Sustainability Case Studies

Discover how a new heat recovery system recovers waste heat from tunnel kiln exhaust gas and reuses it to preheat the combustion air and drying chamber air, helping us reduce carbon emissions by more than 700 tonnes per year.

Wienerberger UK aims to use 30% less plastic packaging by 2023, compared to 2019 levels. Read how we're reviewing packaging configurations as part of our ongoing sustainability strategy.

Wienerberger is moving its company car fleet to electric vehicles and providing electric vehicle (EV) charging points at all UK factories and offices. The change is expected to reduce business travel emissions by 500 tonnes of CO2e per year when complete.

Discover how our partner Powerstar helped us reduce electricity consumption and improve reliability at our brick factory in Hartlebury, allowing us to save 8% electricity a year.

Wienerberger UK partnered with British Steel, Heatcatcher Limited and Low Carbon Europe Limited in a knowledge exchange project, co-ordinated by The Materials Processing Institute, to identify opportunities to cut carbon emissions.

In 2021 Wienerberger Sandtoft and Goxhill returned over 800 intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) to the Schütz Ticket Service, helping conserve natural resources through reconditioning and material recycling.

Discover how Wienerberger's Sandtoft factory reduced CO2 emissions from its mobile plant by 90%. All mobile plant at Wienerberger’s concrete roof tile site Sandtoft now run on Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO), reducing the Sandtoft site’s carbon emissions by 200 tonnes (CO2e) per year.

Wienerberger's marketing team spent a day helping to create a green space as part of the 100 Trees Club, a charitable tree planting initiative through City of Trees, tackling the climate emergency head on by restoring woodlands for the people and wildlife of Greater Manchester. 

Safeguarding Our Planet
Category: Protecting Biodiversity
Location: Sandtoft, Doncaster

As part of the Sandtoft site's Biodiversity Enhancement Management Plan (BEMP), a wildflower meadow has been planted to create a pleasant outdoor area for employees that attracts birds and insects. Over 150 native plugs were planted and wildflowers sown, including wild thyme, betony and corn marigold. EcoSurv will manage ongoing maintenance of the meadow.

Safeguarding Our Plant
Category: Protecting Biodiversity
Location: Broomfleet, Yorkshire

A team of Wienerberger employees worked with our partners at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to create habitats in which bird and insect life could thrive. The team-building activity saw volunteers plant new hedgerows and trees at the Broomfleet site in Yorkshire.

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Ewhurst, Surrey

In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 Wienerberger’s Ewhurst factory has opened its doors to the public for Heritage Open Day (a day run by the National Trust as England’s contribution to the European Heritage Festival). Visitors were offered educational guided tours of Ewhurst’s brick and tile factory and could get a behind-the-scenes look at the work of our highly skilled Heritage Services team.

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire

The Hull UK City of Culture 2017 team joined forces with Wienerberger and the No Limits learning programme to develop The Sixteen Thousand project. Wienerberger donated 16 tonnes of unfired clay bricks to 151 nursery schools across Hull, provided children with tutorials in clay carving, then fired the 16,000 bricks at Wienerberger’s Broomfleet factory. The individually carved bricks formed a public art exhibition at C4Di building at Hull Marina. 

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Ewhurst, Surrey

In 2016, Wienerberger was approached by an infant school close to our Ewhurst factory, requesting assistance to replace an old wooden classroom called the Miller Hut. Therefore, we donated 6,000 bricks and roof tiles, namely our Olde Alton Yellow Multi brick and Traditional Elizabethan Keymer roof tiles for the project. The new building not only provides extra teaching space but enables the school to run a breakfast and after-school club. 

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Newport, East Riding of Yorkshire

After staff at our Broomfleet factory visited the Newport students to describe how roof tiles were made and to explain the importance of saving energy in the manufacturing process, students were then invited to help encourage Broomfleet staff to save energy by creating colourful posters. The students produced fantastic eye-catching posters and as a thank you Ian Martinson, Broomfleet’s talented in-house sculptor, ran a special clay model-making workshop for them. 

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Cranleigh, Surrey

Wienerberger donated 7,680 Atlas UWF Tumbled clay pavers to a garden project at Snoxhall Fields in Cranleigh, which commemorated the First World War centenary. This area originally served as a convalescent centre for those wounded in the war as it was located adjacent to Oaklands Military Hospital. After its transformation, this outdoor space opened in November 2018, in time for the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice in 1918.

Moving forward together
Category: Our Communities
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside

Over four years, Wienerberger worked with housing charity Housing People Building Communities. Wienerberger donated 17,000 roof tiles, over 1,800 square metres of roof felt, around 10,000 engineering bricks and 88,000 pavers. These materials have been used as essential resources in the design and development of homes that help to create thriving communities. In total Wienerberger’s support saved the not-for-profit approximately £43,000, helping to make the dream of owning a home a reality for so many.

Safeguarding our planet
Category: Biodiversity Promotion
Location: Orchard Farm, Kent

Brick clay extraction from the Orchard Farm site began in 2016, with an annual clay quarrying campaign scheduled each summer season for a period of 6 years. Given the relatively short lifespan of this clay quarry, Wienerberger designed the site layout to minimise disturbance to wildlife, and to enable species to recolonise the area swiftly after phased quarrying operations are completed. 

Safeguarding our planet
Category: Resource Conservation
Location: Mouselow Quarry, Derbyshire

The shale extracted from Mouselow Quarry is used for brickmaking at Wienerberger’s Denton factory, however between the shale layers is a band of sandstone which, although unsuitable for use in brick manufacturing, is ideal for architectural stonework projects. Wienerberger has partnered with Booth Ventures which quarries and processes the sandstone to ensure no useable material from Mouselow Quarry is wasted.