Brent Trenga of Kingspan Insulated Panels North America: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate Change & Become More Sustainable
Show your kids how to make positive change big or small every day. Even the simple act of picking up trash on a beach or recycling a plastic water bottle sets an example.
As part of my series about how companies are becoming more sustainable, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brent Trenga, Director of Sustainability for Kingspan Insulated Panels North America.
Brent Trenga, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP is Director of Sustainability for Kingspan Insulated Panels North America. His background as an architect, construction manager, developer and project owner give him a unique perspective on all facets of the construction industry. Trenga leads Kingspan North America’s material health and transparency program and Kingspan’s North American Planet Passionate program.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My inspiration is James Wines, who was my architecture thesis professor in my fifth year at Penn State. He is considered one of the fathers of green architecture, starting back in the 1970s before it was known as “sustainability.” During the Great Recession, I left my architecture job to co-found GreenWizard, a tech startup that developed the first database of sustainable building products. The startup partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council to provide supporting building product data for direct submission to LEED Online. During that time, I encountered Kingspan’s net zero energy initiatives. I realized how embedded they were in the company’s mission and became the Director of Sustainability for Kingspan Insulated Panels North America in 2015.
What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?
Our planet is facing challenges from rising temperatures, pollution and a lack of clean water. The time to act has already passed, and each company must do its part to protect us all. Kingspan aims to tackle these issues with its Global Planet Passionate program but also focus on its building products. According to Architecture 2030, buildings account for 40% of total carbon emissions. Not only are we trying to reduce embodied carbon in the built environment, but also provide products that can work in concert with energy systems to create net-zero energy buildings. We are working toward making products that can be upcycled/recycled to contribute to a circular economy. Steel, for example, can be melted down and reused again.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
Our ten-year sustainability program, Planet Passionate, is a global effort to address climate change and to make a postive impact. The targets are extremely aggressive and require regular reporting of benchmarks.
To reduce carbon emissions and slash the amount of embodied carbon in our insulated metal panels, we are optimizing our supply chain and focusing on direct renewable energy for our North America plants. Our plant in Columbus, Ohio, uses direct-to-grid wind energy, while our plant in Modesto, California, has just installed a PV solar roof to offset 40% of the electricity demand .
While our North America division was struggling to meet waste reduction goals at the start of 2021, we are now one of the biggest success stories. We have diverted 86% of waste through a pilot program in our DeLand, Florida, plant by separating waste into nine different streams, allowing for recycling or upcycling. Through an innovative new partnership, our foam scrap is sent to Belter Tech in Georgia, to be upcycled into ceiling tiles. We are currently exploring local partnerships to bring this program to other plants in North America.
We are using rainfall capture systems in our plants in Monterrey, Mexico, with future plans for Modesto, where dry conditions can lead to wildfires. Harvesting rainwater allows the plants to continue irrigating without draining additional resources and mitigates wastewater released from the plants.
To improve circularity, our top-of-the-line insulation core is manufactured in California using PET plastic water bottles. Our old manufacturing equipment from that plant is also getting a new life as rebar in public transportation projects in the Pacific Northwest.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
We provide a path for net-zero energy buildings through insulated panels that reduce the amount of heating/cooling needed, which can offer cost savings over time. Switching to low-flow faucets, LED lighting and rainfall capture systems can all reduce spending on utilities over time.
Any investment in sustainability is an investment in our future. Offering sustainable products meets an increasing demand, as more people realize the future depends on our actions today. We are seeing more property management groups and corporations show an interest in buildings that are energy efficient. Architects want to work with us because we provide the building materials they need to meet LEED certification requirements. We have helped companies create buildings, such as Ecofibre, and Terminal D at Nashville International Airport, meet sustainability goals.
The youth led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion what are 5 things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
- Lead through action: children are always watching and learning from you. It is important to show them how they can make an impact.
- Show your kids how to make positive change big or small every day. Even the simple act of picking up trash on a beach or recycling a plastic water bottle sets an example.
- When having an experience with nature, discuss how and why we need to protect that experience for generation to come. Whether I take my children to the beach or to an exotic destination, I teach them why preservation is so important.
- Encourage your kids to ask big bold questions when the see or hear something about or planet. The discussion about climate change is everywhere. It’s important to welcome questions and to encourage them to keep asking.
- Talk about what you do at work to protect or planet and drive change. My kids love to hear about the ambitious targets Kingspan has set and what I am doing at work to help reach them.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- You must make people care about issues like sustainability. You have to make it personal to change hearts and minds. We all have so much on our plates. It can be hard to ask someone to make room for one more cause unless it matters
- Go work for a company that acts, not just talks, about change from the top down, rather than taking on an issue that’s the flavor of the month, a buzzword, or a bandwagon. Long-term commitments mean real change can happen.
- This is a long game. Don’t get frustrated in a week and month or even a year. Just like a startup, you will hear “no” hundreds of times before you finally hear “yes.”
- Surround yourself with like-minded people. The passion to drive change is infectious.
- Big business is not all bad. Times have changed with the dawn of Environmental, Social, and Governance, so front and center, we now have “capitalism for good.”
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
A major reason I am here in this role is because of Paul Bertram. Paul was a longtime friend in the industry and felt I would be a good fit at Kingspan. He was looking for the right fit to take over the helm when he retired. A role was created to complement my skillset, which set me on a journey to make positive change and chase my passion since 2015.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A question I have always asked is: why do we use the words “sustainable” and “zero” as goals? What would a sustainable marriage be? It sounds horrible. What goal do you set in life with a target of zero? We should be thinking about net positive, rather than net zero. We should be thinking about what is climate positive, as opposed to sustainable. If I were to start of movement it would simply be to go back to our roots with nature. Biophilic design clues have always been there, so we should work with them, not against the grain. Harness your inner nature nerd and let’s solve this climate crisis.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
Very simply put, we all have the power of choice. Think about your decisions now, not just down the road. You stand here today armed with knowledge and the ability to make an impact. Use it!
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
You can find me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf&trkInfo=AQELw-Ud8H0YFAAAAX2BxfFIJM4y1b-8RUbQZTeju0idK6oKCY55afLLybdUN8hSU97M7YBRx_Xvq0jTRL5_rUQALKfvhl9o0edEUGSsDkgauDZAoQRNLj5oB865aJK9kgMjbr0=&originalReferer=&sessionRedirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fbrent-trenga-a077278
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Brent Trenga of Kingspan Insulated Panels North America: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.