footprint, we expect to meet this commitment.
When it comes to our skylights and the materials used to make them, we believe it matters where they come from and it matters where they end up. That's why, during all the phases of the production process, we focus on minimizing our environmental impact.
We start with the most environmentally friendly materials, striving to find suppliers who can provide raw materials that comply with our high standards and focus on sustainability. Part of this ongoing process is ensuring that all materials used are produced in a safe and responsible manner, while being resource-efficient and recyclable or reusable at the end of their lifetime. The process also includes:
We take responsibility for safe production of skylights. At all our manufacturing sites, we carefully manage the environmental footprint of our activities. A couple examples of how we're doing this include increasing the capacity of new wood-chip bio-boilers and solar panel systems. And currently, 97% of waste materials from production of VELUX skylights are recycled or used for heat generation; but our vision is to achieve zero waste in our production and from our products with a reduce, reuse, and recycle mindset.
Safety and responsibility are also an integrated part of our business activities. All of our manufacturing and warehouse sites are ISO 14001 environmental management certified and ISO 45001 occupational health and safety certified. Our continuous focus and efforts in this area can be seen in our production safety record, which is around five times better than industry average.
Because so much of our time (90%) is spent inside, indoor air quality is of utmost importance. Because skylights can be such an important factor in ensuring good indoor air quality through natural ventilation, VELUX makes sure our skylights are built to last.
Because waste handling varies from state to state, and even municipality to municipality, all VELUX products are designed for easy disassembly and are made from easily recyclable materials. In fact, over 92.5% of our wooden roof windows can be recycled.
Through Project Lifetime Carbon Neutral and our pioneering of sustainable products, VELUX is doing everything we can on our side to make our skylights as energy-efficient as possible, from production to installation. One way you can do your part to ensure energy-efficient skylights after installation is to Go Solar!
To Go Solar with VELUX, all you have to do is opt for a solar-powered product! That may be our Solar Powered "Fresh Air" Skylight, a fixed or manual skylight with solar-powered blinds, or a Sun Tunnel Skylight with Solar Night Light.
Our most energy-efficient Go Solar option is the Solar Powered "Fresh Air" Skylight with solar-powered blinds and VELUX ACTIVE with NETATMO. The solar skylight is powered by the sun, so there's no need to use any electricity. And the solar-powered blinds provide additional light-filtering and blackout options to help keep your room from getting too hot and needing to run the air conditioner. Lastly, VELUX ACTIVE allows you to automate the entire process of whole-home airing and natural ventilation. Based on your temperature and humidity preferences, VELUX ACTIVE will open or close your skylights and blinds to help create a more naturally energy-efficient environment.