Featured in Windows Active magazine, October/November 2024
Kevin Cronin, Chief Operating Officer and Sustainability Lead
Freefoam Building Products Ltd
Working Day: The mornings are quite structured; I attend daily meetings of the production and operations teams in both our manufacturing plants. My role really is to help and support the team around me to be the best they can be to achieve the best outcomes for our customers. As the lead for Freefoam’s Sustainability Team, I’m driving innovation to reduce our carbon emissions, and to embed sustainability and circularity best practice in our Operations.
The afternoons are a mixture of supplier meetings and strategic planning. No two days are the same. Being flexible while also prioritising tasks to undertake correctly is key.
Working Location: I’m based at our manufacturing plant and group headquarters in Cork, but travel to our Northampton manufacturing plant very often as my role involves overseeing all aspects of operations across both sites.
Facts and Figures
First job? I started in Freefoam on my 16th birthday, working in the factory during the summer holidays from school. I did that every summer through my school and university years; it was a great opportunity for me.
When did you join your current company? After completing my primary degree, I started with Freefoam full time in 2003 as a trainee accountant. I qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and worked my way up, and after being seconded as Production Manager in Northampton for 12 months in 2007-2008 I returned to Cork and became Operations Manager and progressed from there.
Most useful/favourite gadget?
I really like using technology, but I don’t have a lot of gadgets apart from my iPhone and Surface Pro. I find the ease of use and reliability of both meet all my requirements.
Most useful/favourite website?
It’s more apps than wesbites I find useful. And the favourite one changes regularly when I come across the next best thing! Right now, I’m really enjoying listening to books on Audible. For travel, which I do a lot with work, I really like the Tube app for the London underground.
Recommended hotel for business?
I grew up and live near the sea, so it has to be a coastal hotel for me. If in Dublin, and you want to be near to the city but still get some headspace, I’d recommend Haddington House in Dun Laoghaire. An early morning walk along the pier before the workday starts is hard to beat.
Favourite UK restaurant?
Top of list right now is Hawksmoor in Edinburgh. I’m looking forward to trying out their other locations across the UK.
Business person you most admire?
Growing up, the business person I most admired was my uncle, George Cronin. He was one of the founders of Freefoam with Tony Walsh, as well as being involved in other business ventures. A true entrepreneur, he had passion, vision and drive. Coupled with that, he was also very personable with a wide social network.
Best business decision?
Freefoam has been successful due to the talent and dedication of the great team of people we have. Over the years we’ve maintained a core of long-term team members. We have also successfully attracted talented and motivated people to join along the journey of continuous growth for the company. The best business decision has been investing in people, and this has become an even bigger focus on our sustainability journey. Ultimately, by helping our people grow and develop in their professional lives, we’ve helped our customers grow also.
Other interests?
I’m interested in the environment, politics and current affairs, and I have a real passion for sport. I enjoy watching a myriad of sports but Gaelic games is my main interest. I played for many years and now enjoy coaching young players at my local Gaelic Athletics Association club – Tracton GAA.
THE INTERVIEW
One thing I’m particularly passionate about at Freefoam is my role on the Sustainability Team. I grew up on a farm near the coast of Ireland, and have always had a real affinity with nature and the land - I want to look after the environment we live and work in. The impact of climate change just can’t be overstated, so any part we can play in reducing our impact at Freefoam is important, personally and professionally.
Our approach to sustainability aims to monitor and reduce the overall impact of the business on the environment. In the last few years, we’ve focused on transitioning to a circular business model. We measure the flow of materials, and then innovate to find new ways to either reduce our usage, or to keep (re-use) materials in circulation and retain their economic value, and eliminate waste. We seek to ‘close the loop’ wherever possible.
Freefoam’s journey to focusing on the Circular Economy evolved from our operational excellence programme, when the company sponsored/invested in lean manufacturing qualifications for several key staff. Thanks to this investment in people, I’m now a qualified ‘Black Belt’ in lean manufacturing, and we have other Black, Green and yellow belt qualified team members throughout the business.
Working in operations at Freefoam has always been about improving efficiencies in performance – for the company and our customers. So, the move to a Circular Economy was a natural progression. Much of lean manufacturing focuses on eliminating waste, and of course we’ve been recycling PVC for a long time. But the focus has shifted to seeing everything as a material - when it’s finished its first life, and what to do with it in its next iterations, looking first at Reducing, then Reusing, and finally Recycling. We’re also looking at people, energy and other resources, not just products.
Milestones in sustainability
In 2020 Freefoam joined CIRCULÉIRE, a public-private partnership of government policy makers, academics, industry members and more, to demystify, derisk, and deliver circular business model innovation by unlocking the value that resides in a circular economy.
We set up the Sustainability Team around three years ago, as part of a strategic initiative at Freefoam. The team includes Geoff Barnett (General Manager), Neville Blowers (Operations Director), Valerie Zishiri (AIEMA Sustainability Manager at Freefoam) and Patricia Hegarty (Operations and Sustainability Coordinator), who all have a role in helping Freefoam meet its objectives. We review all the opportunities across the plants in Cork and Northampton, and part of our role is not just to agree the plan, set targets and implement the changes, but to ensure that everyone at Freefoam understands what we’re doing and why.
In the beginning we were perhaps more focused on getting on with the job, but we soon realised that internal and external comms were the key to making lasting changes. Talking about what we’ve been doing externally and making connections has attracted new ideas, more sustainable products and services from existing and new suppliers.
Meanwhile, engaging 300 or so people across different factories and adjusting processes has its challenges. Just because you’ve always done something one way doesn’t mean it’s right for the future. Showing and explaining why we are evolving, and the importance of reducing carbon across Freefoam has helped barriers come down, and it’s much easier to sustain the changes. Now people are really getting involved and ideas and opportunities come in from all levels across the business.
We’ve reduced our demand on raw materials, invested in engineering technologies to cut energy consumption and lowered our carbon footprint. We’ve been ISO 14001 accredited (for Environmental Management) for a number of years, but we’re going further with, for example, a voluntary Climate Change agreement with the Environment Agency and working with the Supply Chain Sustainability School (helping upskill staff with quality training and sharing knowledge in the supply chain). And we were recently awarded our second EcoVadis Silver rating – we’re now in the top 9% of companies assessed, under more stringent conditions, too.
What next?
Our goal for 2024 is to have a completely closed production loop across both plants. The factory in Cork is already a fully closed loop, so every kilo of PVC that comes into the plant leaves as a finished good for customers.
Freefoam profiles are not only made with recycled content, at end of life they’re 100% recyclable into new products.
There’s no real waste and downcycling of materials. Nothing goes to someone else to recycle, it’s all reused or recycled inhouse. The Northampton plant should meet this target by the end of the year if all goes well. The factories are currently operating so efficiently that we can use more recycled material than we generate – so we’re now evaluating other sources of recycled material to see if it’s compatible with Freefoam products.
We’re also actively engaging with customers and suppliers, piloting various schemes to take-back offcuts such as simplifying packaging so it’s easier to recycle without having to segregate it. We’re utilising reverse logistics to make it easier for suppliers to take back their packaging too. We’re always trying to find opportunities to reduce and reuse materials.
People, products – and planet
I’ve worked at Freefoam for over 20 years now, and I’ve seen the company transform over that time to become one of the leading companies in cladding, roofline and guttering. But it’s managed to retain its independent business model and its focus on innovation and excellence. When I started there were around 50-60 employees over Cork and Northampton; there are now more than 300 - but it still feels like a family, in some ways more than ever now, as we’re all pulling together to give customers the best product and service and make the business as sustainable as possible.