Innovation

Vandersanden relies on new solutions that trigger energy transition in the construction industry. They want to be a leader in sustainability and innovation. They distinguish between evolutionary inventions and revolutionary innovations. One of these evolutionary innovations is dematerialization. That is, on the one hand, the brick on 'diet.' The brick is evolving from a depth of 10 centimeters to 7 centimeters. But it doesn't stop there; the further dematerializing transition has resulted in ECO-slips, which have a thickness of 1,8 centimeters. These ECO-brick slips are not cut from full bricks but molded in special molds and fired as slips. This process reduces raw materials and energy and has no material waste.

Yet, innovation is not just about products for Vandersanden. Two years ago, they built a new kiln that reduces CO2 emissions from the entire production process by approximately 25%. The cut in emissions is due to extremely high insulation values, vapor density, and the application of the latest kiln techniques. Ultimately, in the future, they would like to remove the use of gas in the production process altogether.

Thanks to these brick slips and the greening of their production process, Vandersanden is well on the way to producing at least CO2-neutral by 2050 at the latest. Another innovation they are currently working on that will help them achieve that goal is a CO2-negative brick. These bricks have a net-positive impact, meaning that they do not emit CO2 during the production process but - on the contrary - absorb CO2. This is the biggest revolution and radical innovation in terms of sustainability. The method uses 80% recycled materials: carbinox and Stilnox. These are granular (looks like sand) materials, residual streams from steel production. This aligns with SDG 12: Responsible Consumption. When CO2 mixes with this material, a carbonation process makes the fabric hard. Carbonation is the natural process by which Ca-containing materials react with carbon dioxide (CO2) and transform it into calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Calcium carbonate occurs worldwide in the subsurface and forms an essential source of natural CO2 storage. To achieve this innovation, Vandersanden collaborates with Orbix and several other partners in the sector. This partnership is in line with SDG 17: Partnership for goals.

Inspiration

The inspiration for these innovations can be derived from several slogans Vandersanden uses to motivate their purpose, mission, and vision. Vandersanden is an organization that tries to implement sustainable innovation in its production process while maintaining its customer-oriented approach to contribute to society for generations to come. This vision is translated into slogans like ‘We don’t think in years, but in generations and ‘Together we build greatness.’ With these kinds of statements, they want to make clear that they are not only trying to better the current situation but also want to impact the future. Innovations like the ‘ECO-brick slip’ and the CO2 negative brick align with SDGs 9, 12, and 13 and contribute to a durable and responsible production process.

Unlike many other companies, Vandersanden doesn’t refer to profit as a primary goal for the organization. They describe profit as necessary to accomplish their bigger goals regarding innovation and sustainability. One of these bigger goals and their biggest motivation to come up with sustainable innovations is described by Vandersanden as ‘together to zero,’ which refers to their goal to be CO2 neutral by 2050. This means that they have to minimize their footprint to 0 by changing their products and production process using more durable materials and methods.

Overall impact

Vandersanden's newest innovations contribute to their goal to reach the full spectrum of flourishing for everyone involved. First, Vandersanden strives for good health, well-being, and quality education (SDG 3 & 4) for their employees, partners, and local and national communities. This also involves collective well-being. Vandersanden considers both internal and external well-being as necessary. It provides a good learning environment and a safe working environment and facilitates employees to afford a healthy lifestyle. They also have the 'Vandersanden Academy' where external contacts are trained at various levels, and knowledge is exchanged on different subjects.

Another SDG they try to influence is peace, justice, and strong institutions. Especially these strong institutions are something they try to create by communicating with governmental bodies to change regulations and accelerate government decisions. In particular, decisions that slow down the progress to reach the CO2 neutrality goal of 2050.

When we look at the impact of the ECO-brick slips and CO2-negative bricks, the two core values, 'sustainability and innovation,' play a significant role. 'No time to waste' says their collective well-being report of 2021. The ECO-brick slips are 1,8 centimeters instead of 10 centimeters for a traditional brick. This reduces raw materials used by up to 70% and energy consumption by 50% in the process. In the future, they plan to invest in new 'green' slip production methods, further decreasing the energy used for production. Besides ECO-brick slips, they also provide ECO packaging. These are made with at least 30% recycled materials and use 80% less ink. In this way, Vandersanden saves 400,000 kg of CO2 every year.

Business benefit

As previously mentioned, profits are not a goal, or target Vandersanden pursues. They focus on their SDGs, and profits are extra for them. But on the other hand, profits are significant for them because they need those profits to make more meaningful investments to reach their bigger goals. Of course, they also need profits to keep their company financially healthy. When Vandersanden spoke about their innovations, they assured us of their business benefits. Vandersanden only works on their innovations because they know there is a demand for them.

Lately, in the Netherlands and also in Belgium, a lot of houses are being built. Climate changes are also a contemporary topic. So the need for CO2-negative bricks is there. Vandersanden knows if they can produce a CO2-negative brick, it will benefit their business. Vandersanden expects their first CO2-negative factory to be able to produce 25 million bricks every year. That first factory will be opened next year. After that, the intention is to scale up even more by building multiple factories in different countries to achieve deeper and broader market penetration. That means Vandersanden can apply this innovation on a large scale. Thus, it will also have a significant impact.

Altogether that means that this innovation will not only be beneficial for their sales and revenue but will also positively influence their market position and company size. So these innovations bring the company closer to its goals, or as they put it, its promises. That means the inventions are not only financially beneficial to Vandersanden but also beneficial to their image.

Social and environmental benefit

The ECO-brick slips, as well as the CO2-negative bricks, influence multiple sustainable development goals. The most obvious one being SDG 13: Climate Action. This is far from the only one, though. Throughout the last decades, Vandersanden has been trying to implement as many forms of renewable energy as possible. The recent addition of a windmill is one of them. However, a complete energy transition takes time and is a project they will continue to work on.

Another quite evident influence of their newest innovations is described by SDG 11 and 12. Due to their increasingly durable production process and use of residue materials from the steel industry, they rapidly increased their added value to SDG 12, responsible consumption. By creating these ecologically friendly bricks, they are also influencing SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities.

Now let’s take a closer look at the net-positive impact. Their CO2-negative brick reduces global greenhouse gas emissions by 210 kg CO2 per tonne of end product, compared to ceramic facing bricks. More precisely, 60 kg of CO2 that is absorbed and captured from the emissions produced by other industrial processes, and a reduction of 150 kg of CO2 emissions compared to ceramic production.

So we can say that by being active in over 24 different countries and taking into account over half of the sustainable development goals, Vandersanden is doing a great job at bettering the global environment. Not only for a few years but for generations to come.

Interview

Nathali Donatz, Marketing Director