ICANZ, batts & cellulose · the honest answer
ICANZ is the batt makers’ own council. That’s not a secret. It’s their constitution.
ICANZ, the Insulation Council of Australia & New Zealand, describes itself, in its own words, as the body for “manufacturers of glasswool, rock wool, and slag wool insulation (mineral fibre)”. Its members are the big batt makers. No cellulose maker is a member. So when their installer handbook tells installers to rip out loose-fill and fit batts, read it for what it is.
I’m Peter Johnson. I’ve made and pumped cellulose in South East Queensland since 1986. This isn’t a conspiracy page. I’m only going to tell you things you can check yourself, straight off ICANZ’s own website and documents. Then you can decide whose guidance you’re reading.
Read the source
every claim here links to ICANZ’s own pages
Straight up
ICANZ is the mineral-fibre council, in its own words.
I’m not putting words in anyone’s mouth here. ICANZ describes itself on its own About page as the body for “manufacturers of glasswool, rock wool, and slag wool insulation (mineral fibre)”. That’s the whole product family it represents, batts and blankets. It was formed in 2004 out of the former Fibreglass and Rockwool Insulation Manufacturers Association.
So ICANZ isn’t a neutral umbrella body for all insulation, and it doesn’t claim to be. It’s an industry council for one type of product. There’s nothing sneaky about that. Trade associations exist to represent their members. The only point I’m making is that you should know which members it represents before you treat its guidance as the last word.
Cellulose (recycled paper, borate-treated, pumped in as a seamless blanket) is a different product family. It isn’t mineral fibre, so it was never part of ICANZ’s remit. We’re the cellulose side of the story, and that side simply isn’t represented at that table.
Cellulose laid as one seamless blanket, the loose-fill material that pre-dates glasswool, and the one we make ourselves in Tiaro.
Who's at the table
Its members are the batt giants. No cellulose maker is one.
You don't have to take my word for who funds ICANZ. Its own member and alliance pages spell it out, and every name on the list makes the same product.
ICANZ members: the major batt makers
- CSR Bradford
- Fletcher Insulation, the maker of Pink Batts
- Knauf Insulation
- Rockwool
Every one of them makes mineral-fibre batts or blankets. Its global alliance partners, NAIMA (North America) and EURIMA (Europe), are mineral-fibre bodies too.
What that means: plainly
- ICANZ is funded by, and represents the commercial interests of, the batt manufacturers.
- That’s its constitution, not a hidden agenda.
- No cellulose maker sits among its members.
- So its installer guidance is exactly what you’d expect from a batt-funded body.
I want to be careful here, because this is the part people get carried away with. I’m not saying any of those companies is doing anything wrong, or that there’s a plot against cellulose. They make a legitimate product and they’re entitled to a trade body. I’m describing the structure (who pays for the council and what it represents) so you can read its documents with that in mind.
The document installers lean on
Their 2020 installer Handbook quietly defines loose-fill as “glasswool or Rockwool”.
ICANZ’s 2020 Insulation Handbook Part 2 is overwhelmingly a batts and glasswool document. It defines “loose-fill insulation” as being “made from glasswool or Rockwool”, leaving out cellulose, which is the original loose-fill material. Glasswool gets mentioned around 31 times. Cellulose? Once.
And for an existing loose-fill roof, the Handbook tells installers it “is recommended to entirely remove the loose-fill insulation and re-insulate with batts”. Rip out the loose-fill, fit batts. From a body funded by the batt makers. I’m not telling you that advice is sinister. I’m telling you to notice where it comes from.
Mentions in the 2020 Handbook Part 2
A roughly 30-to-1 split in a document that calls itself the insulation handbook. Cellulose isn’t banned in it. It’s just barely in it.
Giving credit where it's due
To be fair: their 2024 consumer guide treats cellulose evenly.
I won't run a hit piece. If I'm going to point at the Handbook, I have to point at this too, and it cuts the other way.
ICANZ’s 2024 consumer ceiling-insulation guide for existing homes actually does cover cellulose fairly. It gives loose-fill cellulose its own R-value table, on par with rockwool. So this is not a blanket “they ignore cellulose” story, because in their consumer guide, they don’t.
That distinction matters, and I want it stated plainly: my criticism is specifically of the 2020 installer Handbook (the document that shapes what an installer in your roof does) not of everything ICANZ publishes. When the audience is the homeowner, cellulose gets its fair shake. When the audience is the installer, the loose-fill definition narrows to glasswool and rockwool, and the recommendation becomes “rip it out, fit batts”. Two documents, two very different treatments. You should know both exist.
Why the guidance carries so much weight
Anyone can install insulation. There’s no licence and no trade ticket.
Here’s the bit that ties it together. In Australia, installing insulation takes no licence and no trade qualification. The Home Insulation Program Royal Commission flatly called it “an unregulated industry”. There’s no exam, no apprenticeship, no ticket on the wall.
So what fills that gap? Published guidance. Installers lean on documents like the ICANZ Handbook to know what “best practice” looks like, and most of them have no idea that Handbook comes from the batt side of the fence. That’s the whole reason this page exists: so the guidance gets read in context.
For the record, cellulose lost ground during the 2009–10 insulation scheme collapse as a casualty of policy, never because it was banned or found unsafe. That’s history worth knowing, but it’s a separate story to who runs ICANZ.
No licence is required to install insulation in this country, so we put 40 years, our own factory and the next generation on the tools behind every job instead. That’s our ticket.
Honest answers
ICANZ questions I get asked.
What is ICANZ?+
ICANZ is the Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand. In its own words on its website, it is the body for "manufacturers of glasswool, rock wool, and slag wool insulation (mineral fibre)". It was formed in 2004 from the former Fibreglass and Rockwool Insulation Manufacturers Association. So it's an industry council that represents one family of products, mineral-fibre batts and blankets, not insulation as a whole.
Who are ICANZ's members? Is cellulose represented?+
ICANZ's members are the major mineral-fibre and batt makers: CSR Bradford, Fletcher Insulation (the maker of Pink Batts), Knauf Insulation and Rockwool. Its global alliance partners are NAIMA in North America and EURIMA in Europe, both of which are themselves mineral-fibre bodies. No cellulose manufacturer is a member. So it's a body funded by, and representing the commercial interests of, the batt manufacturers. That's simply how it's constituted. We're the cellulose side, and we're not in the room.
Does ICANZ ignore cellulose?+
No, and it's important to be fair about this. ICANZ's 2024 consumer ceiling-insulation guide for existing homes actually covers cellulose evenly. It gives loose-fill cellulose its own R-value table on par with rockwool. So the criticism here is not a blanket "they ignore cellulose". The issue is specific: their 2020 installer Handbook is a very different, batt-favouring document, and that's the one installers are guided by.
What does ICANZ's installer Handbook actually say about loose-fill?+
ICANZ's 2020 Insulation Handbook Part 2 is overwhelmingly a batts and glasswool document. It defines "loose-fill insulation" as being "made from glasswool or Rockwool", which leaves out cellulose, the original loose-fill material. Glasswool is mentioned roughly 31 times; cellulose is mentioned once. And for existing loose-fill in a roof, the Handbook tells installers "it is recommended to entirely remove the loose-fill insulation and re-insulate with batts". Read that for what it is: guidance from a body funded by the batt makers.
Do ICANZ or the standards ban cellulose?+
No. Cellulose is covered by the same AS/NZS standards as the batt products, and nothing ICANZ publishes bans it. ICANZ is an industry association, not a regulator. It doesn't write the law. The point of this page isn't that cellulose is banned or unsafe. It's that the council guiding installers is the batt manufacturers' own body, so its installer Handbook reads accordingly.
Is insulation installation regulated in Australia?+
Not really. Installing insulation in Australia takes no licence and no trade qualification. The Home Insulation Program Royal Commission described it as "an unregulated industry". That's a big reason the published guidance matters so much. Installers lean on documents like the ICANZ Handbook, and many don't realise that Handbook comes from the batt side of the fence. That's exactly why we put our 40 years and our own factory behind every job.
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Want the cellulose side of the story, from the family that makes it?
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