An insight into our new generation with Isabelle Fabbro
Isabelle Fabbro was born in Montélimar, South of France. After her studies at the university of Montpellier she gained a lot of experience in the areas of product management, marketing direction and brand development. Today she is managing the R&D and Product Management for Hydro Building Systems, across the Polish, Belgium, French and German teams.
What does sustainability mean to you?
WICONA is setting standards for tomorrow and fight for greater sustainability across all areas of the business. It’s not just about Product Development. It’s about running the whole company in a sustainable way from paperless facilities to encouraging green thinking at every opportunity. Recruiting people with a sustainable mindset and supporting community projects that contribute to making society more mindful and greener in general – we’re always striving to do better.
Build beyond tomorrow
As an industry leader and part of the Hydro group, WICONA’s sustainability strategy, BUILD BEYOND TOMORROW, focuses on cutting carbon emissions by half by 2025, striving towards 100% circularity and empowering 10,000 people with education and skills in the same year, in line with the UN Sustainability Goals. We go beyond world-class low-carbon aluminium and recycled materials, to run every part of our business as sustainably as possible.
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How are you making WICONA products more sustainable?
Right now, we’re creating a new generation of WICONA products. Every product in our range is being reviewed and updated with circularity and whole life carbon in mind. From the raw materials we use, our production process (and those of our suppliers and installers) to how our products can contribute to reducing carbon emissions at the use phase, end of life and beyond.
Future-proofing for tomorrow’s building and sustainability standards, NEW GENERATION (NG) aluminium systems from WICONA are not only sustainable, but also provide a comfortable, safe and secure environment for the people who use the buildings.
What green building certification schemes are you working to meet?
Building owners, investors and tenants are looking at sustainability credentials more and more at both a European and international level. And we’re working to ensure WICONA products meet the requirements of certification schemes including the DGNB seal of quality for Germany, Passive House, the Minergie standard for Switzerland and LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design operated by USGBC.
Future-proofing for tomorrow’s building and sustainability standards, NEW GENERATION (NG) aluminium systems from WICONA are not only sustainable, but also provide a comfortable, safe and secure environment for the people who use the buildings.
In your opinion, what are the advantages of the NEW GENERATION products?
The New Generation products benefit from some great features such as their recyclability and dismantlability. Their ability to be bent, shaped and punched provides architects, designers and engineers with endless opportunity to create exactly what they envision.
Are there any challenges involved with adapting to NEW GENERATION products?
Our products are not only made from aluminum, 15% of each product comprises non-aluminum components such as polyamide and glue, amongst others. This means that sustainability is the biggest challenge, as we have a commitment to ensure that all components used are sourced sustainably. Finding the right supply chain partner to make the components sustainable is key.
GOING BEYOND MATERIALS
We, at WICONA, feel the responsibility to take care, considering the whole lifecycle of a building. Therefore, our product development focuses on using recycled content and making systems recyclable at end of life. Right now, WICONA uses low carbon, circular aluminium Hydro CIRCAL – produced with a minimum of 75% of recycled post-consumer scrap - with its systems also containing 95% recyclable content.
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What are the next steps and when will all WICONA products be adapted to the NEW GENERATION format?
The goal is to complete within two to three years, depending on the country. Products are being adapted continuously - facades, windows and doors – and we hope to have everything done by 2024. The goal is to lower the CO2 for the entire product range and the company as a whole, producing using renewable energy. It’s an exciting time.
To return to the NEW GENERATION landing page, please click on the following link: www.wicona.com/new-generation
