Stego Sustainability Report

CIRCULARITY

RECYCLE

Building Product Circularity

A circular approach to products used in construction — designing out waste and pollution across the product lifecycle and extending the useful life of materials through recycling, repurposing, or reuse — is an important component to sustainability in the built environment. A circular building materials economy centers on these key concepts to posi tively impact human, environmental, and ecosystem health.

The traditional, linear model of a product’s lifecycle — extract raw materials, manufacture, use, and dispose — is responsible for a tremendous amount of waste, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

REUSE

REPURPOSE

The Complexity of Plastic Currently, about 91 percent of plastic produced becomes landfill waste 1 .The slow rate at which some plastic breaks down in landfills, as well as the resource-intense processes and associated GHG in plastic production, make our soci ety’s broad reliance on plastic a recognized concern. On the other hand, research 2 on plastic use in a variety of applications points to lower net GHG contribution compared to many alternatives. We believe there can be a healthy balance between the benefits and disadvantages of plastic as a material.

91%

We also believe an important distinction can be made between single-use plastic often destined for landfill shortly after use, versus plastic materials that serve a primary (and useful) function over a long period of time.

1 https://www.oecd.org/environment/plastic-pollution-is-growing-relentlessly-as-waste-management-and-recycling-fall-short.htm 2 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15567036.2020.1801906; https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/chemicals/our-insights/climate-impact-of-plastics

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT | 2023

CREATING BETTER SYSTEMS

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INTRODUCTION

OUR IMPACT

OUR RESPONSIBILITY