Support the Effort to Ensure Fire & Life Safety is Kingspan’s #1 Priority
Just a few days after the Grenfell Fire, the head of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) said:
Looked at in their entirety, they [large fires that occurred over the past year] are a collective example of how, either intentionally or accidentally, the fire prevention and protection system has been broken. A system that the public believes exists and counts on for their safety. A system that, through complacency, bad policy and placing economics of construction over safety, has let the public down.
The NFPA voiced this concern before the issues about manufacturers like Kingspan came to light in the Grenfell Inquiry, and before the United Kingdom found itself enmeshed in an enormous cladding crisis.
We don’t know of any other independent investigation to assess whether this same type of behavior occurred with respect to other Kingspan products or in its operations in other parts of the world, including the United States.
The Petition
We support the following steps to make sure that fire & life safety is Kingspan’s #1 priority:
As a result of the revelations from the Grenfell Inquiry, the Federal Government and other government entities responsible for fire safety should launch a full investigation or Inquiry into the fire safety — testing, certification, and marketing — of all Kingspan products used in the United States. This should be the first step in a broader investigation into the fire safety of all cladding and insulation used in the U.S., and into the ways in which building codes vary between states and municipalities — and in some areas have been relaxed to allow the kind of cladding and insulation that was used in Grenfell.
Until this due diligence is complete and at least until the Grenfell Inquiry has released its final report,
- Government entities at every level should prohibit Kingspan products from eligibility for federal infrastructure bill projects or any projects- federal, state, or local- that use taxpayer money or subsidies.
- The AIA, Green Building Council, and others should follow the lead set by Mercedes and end their Kingspan partnerships and sponsorships, and prevent Kingspan from playing any role that touches on fire safety, including teaching courses or presenting at conferences.
- Architectural firms, and firms that specify or provide specification advice regarding any issue (including fire safety), should not specify Kingspan products without a full understanding of the revelations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
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