Low-Carbon Aluminum: Ensuring Sustainability in Architecture

Durable and versatile, aluminum delivers longevity along with a wide range of design and finish options offering architects creative freedom. Aluminum’s high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and formability also provide key advantages over alternative materials.

In a world with only a 7.2% circular economy, aluminum is an exception and enables circularity with its long service life and full recyclability. In fact, almost 75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use. *

Aluminum is considered a crucial material in the transition to a decarbonized economy in architecture and construction. Given its properties including full recyclability, global demand for aluminum is projected to increase by 50% by 2050 compared to 2020. **

In this article, we discuss why aluminum is the material of choice for commercial framing systems.

Bringing the Benefits of BALANCE

Kawneer is passionate about supporting architects, designers and glaziers in meeting their sustainability goals. Our BALANCE philosophy of holistic sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, as we focus on mindfully balancing our business strategy with our business responsibilities. BALANCE represents a clear and conscientious approach to design, engineering and manufacturing in the aluminum building products industry. We offer total product ingredient transparency along with ethical sourcing, from aluminum billet to building facade, providing key information on our products and how they are manufactured.

We provide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for all our products and offer International Living Future’s Red List Free product solutions. We are also dedicated to expanding our portfolio of Cradle to Cradle certified product offering, as we believe this certification fully encompasses the holistic sustainability of a product for its entire lifecycle.

Pairing low-embodied carbon aluminum with an ultra-thermal framing system helps to lower a building’s entire life cycle impact with lower embodied, reduced operational carbon and end-of-life recycling capabilities. This approach enhances sustainability through a life cycle approach and contributing to a more circular economy.

Low-Carbon Billet, High Priority

At Kawneer, we are committed to making a positive impact on projects and the future of green building. In terms of sustainability, one of our strengths is our chosen material of aluminum, which is corrosion resistant and can be recycled infinitely.

However, not all aluminum is equal. When selecting architectural aluminum products, architects, specifiers and contractors must understand that the phrase “low-carbon aluminum” extends beyond merely assessing the volume of recycled content. The emissions intensity of aluminum (Al) can range from approximately 0.3 to 25tCO2e/tAl because of differences between production processes, technology and the sources of energy. Closer analysis is needed to ensure the most sustainable products on the market is being selected. Recycled content does not provide the complete picture of the embodied carbon of aluminum.

At Kawneer, we not only use billets with a minimum of 50% recycled content and remaining primary aluminum from hydroelectric (or clean energy sourced) smelters in the production of our products but also ensure our production waste is fully recycled to be reused.

Infinite Recyclability, Multiple Possibilities

As the pioneering leader in architectural systems since 1906, Kawneer continues to set the standards not only in product offering but also in sustainability. For architectural aluminum systems that deliver sustainable, cost-effective performance suitable for a variety of applications, Kawneer is the market leader. Learn more about our commitment to holistic sustainability through BALANCE.