Man in high-viz vest in front of forklift

Our 2030 roadmap and progress so far

Since launching our sustainability strategy in 2021, we have been working to improve environmental outcomes, drive innovation, and create positive social impact across our business.

Between 2021 and 2025, we completed 20 of 28 of our sustainability milestones. Work continues on the remaining eight milestones, while progress against our global sustainability programme remains positive across climate, biodiversity, resource efficiency, and social impact priorities.

This page provides an overview of what we have achieved so far, where challenges remain and how we are continuing to move forward.

Explore our Sustainability Strategy

View our 2030 ambitions

Our progress so far

Our original roadmap contained 28 milestones to be delivered between 2021 and 2025. Many have now been completed, including work to reduce emissions, implement on-site biodiversity enhancements, expand training opportunities, create a diversity and inclusion action plan, and develop sustainability-led innovation programmes.

2021

Confirmed our baseline for Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Published our UK biodiversity strategy
Founded Project Tomorrow, our low-carbon product and service innovation workstream
Enhanced our Category Marketing team to focus on innovation and market opportunities
Established an Apprentice Academy
Published Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
Continued promotion of our Employee Assistance Programme to support employees' physical and mental health

2022

Set our baseline for Scope 3 GHG emissions
Set our baseline for natural resource consumption
Established lifecycle assessment datasets
Published our Social Value Statement

2023

Reduced our CO₂ emissions by 15% from a 2020 baseline
Biodiversity Action Plans in place at all sites
Revised our natural resource management strategy with new targets for water conservation and waste reduction
Increased training hours by 10% per employee from a 2020 baseline
30% females in white-collar positions
15% females in Senior Leadership Team at Wienerberger Limited
Donated 200 housing units per year for people in need
Quantified our social value contribution and set goals for 2030

2025

Added fully electric cars to our company car fleet

Explore2027-2029

Milestones not completed

Not every milestone was completed within its original timeframe.

In some areas, reporting requirements changed. In others, technical, operational or market challenges meant further work was needed. We believe transparency is important, so we are sharing an update on the milestones that remain in progress and the actions underway to address them.

Since we published our sustainability roadmap in 2021, the terminology used to describe net-zero carbon emissions has evolved. It is now best practice to talk about emissions from all three categories (scopes 1, 2 and 3), when setting net-zero carbon emissions targets. Therefore, in this refreshed roadmap to 2030, wienerberger UK & Ireland has adapted the language used to describe our intention to transition away from fossil-fuelled factories. Our milestones now say: “using renewable energy only in production”.

In spirit of achieving this milestone, we were delighted to formally open a state-of-the-art concrete roof tile factory in Sittingbourne in 2025. This factory utilises electric Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) instead of traditional oil-fuelled curing chambers and the site is powered by solar panels on the factory roof, supplemented with a deep green electricity contract. Therefore, this site uses renewable energy only in production.

Most factories have now transitioned from diesel-fuelled forklift trucks to electric forklift trucks. There is one factory where electric forklift trucks cannot be adopted in the stock yard, which prevented us from achieving this milestone by 2025, however we intend to transition these forklifts to use hydrogen fuel instead. We intend to complete the transition away from diesel-fuelled forklift trucks and have them run on renewable energy sources across all factories by 2028.

We did not complete this milestone in 2025, however work is ongoing to research practical deconstruction techniques for our product categories and we intend to publish this guidance in future.

We understand the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of having diverse teams at wienerberger, however our action has fallen short of our ambition on this agenda. To date, we have published our DE&I Policy and agreed a DE&I Action Plan.

As wienerberger UK & Ireland has acquired several companies during the first phase of our sustainability roadmap, work is ongoing to align our HR systems and procedures to facilitate the completion of these milestones in future.

Across our global portfolio, 99.3% of our products were reusable or recyclable in 2023.

In the UK & Ireland, wienerberger’s product portfolio diversified to include some electronics such as solar panels, batteries, and inverters. At present the infrastructure to recycle these products is limited across Europe, but we are exploring partnerships to facilitate the recyclability of products that do not currently meet these criteria.

We are committed to continue working on this milestone, because our supply chain will help us reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Some success stories so far include:

Logistics partnerships across land and sea freight. Read more about HGV load optimisation and HVO-powered vehicles.
Diverting factory waste from landfill and incineration.
Raw material testing and innovation.

Our procurement, logistics and operations teams worked diligently to assess why and how plastic packaging was applied to our brick and roof tile packs. We implemented changes to plastic packaging thickness and hood length, which resulted in a 21% decrease in plastic packaging by 2023. We felt this was the upper limit we could achieve in the short term, because we refused to compromise on two aspects of plastic packaging performance: health and safety (brick/roof tile pack stability) and product quality (damage protection in transit).

Further reductions in plastic packaging are possible with significant investments to our factory packaging lines and customer collaboration to effectively store and manage brick and roof tile products on construction sites.

What’s next on our roadmap to 2030?

Since publishing our sustainability strategy in 2021, the sustainability agenda has evolved at pace. New reporting standards have emerged, definitions have changed and expectations across the construction industry have increased. In response, we have refreshed our roadmap to reflect our evolving commitments across our wall, roof, water and heating product categories and operations throughout the UK & Ireland.

The milestones set out for 2027-2029 build on the progress made during the first phase of our sustainability roadmap and will help us achieve our ambitions for 2030. Focused on decarbonisation, biodiversity, resource efficiency, innovation, and social impact, they are designed to support both our own sustainability goals and those of our customers.

2027 milestones

By the end of 2027, we aim to:

Establish a second concrete roof tile factory using renewable energy only in production.
Demonstrate that an average Biodiversity Net Gain of 7% has been achieved or is in progress across our land assets, compared with a 2022 baseline.
Establish circular economy solutions for plastic and wood packaging materials.
Achieve 40% female representation within professional services roles and 15% female representation within operational roles.
Implement Operation Clean Sweep at all factories handling plastic pellets.
Launch volunteering time across the UK & Ireland region.
Begin using low embodied carbon cement at our concrete roof tile factories.
Expand our technical specification offer to help customers achieve the Future Homes Standard.

2028 milestones

By the end of 2028, we aim to:

Achieve an average of at least 50% recycled content in plastic packaging purchased by our UK & Ireland factories.
Create sustainability-themed CPD training for our customers and colleagues.
Train at least 50 STEM Ambassadors across the UK & Ireland region.
Facilitate improvements to EPC numerical scores in more than 25,000 homes through RoofSpec+ specifications between 2025 and 2028.

2029 milestones

By the end of 2029, we aim to:

Empower customers with data-driven insights for retrofit through a combination of events and publications.
Define a product range that supports climate adaptation and resilience.
Transform two kilns to fire bricks using hydrogen.
Install solar panels and/or wind turbines at three or more factories across the UK & Ireland region.

Looking ahead

These milestones reflect the next phase of our sustainability roadmap. They build on the progress made between 2021 and 2025 and focus on the areas where we can create the greatest long-term impact. By achieving these milestones, we will be in a good position to fulfil our ambitions for 2030.

Man working with long blue pipes from Pipelife

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Our 2030 roadmap and progress so far

Milestones not completed

First net-zero concrete tile factory (Scope 1 & 2) (2025 target)

Complete transition to electric forklift trucks (2025 target)

Publish customer deconstruction & reuse guidance for each product category (2025 target)

Publish action plans to increase community representation (2022 target) and undertake ethnicity pay gap reporting (2025 target)

100% of new products will be designed in a way that they are reusable or recyclable (2023 target)

Facilitate CO₂ emissions reductions, via contracting and engagement with key suppliers (2023)

Continue phased reduction in plastic packaging, target 30% less by 2023 compared to 2019 levels