Cradle to Cradle Certified® acoustic panels based on FUTURECEM™

Innovation overview and development

An overview of the sustainable innovation
Since 1935, Troldtekt has been producing acoustic panels made of red spruce and cement. The panels for ceilings and walls contribute to a healthy indoor climate in schools, offices, restaurants, swimming pools, homes and most other types of architecture. Troldtekt has now launched acoustic panels based on the cement type FUTURECEM.

The special feature of FUTURECEM is that the carbon footprint is 30 per cent lower than that of the traditional cement used in all Troldtekt products. Troldtekt’s environmental product declarations (EPDs) document that Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM has a carbon footprint over the entire product life cycle, which is:

• 26 per cent lower than for Troldtekt based on grey cement
• 38 per cent lower than for Troldtekt based on white cement.

The cement in Troldtekt cement-bonded wood wool ensures the strength, durability and effective fire protection of the acoustic panels without the addition of harmful chemicals. But the cement also accounts for virtually the entire carbon footprint of the acoustic panels.

Therefore, it is groundbreaking that customers can now choose Troldtekt based on the cement type FUTURECEM. The solution benefits both the climate and preserves all the well-known advantages of Troldtekt acoustic panels – including the Cradle to Cradle Certified Certification that Troldtekt products have had for more than a decade.

Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM is available in several variants – including the series of award-winning design solutions – for British architects, contractors and developers via Troldtekt’s department in the UK & Ireland.

How the innovation was developed, including effective collaboration, knowledge transfer and partnership along the project team
FUTURECEM is a new, patented cement type from cement manufacturer Aalborg Portland, which has been a close partner to Troldtekt since 1935.

Production of cement is energy intensive. Not least the process in which chalk and sand sludge is dried and burned at up to 1,500 degrees in the cement kilns.

FUTURECEM utilises the synergy between calcined clay and lime filler, and in this way a large part of the burnt clinker in cement production can be replaced, while the cement retains a strength like traditional cement. At a global level, there are enormous deposits of both clay and lime, so the raw materials are available.

The production of Troldtekt acoustic panels takes place at our factory in Denmark, where we use the latest robot technology to plane debarked wood trunks into fine wood wool and mix it with cement from Aalborg Portland. The close partnership and ongoing dialogue with Aalborg Portland also meant that we were among the first companies to produce test products based on the new FUTURECEM.

Because we produce several million acoustic panels each year, we were able to carry out large-scale tests quite quickly, and we produced a test batch using 40 tonnes of FUTURECEM. This gave us a good basis for assessing the uniformity and quality of the panels, so that we could launch the first variants on the market relatively quickly.

The use of new technologies, processes products or techniques or novel uses of existing ones – ie. turning them in into commercially successful ideas
At Troldtekt, we have been working strategically with the Cradle to Cradle Certified design concept for more than a decade, and today the entire range of Troldtekt acoustic panels (in natural wood and standard colors) is certified at Gold level. The certification also applies to Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM.

As part of our strategic work with Cradle to Cradle Certified, we have transformed, refined and streamlined our production. Therefore, it is significantly more environmentally friendly than before. Today, 97.7 percent of the energy for production, including process heat, comes from renewable sources (wind power and biofuels).

During the period 2017–2021, when we started investing more in technology, we reduced energy consumption by 29.2 per cent per acoustic panel produced. Among other things, this was the result of new, highly efficient drying ovens that we use to dry the acoustic panels.

We have been able to transfer our technological and sustainability achievements 1:1 to our products based on FUTURECEM. We have also been able to implement FUTURECEM in the production of our design solutions, which makes it possible to choose acoustic panels with elegant grooves or characterful patterns milled into the surface.

The high demand for Troldtekt variants based on FUTURECEM means that by the end of 2023, we will be phasing out the grey cement completely and replacing it with FUTURECEM. It’s a commercial success!

How does the innovation provide a more environmentally friendly approach for the industry
Construction accounts for 30–40 per cent of both CO2 emissions and the amount of waste in society. Therefore, there is a need for building materials that emit less CO2 during production, which have a long service life so that they can “live on” in transformed buildings – and which can be included in new cycles at the end of their life.

As a typical Northern European spends 80–90 per cent of the time indoors, it is also crucial that the materials contribute to a healthy indoor climate without harmful chemicals.

These are the challenges that Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM contributes solving in the following ways:

• We have launched a product that, over its entire life cycle, has a carbon footprint that is 26 per cent lower than for Troldtekt based on grey cement and 38 per cent lower than for Troldtekt based on white cement.

• The product is Cradle to Cradle Certified at Gold level – even with the highest award, platinum, in the category of material health.

• We produce energy-efficiently and with renewable energy as described above.

• We are working on ways to increase recycling of end-of-life products so that they can return to a technical cycle. Cut-offs from the production of Troldtekt acoustic panels are already being recycled in cement production at Aalborg Portland.

• We offer a cement-based product with natural strength, high moisture tolerance, effective fire protection without harmful chemicals and with a service life of at least 50–70 years.

• All the wood, which is the other raw material in the panels, comes from local forests that are certified according to leading standards for responsible forestry (FSC® C115450 and PEFC/09-31-030).

How does the innovation provide an improvement in social value
As described above, Troldtekt acoustic panels are produced using responsibly sourced wood and cement from Aalborg Portland. Both the forests and cement production are within a radius of just a few hundred kilometres from our factory. This helps to ensure a high level of security of supply, which our customers benefited greatly from during the COVID pandemic, for example. This also means that the carbon footprint from raw material transport is low and that we contribute to creating local jobs.

The development of Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM is the result of a close dialogue with representatives from both the market and society, including architects, developers and their users, as well as NGOs and forums with a focus on creating healthy buildings in a circular economy.

At Troldtekt, our philosophy is that healthy building must be accessible to as wide a user group as possible. It also applies to the new Troldtekt panels based on FUTURECEM.

This means that we offer a product that has a low total cost of ownership compared to many other acoustic solutions. Therefore, Troldtekt is often chosen in for example social housing, public schools, care homes and institutions, where the budget can be limited – but where healthy surroundings with good acoustics are particularly important.

One thing is that construction accounts for up to 40 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions and resource consumption. Another is that a typical citizen in Northern Europe spends 80–90 percent of their time indoors.

Therefore, it is crucial that efforts to design buildings with sustainability in mind do not come at the expense of a healthy indoor climate. In the pursuit of energy optimisation, buildings must still be healthy, inclusive and comfortable for people to live in. The new Troldtekt panels fit into this agenda.

How does this innovation influence future specifications to improve sustainability
Cement plays a major role in the construction industry because it provides strength, durability and fire safety without the use of harmful chemicals. These advantages are currently difficult to achieve with other binders. The dilemma is that cement production traditionally emits large amounts of CO2.

We hope and believe that Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM can serve as inspiration for other manufacturers of cement-based building materials. It is possible to significantly improve a product’s CO2 footprint and make it a positive business case – even in a very large-scale production like Troldtekt’s, which runs around the clock.

We place great emphasis on transparency and documentation in our innovation, which is why we have also prepared separate environmental product declarations (EPDs) for the various Troldtekt products based on FUTURECEM. The environmental footprint throughout the acoustic panels’ life cycle is described in the EPDs.

With Troldtekt based on FUTURECEM, we reduce our environmental footprint. We find that with our highly visible Cradle to Cradle Certified certification of both this and our other products, we are a role model for others in the industry. That’s good news! Because the more players in the construction industry that work purposefully with sustainability initiatives on a voluntary basis, the less likely it is that we will see very rigid legislation in this area.