At KR Group Scotland, sustainability has always been at the heart of what we do. Over the past five years, we have dedicated ourselves—alongside providing steel, cladding and sheet metal services for our clients—to developing KRBON Reduction, our circular economy division, with the aim of reducing construction waste and finding innovative ways to repurpose materials.
Repurposing waste cladding panels
Our primary focus has been diverting cladding waste from landfill—deconstructing and repurposing waste cladding panels into sustainable insulation for various applications. Alongside this, we have also worked to repurpose other construction materials, such as wooden pallets, safety nets, and harnesses. Our broader vision was to establish a collection and redistribution centre, accepting construction waste from other businesses, repurposing it, and redistributing it as a new product.
While we have seen success in this venture, after a period of evaluation, we have made the decision to scale back our KRBON Reduction operations. Moving forward, we will no longer accept cladding waste from external businesses and will instead continue to focus on solutions for our own waste.
This decision was not made lightly. The key challenge has been certification and insurance of repurposed cladding—without these, even though our repurposed insulation solutions are safe and offer excellent performance, there is ambiguity over compliance of repurposed products with current building regulations, making them difficult for contractors to adopt. At this stage, our vision is ahead of the market, and we have had to reassess what is achievable today.
The future of KRBON Reduction
However, KRBON Reduction is not going away. We remain committed to sustainability and will continue to find innovative ways to repurpose our own materials while keeping an eye on future opportunities. When the market evolves to better support circular economy initiatives, we will be ready to revisit our broader ambitions.
We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved and hope that our efforts have inspired other businesses to explore sustainable practices. Thank you to everyone who has supported KRBON Reduction—we look forward to continuing our journey towards a more sustainable future and will continue to push innovation in this area.
Visit our dedicated KRBON Reduction website or KRBON Reduction Facebook page to keep up to date with the project.
