Note. A high insulation value does not make a material sustainable or circular. The study assesses insulation on six points — availability, price, CO₂ emissions, environmental performance, reuse and applicability — not on insulation value alone. Strongly insulating plastics such as PIR (18.0 kg CO₂-eq/m²) and aminotherm (19.4 kg CO₂-eq/m²) emit the most CO₂ and are barely reusable in practice (PIR 1%, aminotherm 0%).
Choosing on insulation value alone misses a material’s environmental and health impact. New Economy’s circular insulation study for Amsterdam reports this.