• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Energy Efficiency

    Saint-Gobain achieves Carbon-Zero milestone using Recycling and Biogas at Glass Plant

    May 18, 2022
    The manufacturing process involved the use of 100% cullet from end-of-life glass collected from demolition sites and production offcuts. The furnace's technical parameters were adjusted to operating with 100% biogas and 100% recycled materials
    Image credit Gilles Trillard/Saint-Gobain
    Saint Gobain 62850367a9112

    Saint-Gobain achieved the zero-carbon production of flat glass by using 100% recycled glass (cullet) and 100% green energy from biogas and decarbonized electricity.

    The flat glass was produced at Saint-Gobain's manufacturing plant in Aniche, northern France. The firm leveraged its network of partners to produce the zero-carbon glass.

    The manufacturing process involved the use of 100% cullet from end-of-life glass collected from demolition sites and production offcuts. The furnace's technical parameters were adjusted to the challenge of operating with 100% biogas and 100% recycled material, while maintaining the appropriate optical quality of the glass.

    The achievement aligns with the firm’s commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

    Last year, Saint-Gobain announced an investment to build the world’s first carbon neutral plasterboard plant in Norway.

    The company has a presence in more than 75 countries, producing materials for the industrial and construction industries. Saint-Gobain employs more than 166,000 employees.

    In 2015, it sets its first ambitious environmental targets of 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions and 80 percent reduction in water discharges. Two years ago, Saint-Gobain announces its target of carbon neutrality.

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

    Email