Employee Q&A: Building a Circular Business in Europe

Our people making a difference is a series featured throughout Owens Corning’s 2023 Sustainability Report.

With over 25 years’ experience in environmental management, circularity, decarbonization, and policy, Petra Inghelbrecht brings a wealth of insight to Owens Corning. She has unique insights into sustainability on a global level — the large brands driving trends, the push for increased legislation in the region, and the spread from Europe into other regions around the world. Petra shares some of her insights here, and offers her perspective on our approach to building a circular economy.

On the need to rethink our approach to waste 

Waste needs to become a raw material. If you do that, you can really grow without being that dependent on your resources. There is a sustainability element to this, but also a bit of a strategic element, because we cannot keep mining and extracting our raw materials. In Europe, we’re at that stage where this is what the markets expect from us. Circular business models also allow us to work in closed loop systems with our customers and value chain. If we take back waste and bring it back as recycled content in our product, we are working in a closed loop, which is good from a sustainability point of view, but also very strategic because we are working with customers, making us both stronger — this is the double win on circularity.

On what set Owens Corning apart in circularity 

First of all, there’s a strong, innovative, technology-driven focus here, in combination with a marketdriven approach. We work with our customers and value chains to see things from their perspective. We understand the markets and the regulations, and this is the basis for the strategies we set.

Secondly, we are an innovative company that is really agile, enabling us to develop, test, and implement new things, and this combination is quite powerful. It’s a collaboration across teams and businesses with a lot of interaction and overlap, and we are progressing extremely well. The team is really enthusiastic, and I’m amazed by the level of engagement I see in the people. They’re really growing in their leadership and pushing it further. This is really a positive dynamic I see in Owens Corning and circularity, and I really like that a lot.

On the need for an integrated strategy for sustainability 

Circularity is not one solution fits all. You need to be circular and decarbonize and reduce environmental impacts. This is an important thing about circularity — it’s about winning together. We provide solutions for customers’ waste and we give it back as a solution for them. We are first focusing on our customer’s waste, where our customers win and our end markets win — and we are an essential part of that chain. We need to do it together. On circularity, it’s not only internal with Owens Corning. It’s really about collaborating across the value chain, with customers, recyclers, transporters, and end-markets. Together, we can create a positive impact on the market.