Sustainability and environmental protection have for many years been major concerns of the Waldachtal-based fischer group of companies. Prof. Klaus Fischer, owner and CEO: “Active environmental management is our contribution to ensuring that we and our future generations can still enjoy an intact environment. This has been laid down in our mission statement and is more than paying lip service. We’ve never seen environmental protection as something ordered from above, but instead as our contribution to preserving nature. This means we are aware of our responsibility when it comes to using energy, primaries and auxiliary materials – and not only since yesterday”.

The hands-on result and follow-up of this fiundamental strategy was the launch of the UX GREEN 2012, the world’s first synthetic plug made of renewable materials. And earlier this year saw the launch of the FIS GREEN 300 T, the world’s first chemical injection resin made from renewable primaries. This is fischer’s way of addressing users and building owners who appreciate sustainability also when it comes to fixings used in building and renovating.

Identical load level and long-term behaviour By definition, fixings must always be safe. This is why fischer had absolutely no doubt that the bio-based fixing systems also had to comply with technical requirements. And this is also why the green plastic plugs have the same performance features and load-bearing capacities as the grey originals – and they are naturally just as long-lived.

All “greenline” products are made from at least 50% renewa-ble primaries. The base for the synthetic components is cas-tor oil extracted from the seeds of the castor-bean plant, a plant which does not compete with food, animal feed or with the appropriate crop areas. The regenerative material share is confirmed by independent tests and the certification by DIN CERTCO/TÜV Rheinland. All products belong to the “BIOBASED 50-85%” category.

To launch the product range, fischer offers six tried and test-ed types of plugs as green alternatives: the Universal plug UX GREEN, the Expansion plug SX GREEN, the Plaster-board fixing GK GREEN, the Nail plug N GREEN, the Air-crete anchor GB GREEN and the Insulation fixing FID GREEN. Running under the “greenline” label, the green product range will be steadily enlarged over the coming years.

Non-hazardous installation resin

A green installation resin with previously unseen properties will be launched side by side with the green synthetic plugs. Chemical injection resins are complex products made from a multitude of different base substances. Most of these base substances are rare special chemicals for which there have so far been no bio-based equivalents. The usual “drop-in approach”, i.e. replacing a base material with an identical, but bio-based substance, was therefore no option for fischer in the making of the new “green” resin.

Instead, the composition was totally reformulated for the new bio-based product with entirely new base materials. To do so, fischer put the whole of the base material line to the test, carried out extensive market research to find options for sub-stitution, and looked into other (or alternantive) bio-based base materials. FIS GREEN 300 T therefore contains organic components which fulfill the most varied of functions: reactive resins, fillers, additives, plasticisers and thermoplastic polymers.

It was only through this radical new design that a high organic carbon share of 50-85% was achieved. We are proud that we were able to show with our FIS GREEN 300 T that even highly complex products can be reformulated such that the outcomes are bio-based and sustainable products.

Like its petrochemical based “relatives”, the injection resin is very powerful and efficient in use. It has the added ad-vantage that it is made from renewable base materials and takes the place of valuable fossile resources. This is certified by DIN CERTCO as the independent testing board. The GREEN installation resin is suitable for fixing high loads in concrete, perforated and solid bricks for inside and outside use.

The GREEN installation resin carries the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of the Institute Bauen und Um-welt e.V. (IBU) and therefore has a data base for ecological building assessment. The resin is also extremely low in emissions, placed in the best French emission category A+ “very low in emissions” for volatile substances (VOC Directive). What is more, the product has no hazardous substance markings whatsoever.

The fischer environmental management system is also certi-fied under DIN ISO 14001, and the company is a member of the German Society for Sustainable Building  (DGNB) and of the Institute Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU).