Bathroom manufacturer Ideal Standard outlined its sustainability goals, at the ‘Together for better’ virtual press conference, including the introduction of an EcoLogic label.

Joint CEO of Ideal Standard Jonas Nilsson and vice president of ESG at Ideal Standard Chris Barrett

Featured in the company’s first Sustainability Report, the  EcoLogic label focuses on four values: energy and water efficiency, hygiene, sustainable materials and sustainable value chains.

Vice president of ESG at Ideal Standard Chris Barrett commented at the launch: “The principle is to cut through the technical challenges that customer’s often face when trying to choose the design of bathroom products and simplify the sustainability message.”

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He added: “Ecologic may be a new label but the guiding principles are not new to Ideal Standard.”

He explained the label will include its Firmaflow cartridges, designed for long-life operation, and BlueStart mixer value which saves energy by starting with cold water flow.

In addition, the label will also include Diametec which uses less material and is reportedly stronger than standard ceramics, and its rimless WC for improved hygiene.

When asked how many products would be covered by the EcoLogic scheme, Barrett said Ideal Standard was in the process of identifying final figures but “we would expect in the thousands of products to be covered by it.”

Barrett added the EcoLogic label would be aligned to the Water Labelling Scheme: “We will be highlighting and recognising where we have products that have excellent water efficiency within the wider eco labelling scheme.”

Ideal Standard’s Sustainability Report 2023 highlighted the company’s commitments and achievements on its journey towards carbon net zero in 2050 and target of 30% reduction in carbon by 2030.

It spanned nine points of commitments and included reducing energy use with 100% renewable energy used in UK ceramic plants since 2021 and installation of solar panels at its Willich plant in Germany, in 2022.

Ideal Standard has reduced material wastage, recycled 11,000 tonnes of ceramic and removed 80 tonnes of virgin plastic packing.

In addition, it has saved 1.2million of timber in bath production, by swapping wood reinforcement to a sugar byproduct bagasse,  and now only uses certified sustainable timber for all its timber products.

The bathroom manufacturer aalso nnounced it will introduce cradle-to-grave Environmental Product Declarations for 5,000 of its products by the summer of 2023.

Chris Barrett said he believes it is “one of the largest EPD programmes in the sector” and spans the majority of its ceramics, fittings, acrylics and bathtubs, with the first EPDs available in coming weeks.

Joint CEO of Ideal Standard Jonas Nilsson commented: “While we still have challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we are extremely proud of the progress we made in a short space of time.”

He continued outlining the company’s plans for the future, which includes its fitting business to swap over to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 and rolling out renewable electricity across the whole group by 2030.

Nilsson said the company plans to  eliminate all single use plastic packaging by 2025 and achieve zero waste to landfill by 2023.

He added: “We want to extend our EcoLogic product portfolio, that will deliver long-term sustainability benefits for our customers and expand EPDs to cover the full product scope.”

Ideal Standard has a global turnover of €715m, manufactures Ideal Standard, Amritage Shanks and Porcher brands aand  produces 7million fitting, 7million ceramic products and 1million bathing products each year.

It operates in more than 100 countries and employs over 8000 people, with just over one third female including Ideal Standard’s new MD of UK and Ireland.