Owens Corning Leads Sustainability Benchmarks in the Building Industry

PHOENIX, Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) will highlight its major strides in sustainability at this year's Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.

Recently ranked by Newsweek as the 56th greenest company of America's 500 largest publicly traded companies, and number one in the building products industry, Owens Corning considers sustainability a core business strategy.

"By delivering on our ongoing commitment of greening our operations, greening our products and advancing energy efficiency, we demonstrate our company's 360-degree approach to sustainability," said Frank O'Brien-Bernini, Owens Corning's chief sustainability officer. "Successful green products attain widespread adoption, perform as required throughout their installed life, are safe, affordable and accessible, and are developed with careful attention to all aspects of their lifecycle, from raw material use to manufacturing through end-of-life."

Greening Operations

• In October, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded Owens Corning the only LEED® Gold-certification for an insulation facility in the United States. The Gresham, Ore., plant manufactures zero ozone-depleting FOAMULAR® extruded polystyrene rigid foam insulation. Electricity at the plant is 100% supplied from renewable sources.
  

Greening Products

• Owens Corning Fiberglas® insulation products now contain a minimum 50 percent certified recycled content, the highest in North America. In addition, Owens Corning's Cultured Stone® and ProStone® brands are the first manufactured stone veneer products to receive third party validation for recycled content. UL Environment(TM) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories, provided the third party testing and validation for a minimum 35 percent recycled content.
• The Owens Corning Roofing business last week announced a new program for its Preferred Roofing Contractors that simplifies recycling asphalt shingles. The company is the first roofing manufacturer to connect contractors with convenient recycling facilities through a national strategic alliance with Heritage Environmental Services.
  

Accelerating Energy Efficiency

• Also in October, Owens Corning Construction Services introduced Innovision(TM) fiberglass windows. Developed to meet the demands of extreme environments, Innovision windows deliver energy efficiency and durability, key tenets of sustainability.
• The company also recently announced that its new EnergyComplete(TM) Insulation and Air Sealing System has been approved under the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center's Green Approved products seal of approval. The Green Approved mark indicates third-party documentation and approval by the Research Center that a building product contributes to compliance of specific green practices for a home's certification to the National Green Building Standard.(1) The EnergyComplete system dramatically reduces air infiltration and advances energy efficiency with a safe and affordable solution.
  

Sustainability at Owens Corning

Owens Corning constantly seeks solutions that carry economic, environmental and social benefits. This approach to business energizes its people, creates growth opportunities for its customers and drives value for its stakeholders. For more information about Owens Corning's sustainability programs or to see the latest edition of its sustainability report, go to http://www.owenscorning.com/sustainability/ .

About Owens Corning

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is a leading global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass-fiber reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems. A Fortune 500 company for 55 consecutive years, Owens Corning is committed to driving sustainability through delivering solutions, transforming markets and enhancing lives. Founded in 1938, Owens Corning is a market-leading innovator of glass-fiber technology with sales of $6 billion in 2008 and about 16,000 employees in 30 countries on five continents. Additional information is available at www.owenscorning.com.

(1) Details on the attributes that have been Green Approved are available at www.GreenApprovedProducts.com.

SOURCE Owens Corning