As 2021 draws to a close, we look back on a challenging, yet successful year for KORE. Covid health and safety continued to be our focus, ensuring our employees and customers were safe while working hard to deliver sustainable, high-performing, innovative solutions to the market. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our hard-working and dedicated employees who helped us triumph through the year, as well as our supportive and loyal installers who partnered with us to bring quality products and services to the construction industry. Let’s take a look at some of our highlights and proud moments:
In November 2021, KORE picked up the award for SME: Exemplary Energy Performance. We are delighted to be recognised nationally for our efforts in energy efficiency and sustainability in our own production facility and office. Over the past five years we have implemented many energy efficiency measures including renewable energy solutions, upgraded machinery, and electric vehicles, as well as introducing strategies and policies to help us achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Find out more about our win, and our hope for the future on the SEAI 180 Degrees Podcast.
New Machinery Adds Capacity for KORE
In 2021, we continued our efforts in upgrading machinery and adding new equipment. We installed a new expander for the production of our high-quality expanded polystyrene, as well as 6 new silos to hold triple the capacity.
Installing a new contour cutter allows more accuracy when producing individual pieces for KORE’s Insulated Foundation System and KORE Void Formers.
As KORE responds to the demand in the construction market, these new additions, as well as the 2020 installation of a new block mould, will see our EPS output more than double.
KORE Welcomes New Employees
KORE welcomed 18 new employees in 2021. The new additions are working in various departments including operations, technical, sales, marketing, and retrofit.
At KORE our team members are our family, and as a growing company, we take pride in hiring people who share the same vision of the future as us, and who will strive to make a difference.
We plan on expanding the team in 2022, and look forward to working with more talented people.
KORE’s Insulation Solutions on Major Sites
2021 has been a hugely successful year for KORE Insulation, as our quality, sustainable products were used on sites across Ireland and the U.K.
KORE’s Insulated Foundation was used by major developers across Ireland, from 10 units to over 100 unit sites.
KORE Floor was also used on large scale developments of 500 units, as well as smaller developments of 10 to 50 units. KORE Floor and KORE Fill Cavity Wall Insulation were jointly used to provide low U-values, eliminate thermal bridging and ensure sustainability in construction solutions.
Thousands of square metres of KORE Void Formers were delivered in 2021 on major civil engineering and construction sites across Ireland and the U.K., including the Windmill Development in Dublin with The Elliott Group.
2022 is set to see KORE’s insulation solutions on more sites, with developments of up to 750 units, and multiple KORE products specified on new build projects
KORE Continues to Educate
In 2021, we continued to present our continual professional development (CPD) courses online to participants all around Ireland and the UK.
Our webinar topics included, New Build with KORE’s Insulated Foundation System, Building and Civil engineering with KORE Void Formers, Meeting Part L 2109 with KORE Insulation and Unitherm Heating Systems. We also co-hosted a 6-series webinar event with Partel, titled Energy Efficiency Building Seminar, with speakers including Daikin, NorDan, Partel, Harmony Timber Frame and KORE.
If you weren’t one of the lucky people to attend one of our CPD events, you can watch the recordings over on our YouTube channel.
Our education didn’t stop there, with Andrew our Technical Business Development Manager presenting 60 CPDs online to companies around Ireland. You can book a KORE CPD for your company in 2022, just complete the form here.
KORE’s Online Academy courses were completed by hundreds of installers in 2021, with KORE Fill Cavity Wall Insulation training and up-skilling, and KORE’s Insulated Foundation course for installers and engineers.
We look forward to adding more virtual events in 2022, and hopefully in-person events and showcases, too.
KORE Retrofit Experiences Huge Success and Energy Savings
Despite the lockdown at the start of 2021, KORE Retrofit had a hugely successful year upgrading homes, businesses and community buildings across Ireland. We completed energy upgrades on 163 projects across various SEAI grant schemes, with measures including external wall insulation, attic insulation, windows, heat pumps and solar PV.
Under the Better Energy Communities grant alone, we saved over 8GWh of energy, and just under 3,000 tonne of carbon emissions.
We added a number of contractors to our partnership list this year, as well as new sustainable energy communities, who we are excited to work with in 2022.
This year we partnered with the Irish Green Building Council and SEAI to promote the benefits of commercial energy upgrades. This included two webinars, video interviews, blogs and case studies, you can find these on our website and YouTube.
Below is an example of one home that was upgraded under the SEAI National Housing Retrofit Scheme, starting as a derelict, G-Rated building, and upon completion reached an A3-Rating. The energy efficiency measures installed were external wall insulation, attic insulation, floor insulation, natural ventilation, a heat pump, new windows and doors.
If you would like to enquire about upgrading your home or business in 2022, see our website for more information.
KORE’s Exclusive Content
This year KORE brought out an exclusive Void Former Design Guide with extensive detailing. Designed for construction contractors and engineers, this document looks in-depth at KORE’s EPS Void Former design, sustainability, and structure, as well as providing benefits, case studies and more.
KORE’s bespoke EPS void formers are manufactured to your project design requirements and are renowned for their millimetre accuracy and custom specification.
You can download your free KORE Void Former design guide here.
KORE’s high-performing insulated foundation system has been used in conjunction with underfloor heating for many years, delivering a much greater thermal resistance below the underfloor heating when compared to traditional build. Combined with the effective perimeter thermal break, the thermal mass engaged in the underfloor heating system improves on its efficiencies with less heat loss.
KORE engaged the SEAM department of the Waterford Institute of Technology to prove this methodology and the findings can be found here in our blog.
This year we also created original blog posts on KORE’s inverted flat roof, thermal bridging and KORE’s NSAI certified modelling. You can find these blogs and more here.
KORE Successfully Participated in Online Events for Health & Safety, the Environment and Workplace Wellbeing
In January 2021 we kicked off the year with a month of positivity, with daily videos, meditations, tips and advice to help our employees stay positive in lockdown, and to look after their mental health.
In March we participated in the International Women’s Day with CIF, and held our own online event with a motivational speaker who discussed the importance of this day, and how we can all work together to celebrate females in the workplace and gender equality.
In April, we celebrated workplace wellbeing day and held a virtual event with our employees to bond together, play online games, and share a chat over some much needed tea and chocolate (both online and offline in our production facility).
September saw us engage in the World Green Building Week with the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) for the fourth year running. This theme of this week was building resilience, looking at carbon emissions in the construction of new buildings, and this coincided with our retrofit commercial energy upgrade campaign where we promoted the benefits associated with upgrading commercial buildings. We have a close relationship with IGBC, and have attended many online conferences, and have also spoken and presented at them, encouraging others to join us in reaching net-zero.
CIF Safety Week began in late October, where we held daily toolbox talks, a mental health webinar, a workshop on production health and safety, including a quiz and prizes, and a Covid-19 seminar on the importance of our safety during this time.
A Huge Thank You!
2021 was a hugely successful year for us, despite covid challenges and we want to say a huge thanks to our partners and customers who supported us through this time, and who chose KORE, our products, and services for their projects.
We’d also like to thank our devoted and hard working teams in both our insulation and retrofit departments for their agility, and continual drive and dedication in 2021.
To everyone who supported us in 2021, we thank you, and we look forward to a bright year ahead in 2022!