OWENS CORNING

'Owens Corning Corporation' is the world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass and related products. It was formed in 1935 as a partnership between two major American glassworks, Corning Glass Works and Owens-Illinois. The company was spun off as a separate entity November 1, 1938. The company achieved major successes after the Second World War, with eventual annual sales of $6 billion (USD). However, major medical liabilities due to the company's use of asbestos as a fireproofing agent led to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. The company emerged from Chapter 11 in October 2006.
Owens Corning is a world leader in building materials systems and composite solutions. A Fortune 500 company for more than 50 years, Owens Corning products and services ranging from insulation, roofing and stone, to glass composite materials used in transportation, electronics, telecommunications and other high-performance applications.
Among the many products of Owens Corning is its fiberglass insulation. Since 1956, the company's insulation has been dyed pink to provide visual contrast; the company became so associated with its pink insulation (originally planned as red, but the dye was not sufficiently concentrated, resulting in its current, trademarked light pink coloring) product that it even registered the term "PINK" (in capital letters only) to refer to its insulation. It was granted a trademark on the color in ''In re Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.'', 774 F.2d 1116 (Fed. Cir. 1985). The cartoon character of the Pink Panther is used by Owens Corning as the mascot of its insulation division.
Another major product of Owens Corning is derived from its use of fiberglass as reinforcement for plastic products. The resulting fiberglass-reinforced plastic is the form of "fiberglass" used in boat hulls, automobile roofs, pipes, electric windmill blades, etc. Their product is sold under the trade name of "Fiberglas"®.

Contents

Environmental record

Diversity

External links

Environmental record

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings consume 40 percent of our nation’s energy and account for 43 of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than industry and more than transportation. A 2007 McKinsey & Company report cited insulation is “the single most cost-effective greenhouse gas abatement measure."
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During the past 14 years, Owens Corning has reduced the energy intensity of its own operations by 40 percent. The company has established a 10-year goal to reduce the amount of energy required to make all of its products by an additional 25% from 2002 levels.
During their installed life, the products that Owens Corning alone produces each year result in the prevention of:
o 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions
o Greenhouse emissions from 200 million passenger cars driven for a year
o The consumption of 2 billion barrels of oil
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★ McKinsey & Company Report on Greenhouse Gas Reduction, 2007''

Diversity

Owens Corning received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.
The company trades on the NYSE under the symbol OC [5]

External links

★ Official Website

★ Modern Mechanix, Feb. 1938 article