Groups call for investment firm to divest from Kingspan, a global insulation manufacturer and core participant in the ongoing U.K. government Grenfell Inquiry
Yesterday, a delegation of clergy and community allies of manufacturing workers at Kingspan attempted to meet with Capital Group to demand the firm divest from Kingspan. Delegations also leafleted Capital Group offices in London and 14 cities in North America. Capital Group became Kingspan's largest outside shareholder after Kingspan testified in the Inquiry, and now holds over 15 million shares worth $1.5 billion.
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Community leaders from the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (SoCal COSH), National COSH, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, SMART, Labor Network for Sustainability, and the Clean Up Kingspan campaign pay tribute to the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in front of Capital Group Headquarters in Los Angeles. Capital Group is the largest outside shareholder of Kingspan, a core participant in the Grenfell Inquiry. (Photo: Business Wire)
Afterwards, the group held a press conference and a memorial in solidarity with thousands marching in London on the five-year anniversary of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people. The names of the 72 victims were read aloud, and the crowd responded with "Presente!" after each one. A flower for each victim was placed on an altar erected outside the global headquarters of Capital Group, Kingspan's largest outside shareholder with over 15 million shares (about 10 percent of shares) worth $1.5 billion.
"Today, we as Kingspan workers stand united in solidarity with all those in London marching for justice for the 72 people who lost their lives in the horrific Grenfell Tower fire on this day five years ago," said Micaias Pacheco, a welder at Kingspan. "Here in Santa Ana, we continue to ask Kingspan to listen to our health and safety concerns for our own well-being, our families, and our community."
After Kingspan managers gave testimony and evidence for the ongoing U.K. government Grenfell Inquiry in 2020-2021, at least two institutional investors divested Kingspan stock from portfolios completely, including Guinness and WHEB. Baillie Gifford sold over 3.5 million shares, Impax sold over 1.2 million, and AXA over 500,000 shares. Capital Group, headquartered in Los Angeles, did the opposite, and bought up 10 percent of Kingspan shares.
The Inquiry has focused on products used in the tower, including Kingspan's Kooltherm K15, which made up 5 percent of the building's exterior cladding. According to the U.K. government Grenfell Inquiry Phase 1 report, the exterior insulation and cladding system is believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire to the top of the 24-story building in less than 30 minutes.
Evidence revealed that, for years, Kingspan's U.K. insulation business issued misleading marketing literature and advice ("letters of suitability") to use its Kooltherm K15 in configurations for which it was never tested and, in some cases, for which it had failed fire tests. Since its launch in 2005, K15 has become a market-leading product in the United Kingdom that now must be removed from hundreds of high-rise buildings, a complex and expensive process. By early 2008, Kingspan managers and executives were aware of the "bad fire performance," fire test issues, and inappropriate marketing of the insulation, and they understood that the product being actively marketed by Kingspan risked not passing appropriate fire tests.
What the Inquiry revealed about Kingspan's approach to fire safety has not been widely reported in the U.S. media. Twenty percent of Kingspan revenues are from the Americas, and K15 has been marketed in the United States since 2018. In March 2022, two weeks after information about the Grenfell Inquiry was shared with school district leadership in Westwood, Mass., the School Building Committee overseeing plans for a new $88 million elementary school voted to remove Kingspan K15 from the proprietary specifications that it had previously approved in September 2021.
Amid backlash from Grenfell survivors, a partnership between Kingspan and Mercedes Formula 1 was canceled after just one week in December 2021. In a public statement about the cancellation, Kingspan asserted that it played no role in the design or construction of the Grenfell Tower's cladding system, and that only a small percentage of K15 insulation was used in the building. While true, this statement side-steps the fact that, until October 2020, Kingspan continued to use a 2005 large-scale fire test to market K15 in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that Kingspan had introduced a new, more combustible, version of K15 in 2006.
Our report on Kingspan, summarizing the information from the Inquiry, is available at KingspanOnFire.org
SMART members include the skilled workforce that manufactures and installs building envelope products, ventilation and HVAC systems throughout the United States and Canada, as well as the specialists who perform fire and life safety testing on buildings. SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is one of North America's most dynamic and diverse unions with over 200,000 members.
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Contacts:
Meredith Schafer
mschafer@smart-union.org
(202) 662-0883
