The thermal insulation market is dominated by a handful of materials: mineral wool, EPS, XPS, polyurethane, wood fibre and expanded cork. The headline lambda values cluster between 0.032 and 0.045 W/(m·K). The differences that matter sit elsewhere.
Embodied carbon is where cork pulls ahead. Expanded cork board sequesters carbon during the tree's growth cycle, and the manufacturing process uses the cork's own suberin as a binder — no synthetic resin, no petroleum-derived blowing agent. Independent EPDs put expanded cork at a negative cradle-to-gate carbon balance.
Durability is the second differentiator. Cork's lambda value does not drift with age the way blown polyurethane does, because there is no gas to leak out of the cells.
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