AGC Flat Glass Europe

Foreword

AGC Glass Europe is the European branch of AGC Glass, the world's largest producer of flat glass. It currently employs some 13,000 people. Headquartered in Brussels, AGC Glass Europe produces and processes flat glass for the construction industry (external glazing and indoor decorative glass), the automotive industry, solar power and other specialised industries (glazing for ships, railway/subway carriages, domestic appliances and high-tech applications).

Its baseline “Glass Unlimited” reflects the possibilities offered by glass as a material to meet a growing variety of needs (comfort, energy control, health & safety, aesthetics), with innovation in products and processes derived from sustained research in advanced glass technology.

Its environmental concern derives directly from the Vision and Mission set for AGC as a whole: “Look beyond together, to make the world a brighter place.” To create this brightness, AGC Glass Europe relies on four corporate values, namely innovation & operational excellence, diversity, integrity and care for the environment. This clearly challenges the group to create more value beneficial to the environment.
 

Message from the CEO

Today more than ever we have a responsibility to ensure that future generations inherit a world that is developing in a sustainable way. Especially on the issue of climate change, society knows that what we do today affects tomorrow, and that all should take their responsibility now.
I am glad of this opportunity to show that AGC Glass Europe is taking its responsibilities seriously. We have made it our strategy to turn this responsibility into a challenge: a challenge to achieve the best balance between sustainable development and economy, and to make improvements in terms of profitability, comfort and safety, aesthetics and environmental impact.
 

Our environmental policy has a double focus:
- We aim to be at the forefront in developing  new products with better environmental performance during their lifetime, from cradle to cradle.
- We aim to manufacture these products using the best available technologies from the environmental point of view, in order to minimise the environmental impact.

Today 70% of our R&D budget is devoted to sustainable products, solutions and manufacturing.

This environmental policy successfully results both in an environmental (cradle to cradle) certification of products and more widely in a positive carbon footprint, as further explained in this report.

New products with better environmental performance :

We have made significant progress in research and development for new photovoltaic products, and we have introduced several new coatings and coated products with even better thermal and solar control performance, amongst them the TRI coating for triple glazing.
According to the EU-27 Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, a 30% reduction in energy consumption is possible in houses and commercial buildings. Some 30% of this can be achieved by using the right type of glazing in the right situation. Considering this immense potential of glazing in the fight against climate change, we can confidently assert that glass is “part of the solution.”
In the Automotive sector we are constantly developing even better sun reflecting coatings and reducing the weight of windshields in order to make lighter cars with lower CO₂ emissions.
And last but not least, we are making big progress in reducing the environmental impact of product transport. Over the past few years we have made much greater use of multimodal transport, and we are scoring impressive progress in reducing the global ecological footprint of our products. This all demonstrates that we can and will do more.
 

Manufacturing with the best available technologies from the environmental point of view :

In our manufacturing processes we have made important progress in environmental performance. We are constantly improving our Flat Glass production activities by creating solutions for reducing atmospheric emissions and specific energy consumption. EU directives such as the IPPC Directive (2008/1/EC) recently replaced by the IE Directive (2010/75/EU) and the Emissions Trading Directive (2009/29/EC) challenge us to innovate in our manufacturing processes, a challenge we fully incorporate in our strategy.
To me it seems obvious that environmental compliance is not just about obeying the law, it is also about assuming our corporate social responsibility, and about corporate survival. It is about “Look beyond” and the commitment to provide the community with innovative and affordable solutions for combating climate change and protecting the environment in everyday life.

In this Environmental Report we provide more details of the environmental performance of our products and manufacturing processes, as well as our Environmental Management System. We consider it very important for our environmental policy to enjoy the support of our stakeholders (employees, neighbours, authorities and others). That is why we invite you to send your questions or opinions on our report to environment@eu.agc.com. In this spirit of openness, collaboration and information sharing, we will “Look beyond together, to make the world a brighter place.”