The world’s first Cradle to Cradle Certified® HPL? Made by Unilin Panels
12/12/2024
Here’s a headline for the history books: our HPL is officially Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze v4.0! Translation? Our HPL sheets aren’t just easy on the eye – they’re also great for our planet and the people that live on it. And what’s even better? It’s the only HPL in the world to earn this prestigious certification. Proudly made in Belgium!
More than just a badge
Cradle to Cradle Certified® isn’t just another sustainability label – it’s an important step to make all our products as sustainable as possible. This internationally recognised certification assesses five core areas:
- Material health: The raw materials used for our HPL are thoroughly checked for chemicals.
- Product circularity: We look at the full life cycle of our HPL, all the way to the end, and assess it for reuse or recycling without loss of quality.Clean air & climate protection: The solar panels on the roof of our HPL production site in Izegem (Belgium) generate as much green energy as possible.
- Water & soil stewardship: For the production of HPL, we use minimal water and generate no hazardous wastewater.
- Social fairness: We have a zero-harm safety policy in place at all our factories.
Earning Cradle to Cradle Certified® Bronze v4.0 shows that our HPL range (also for doors!) nails every key criteria – pushing the boundaries of sustainable innovation.
Another sustainable win
We’ve been on the Cradle to Cradle journey for a while now, with Bronze already in the bag for our raw and melamine-faced chipboards and Material Health Bronze for our MDF range. Adding HPL feels like a natural next step, but it didn’t come easy. The process to certify HPL was demanding, relying on the expertise and dedication of multiple teams across the organization.
What makes this label particularly valuable is its dynamic nature—it encourages continuous improvement across our organisation and supply chain. It pushes us to innovate and refine our products, ensuring we’re always raising the bar for sustainability.”
- Cristian Delaere, Sustainability manager, Unilin Panels
This milestone perfectly aligns with our broader One Home strategy, which focuses on reducing environmental impact, creating sustainable workplaces and improving the lives of our clients and their customers. The recent certification of our high-quality HPL is certainly not the finish line: it’s a big motivation to keep going!
