West Yorkshire coatings pioneer Corksol gets £150,000 innovation grant – Business Live

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

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A West Yorkshire eco-friendly coatings company has secured a £150,000 grant to further develop its innovative products.

Brighouse-based Corksol Ltd, which makes coatings made from natural cork for the construction sector, has received the six-figure grant from the Sustainable Innovation Fund to develop an internal insulation solution for the future, that will protect homes against heat loss and damp.

The company is working alongside scientists at Teesside University on the new project, which aims to create an affordable new coating that will have a positive impact on the UK housing market, tackling the issue of fuel poverty as it cuts out the negative impacts cold homes can place on people.

The new cork-based thin insulation coating, known as TACTIC, is being funded through Innovate UK as part of the Sustainable Innovation Fund, which aims to help rebuild all sectors of the UK economy, while creating new opportunities following the fallout of the global pandemic.

The firm said it recognises how the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed underlying vulnerabilities across the UK housing market, with millions of ageing properties offering poor accommodation and a severe lack of insulation. This can lead to rising energy bills and cases of fuel poverty, as well as triggering underlying health issues such as asthma or bronchitis and other similar viruses.

Today’s new-build homes are designed with effective insulation, but solutions are required to insulate existing properties so they can meet the Government’s energy efficiency targets.

Corksol and Teesside University aim to develop TACTIC to provide a solution with enhanced thermal properties that can be used on the millions of uninsulated homes.

The project will see the team take its existing cork coating and enhance its thermal performance, to eventually manufacture a new form of sustainable coating that can be retrofitted inside homes to improve insulation and help improve the overall health of occupants.

Over the next nine months the team will trial and test new developments using the natural cork coating product, testing new formulations both in the laboratory and in homes, where it will be applied using Corksol’s existing spray method.

Joff Ward, managing director for Corksol, said: “The UK housing and construction market is one of many industries negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, while ageing homes and fuel poverty are ongoing issues that need to be addressed.

“By innovating and pushing the boundaries of our current cork product, we aim to deliver a ground-breaking solution that could answer the needs of 7.7 million hard to treat homes in the UK that suffer from a lack of insulation, leading to poor health and ever increasing fuel bills.

“It’s time to safeguard the future of those living in ageing properties and fight the fight against known respiratory problems caused by poor insulation.”