The Grenfell tragedy shone a horrifying light on decades of under-investment in skills and knowledge across the construction industry. The resulting Building Safety Act is looking to fix many of the problems and manufacturers have an important role to play.

The construction industry is on a cliff-edge. Already struggling to fill vacancies across the board we are faced with an aging workforce, 25% of whom are due to retire in the next ten years. We struggle to recruit, to train and retain talent. How did we get into this mess and how can we pull ourselves out of it?

We are delighted to share that two of our Apprentices, Sarah Olusola, HR Support Apprentice, and Olly Julier, Digital Marketing Apprentice have each taken home a top award.

What defines Knauf beyond the products and services we provide? Addressing this is our new brand campaign featuring a bold new look and messaging. The campaign reaches out to our customers with the core reasons to choose Knauf.

A key commitment for Knauf is to reduce the environmental impact of product packaging without compromising quality or ease of use. The goal is always to be ahead of legislative requirements.  

The partnership between Knauf and Countrystyle Recycling was ahead of its time when it led to the construction of a dedicated plant to recycle gypsum board in 2017. Move on six years and the partnership continues to flourish, providing a model for how reclamation and manufacturing can work hand in hand.

Construction is changing fast and Knauf is open to partnerships that help to explore and develop the potential for its products. This open-minded approach to innovation is particularly evident in its work with various offsite and modular building options.

Our next video in our series 'A day in the Life of’, looks behind the scenes of our Calcination Apprentice, Hayden, in our Sittingbourne factory.

We were delighted to support the Whitbread Clay Pigeon Shoot in May which raised over £40,000 to help build the new cancer centre at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

With its much more comprehensive regulatory role and significantly more stringent enforcement, the Building Safety Act will have a profound effect on the whole supply chain.

We have taken another step toward achieving our sustainability goals, specifically our target of zero waste disposal by 2032, by changing the pallet hoots used on our laminated boards to use 30% more recycled content. 

In a bid to provide better customer service, Knauf has launched a pre-populated response tool in the form of a chatbot on the website.