Small is beautiful for Ecocel

This article was originally published in issue 35 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €10, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

In the past two years, Ecocel has expanded the brand via its Ecocel Scotland partner firm, and Ecocel Ireland managing director John Egan told Passive House Plus that while he is keen to grow the brand, it must be in a sustainable and local fashion.

“Ecocel Scotland currently imports its cellulose insulation from us here in Cork, but our plan eventually is to help them set up a manufacturing plant in Scotland. For their carbon footprint in the long run it would be better if there was a factory over there, and it would help to keep transport costs down too,” he said.

“I believe in keeping it small and local. The size we are at now here in Cork is perfect. My vision would be to establish local Ecocel plants in different markets, each using local newsprint to make their own cellulose insulation and supplying their own local market.”

Egan said that the Ecocel Scotland business had been boosted by an update to the company’s NSAI Agrément cert stating the product is suitable for use against natural stone walls, as there are a lot of buildings of this type in Scotland in need of retrofit.

Ecocel manufactures its cellulose insulation in Cork from recycled newsprint sourced within Ireland. Two years ago, the company licensed the brand name to Ecocel Scotland, which began supplying Irish-made Ecocel to the Scottish market.

Egan’s own background is very much tied up in paper. His father worked as an accountant at a paper mill in India, and later at Clondalkin Paper Mills in Dublin.

He previously ran the company Healthbuild, which supplied natural building and insulation materials, but bought Ecocel from liquidators in 2010 with the vision of producing locally made insulation from recycled newspaper.

For more information see www.ecocel.ie.