2025 in review: construction industry engagement and collaboration
As a business or organisation in the construction industry, it is one thing to say that you hold certain values or behave in certain ways. It is a different thing entirely to live by those values and demonstrate chosen standards of behaviour every day.
When our sector is open and collaborative, it is better-placed to achieve its goals, build trust and raise competence levels together. For that reason, throughout 2025, Polyfoam XPS has sought to engage more with our industry at both a local and national level.
Yes, we have introduced product developments (such as relaunching our UFH Board), seen a record-breaking number of specifications produced through the NBS Source platform, and published our fiftieth email newsletter. But alongside those things we have also worked to support the north-east of England and show the wider industry that we take our responsibilities as a manufacturer seriously.
A year of highlights in Hartlepool
We take great pride in being part of the north-east’s manufacturing tradition, and were delighted to supply the inverted roof kit to Hartlepool’s Highlight leisure development. The first half of the year saw the project gain a completed roof, thanks to our working closely with trusted roof waterproofing system holder partner IKO.
It is a fact of construction that insulation is a ‘fit and forget’ product. Being covered by the inverted roof finish, few people will ever see our insulation on the marina development’s roof. So we also took a proactive approach to inspiring the potential product manufacturing talent of the future, by welcoming year 7 pupils from Academy 360 to our factory.
As part of the academy’s careers development programme, the children from Sunderland got an insight into insulation production, and heard how members of the Polyfoam team navigated their paths into manufacturing and engineering.
Demonstrating the versatility of extruded polystyrene (XPS) is an important element of education around our insulation. Sometimes that means looking beyond its typical construction applications, and we were delighted to support another school’s race car project. Not only were the pupils able to build nose cones for their car, the excess material came in use for Design and Technology lessons.
Supporting sustainability efforts through XPS recycling
Dealing with excess and waste and insulation material has been a common theme of our factory’s work and our writing for several years now.
Counterintuitive as it may sound, one of our 2025 highlights didn’t even feature our own products – but it did demonstrate what can happen when businesses engage with one another and work together for the betterment of the wider construction industry.
We started conversations with the recycling industry about the potential recovery of XPS material a few years ago. Those conversations bore fruit this year, as we put two sites in contact with a leading polystyrene recycling company who were able to process the material. Just one of those sites featured some 40,000m2 of existing insulation, which would otherwise have gone to landfill.
These first encouraging steps in recovery and recycling will hopefully lead to more discussions about seriously considering buildings’ end of life scenarios, the accompanying insulation choices, and the potential for XPS to form a genuine part of the circular economy.
Greater visibility for Polyfoam and extruded polystyrene
Underpinning everything we have done this year has been our consistent effort to communicate and educate about the benefits of XPS insulation.
March saw us once again exhibit at Futurebuild, where we met specifiers, installers and other manufacturers face to face and discussed the challenges facing the construction industry. The following month saw us sponsor the Liquid Waterproofing Project of the Year at the LRWA Awards.
And throughout the year we have written regular articles for both Total Contractor and AT Journal, helping to further spread the knowledge and information we share through our blog, LinkedIn page and email newsletter, The Build-Up.
With more product developments lined up for early 2026, plus new resources for specifiers and installers, we look forward to continuing this successful approach to our work. Use the links above to connect with us through your preferred platforms, or contact us today to discuss how XPS insulation can contribute to your current project.