GF Building Flow Solutions (formerly Uponor) published the company’s Sustainability Review 2023. The Review, prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Standards and assured by an independent third party, details the company’s ambition, work, and achievements in sustainability throughout the year, as well as highlights people leading sustainability development in different parts of the Read more
Uponor
GF Building Flow Solutions (formerly Uponor) published the company’s Sustainability Review 2023. The Review, prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Standards and assured by an independent third party, details the company’s ambition, work, and achievements in sustainability throughout the year, as well as highlights people leading sustainability development in different parts of the organization. Sustainability initiatives in 2024 and beyond will be reported on GF.
In 2023, Uponor implemented aggressive global sustainability initiatives that were created in collaboration with clients, customers, employees, and other key stakeholders. The company’s ambition is to lead the construction industry towards net zero, decarbonize its operations, and maintain its strong track record of advancing sustainable innovations. In Europe, the company partnered to produce the world’s first circular PEX pipe from its own production waste, received validation for new greenhouse gas emission reduction targets from the Science Based Targets initiative, and celebrated a factory in Nastola, Finland, achieving complete carbon-neutral operations.
“Our industry has a strong influence on sustainable ways of life. With our products and systems, we want to continuously reduce the CO2 footprint of buildings. On the one hand, our innovation focus lies in making our products easy to use and, on the other hand, making the production and materials of our products even more sustainable,” says Michael Rauterkus, president, GF Building Flow Solutions. “To support our commitment to leading the construction industry towards net zero by example, we have created a Carbon Neutral Factory concept, which highlights our efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Our objective is to replicate the concept in our other factories.”
Sustainability and innovation at the core
Rauterkus adds that GF Building Flow Solutions is committed to finding new ways to conserve, manage, and provide water responsibly.
“The combination of Uponor and GF products and solutions allows us to serve our existing and new customers even better and help them making an impact,” says Rauterkus. “Our shared sustainability approach is ambitious, holistic, and strategic. We are well-positioned to seize the opportunities created by the growing demand for energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, as well as for sustainable systems for safe and clean water. As we continue our sustainability journey, I want to express my gratitude to all our stakeholders for the excellent cooperation and outstanding achievements. My warmest thanks go especially to all our employees for their uncompromised sustainability commitment.”
The Sustainability Review 2023 can be found from the company website at Sustainability Review 2023 | Uponor
The Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI) announced today that its Building & Construction Division (BCD) has elected Bill Melvin of Legend Valve (Auburn Hills, MI) as Division Chair and Jim Paschal of Aquatherm (Lindon, UT) as Vice Chair. Melvin, who will also represent the division on the PPI Board of Directors for the next two Read more
The Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI) announced today that its Building & Construction Division (BCD) has elected Bill Melvin of Legend Valve (Auburn Hills, MI) as Division Chair and Jim Paschal of Aquatherm (Lindon, UT) as Vice Chair. Melvin, who will also represent the division on the PPI Board of Directors for the next two years, takes over from Joseph Poniatowski of Asahi/America. The changes took effect June 1, 2024. PPI’s BCD focuses on pressure piping materials for plumbing and mechanical applications.
Jim Paschal (left) of Aquatherm, new Vice Chair and Bill Melvin (right) of Legend Valve new Chair of PPI’s Building & Construction Division with Lance McNevin, the engineering director for the division.
Bill Melvin has served on the Management Committee in several roles, including the Communications Committee Chair and Vice Chair. Jim Paschal also serves as Chair of PPI’s Polypropylene Pressure Pipe Steering Committee and formerly served as R&D Projects Chair. That position will now be filled by Rick Stock of Uponor. Brian Conner of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry joins the committee as Codes & Governments Affairs Committee Liaison.
Rick Stock, Uponor
Adam Grier of iNOEX serves as the Communications Committee Chair, and also as Chair of the PPI Umbrella Marketing Committee. Jason McKinnon of Viega LLC serves as the PPI Education Committee Chair and also as the BCD Education Chair, a position he has held for more than eight years. Forest Hampton III of Lubrizol continues as Advisory Council Liaison & Strategic Planning Chair.
According to Lance MacNevin, P. Eng., director of engineering for PPI’s Building & Construction Division, “PPI’s management committee members provide significant guidance to staff on topics from research, codes and standards to education and advocacy. These new leadership positions solidify their continued commitments to PPI and the piping industry. We are grateful for the volunteer service of these dedicated members.”
Brian Conner, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry
PPI is the major North American trade association representing the plastic pipe industry. The Building & Construction Division represents plastic pressure piping materials such as CPVC, HDPE, PEX, PE-RT, PP-R, and PP-RCT.
More information can be found at https://plasticpipe.org/buildingconstruction
Uponor North America has again been honored with two Governor’s Safety Awards by the Minnesota Safety Council. The company’s Apple Valley campus won its fifth Governor’s Safety Award, recognized at the Bronze level this year, and the Uponor Lakeville Distribution Center won its fourth award, achieving the highest level of Diamond. The annual Governor’s Safety Awards Read more
Uponor North America has again been honored with two Governor’s Safety Awards by the Minnesota Safety Council. The company’s Apple Valley campus won its fifth Governor’s Safety Award, recognized at the Bronze level this year, and the Uponor Lakeville Distribution Center won its fourth award, achieving the highest level of Diamond.
The annual Governor’s Safety Awards, which date back to 1934, recognizes Minnesota employers for safety and health excellence in protecting employees from injuries, illnesses, and incidents. Organizations with an incident rate below those of the State and National rates in their industry are awarded for their efforts.
“Safety is the #1 priority across the Integrated Supply Chain organization,” says Jon Sillerud, vice president, Integrated Supply Chain. “We start every shift-change meeting with the safety topic, and in 2023, we made enhancements to our safety program and placed emphasis on improving our safety culture. We also launched a Mission Zero program to raise awareness of safety with all employees. In 2023 we reduced our Lost-Time-Incident Frequency rate by 48 percent, which was a huge improvement. For 2024, we have comprehensive plans to further reduce our Lost-Time-Incident Frequency rate by 20 percent as we move closer to our aspirational goal of zero workplace accidents.”
Sillerud went on to say that as a nine-time recipient of this award, Uponor attributes this recognition to not only raising employees’ awareness and improving its safety culture, but also to a system of extensive self-audits, inspections, and risk assessments, as well as a newly implemented computer-based training.
To see a complete list of award recipients, visit MinnesotaSafetyCouncil.org.
By joining forces with Uponor, GF is set to become a global leader in sustainable water and flow solutions. To support this ambition, complementary businesses will be grouped together under one roof: the new division GF Uponor will focus on Building Technology, whereas the infrastructure and utility business will move to GF Piping Systems. Michael Read more
By joining forces with Uponor, GF is set to become a global leader in sustainable water and flow solutions. To support this ambition, complementary businesses will be grouped together under one roof: the new division GF Uponor will focus on Building Technology, whereas the infrastructure and utility business will move to GF Piping Systems. Michael Rauterkus will join GF’s Executive Committee and will lead the new division together with his Uponor leadership team.
After all conditions of the tender offer have been fulfilled, GF closes the transaction as of 13 November 2023.
To accelerate the implementation of GF Piping Systems’ Strategy 2025 and to further benefit from global megatrends, GF will start an ambitious value creation program to unleash the full potential of this acquisition. GF Piping Systems will focus on the industrial and utility business, providing its customers with sustainable leak-free piping solutions for numerous end markets such as microelectronics, water treatment, energy, chemical processing, marine, data centers or water & gas utilities. Uponor’s infrastructure business will become part of GF Piping Systems and will further strengthen the division’s portfolio to provide customers with combined solutions.
In the new division, GF Uponor, the building technology businesses will be combined to offer a complementary portfolio for safe and clean water, as well as energy efficient heating and cooling. The consolidation of complementary businesses provides an ideal platform to develop markets with high potential for both divisions. As the brand Uponor stands for high quality and innovation, it will drive growth in intelligent Building Flow Solutions.
These organizational changes will be implemented during the course of 2024 while GF will ensure operational excellence and business continuity to customers.
“We will continue to implement our strategy, and leverage powerful global trends, such as the need for safe and clean water, or more efficient energy use,” GF CEO Andreas Müller said. “On behalf of all my colleagues, I am happy to welcome Uponor employees and start this new chapter together.”
Beginning in early 2020, supply-chain disruptions and unprecedented construction-materials demand resulted in an influx of F1960 engineered polymer (EP) fittings from various manufacturers and suppliers located around the globe. Unfortunately, some of these “F1960” fittings are not actually manufactured or tested to the same standards as the Uponor ProPEX® F1960 fittings, and contractors are learning a Read more
Beginning in early 2020, supply-chain disruptions and unprecedented construction-materials demand resulted in an influx of F1960 engineered polymer (EP) fittings from various manufacturers and suppliers located around the globe. Unfortunately, some of these “F1960” fittings are not actually manufactured or tested to the same standards as the Uponor ProPEX® F1960 fittings, and contractors are learning a hard lesson about the differences when they experience a failure in their piping system.
In truth, not all fittings conforming to the ASTM F1960 standard are the same. Manufacturers and suppliers that claim their fittings are compliant to ASTM F1960 feel that, in their opinion, they meet the standard. However, there is no third-party agency to confirm that compliance. Uponor ProPEX fittings are a highly engineered product certified by a third-party agency — NSF — to ensure the raw materials, manufacturing process, and resulting product accurately meet the ASTM F1960 standard. In fact, the companies that mold ProPEX EP fittings are partners that are integrated into the codes, helping ensure the highest-quality product. ProPEX fittings also undergo internal quality testing that extends beyond the ASTM F1960 standard requirements to provide customers with the strongest value available on the market.
“It’s important that installers are aware they need to ask for the Uponor brand name from distribution and make sure they are getting what they are paying for in ProPEX fittings,” says Ann Studnicka, director, Channel Marketing at Uponor. “The differences are far beyond just the brand name. Uponor testing on generic F1960 fittings has exposed various manufacturing design and quality inconsistencies, and some fittings can’t even pass the ASTM F1960 standard requirements. This is putting projects at considerable risk for failures and potentially voids the associated system warranties.”
Over the past two years, Uponor has seen a significant increase in claims for failed connections that turned out to be other suppliers’ F1960 fittings. This trend confirms the theory that many contractors simply are not aware of the visual differences between ProPEX and generic F1960 fittings.
“Contractors and distributors need to be aware of the visual differences between ProPEX and low-quality F1960 fittings,” says Studnicka. “How can you tell? The easiest way is to look for the Uponor logo on the fitting.”
Other markers of ProPEX fittings include thicker tube stops and thicker sealing barbs. The thin tube stops on the generic, low-quality fittings are especially problematic as the expanded PEX pipe can extend past the stops and cause leaks.
With more than 150 variations of couplings, tees, elbows, plugs, and multiports in sizes up to 3″, Uponor provides the most comprehensive offering of F1960 EP fittings in the market. The ProPEX connection system is also covered by an industry-leading, 25-year limited transferable warranty when used with Uponor PEX-a pipe and ProPEX rings. And, it is important to note that mixing different suppliers’ fittings, rings, and pipe will lower the term or even void the warranty in some cases.
For further details about the differences with ProPEX connection systems, visit uponor.com/askforuponor. For information about all other Uponor products, systems, services, and solutions, visit uponor.com.