James Latham, one of the UK’s leading and most forward-thinking distributors of timber, panels, and decorative surfaces, has become the only UK distributor of revolutionary Spanish construction panel HONEXT, harnessing its potential to help deliver sustainable and cost-effective design solutions…
HONEXT is a game-changing, carbon-neutral, lightweight construction panel, produced from waste fibres and cellulose residue from the paper industry. By upcycling this run-off material, using a proprietary biotech process, the Barcelona-based brand has achieved a fully recyclable, non-toxic board with a circular lifecycle, perfect for specifying to a sustainable brief. Suitable for interior wall and ceiling linings, and other non-loadbearing applications, the introduction of HONEXT represents the latest step in Lathams aim to be the most innovative and sustainable materials distributor in the UK and Ireland.
“According to the UN Environment Programme, the construction sector was responsible for 38 per cent of all energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019, prompting sustainability to become a non-negotiable in many contemporary design briefs,” commented Nick Widlinski, Panels Director, James Latham. “Specifiers are now having to respond by selecting the lowest carbon materials possible, particularly those manufactured in a circular fashion. HONEXT meets all these needs and goes further. It’s a high-performance interior construction panel that deals with a long-standing waste management problem for the paper industry, which globally generates more than eight million tons of waste annually. It’s also another welcome addition to our ever-expanding portfolio of green panel options, meeting our clients evolving preferences and offering them a greater degree of choice.”
Image credit: Lathams
Unique in its category as Cradle-to-Cradle Silver Certified, the benefits of HONEXT for interior cladding and partitioning go far beyond its upfront sustainable attributes. A high-performance material, it possesses strong thermal conductivity, vapour permeability, and acoustic performance. simply put, the panels are designed to feature better sound absorption properties than traditional building materials, and they are also resistant to moisture and water vapour.
The panels also promote better indoor air quality, as they contain no added VOCs and are Material Health Silver Certified. From a fabrication perspective, the lightweight construction panel has a fibrous build-up, therefore it’s extremely easy to work with regular woodworking tools. Furthermore, it’s considerably less dense compared to other fibreboard products used for interior applications and its relative lightness eases the installation process.
All these qualities make it particularly suitable for applications such as retail fit-out, exhibitions, set decoration and staging, as the product can be shaped, painted, bonded, and laminated offering a greater degree of flexibility for architects, designers, specifiers, fabricators and industrials.
Demand for HONEXT is also growing in the commercial office sector, where its sound absorption capabilities are being realised by fit-out professionals. In a recent workspace project for Spanish construction firm Construcía, HONEXT panels were specified for suspended ‘sound islands’ and ceilings to improve the interior acoustics. In this case, the product met all the client’s requirements for a cradle-to-cradle certified solution, as well as achieving optimal acoustic levels and a comfortable and pleasant working environment.
Building on other recent forward-thinking initiatives, including the Carbon Calculator and Digital Showroom, this addition to the brand portfolio is helping its diverse audience of architects, designers and fit-out professionals make the most eco-friendly choice when selecting surfaces
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Main image credit: James Lathams
