[6] Rockwool was founded as Korsør Stenforretning by constructor Henrik Johan Henriksen and brickyard-owner Valdemar Kähler in 1909 as a gravel mining company.

In 2004, Tom became chairman of the board while Eelco van Heel took over the position as chief executive officer.

[10] In 2017, the company announced a North American expansion through establishment of a plant in Ranson, West Virginia through its subsidiary Roxul.

[11][12] In 2023 Rockwool was named an "International Sponsors of War" by Ukraine for selling products to the Russian Ministry of Defence for use on warships.

In 1969, Rockwool acquired a minority stake related to technology licensing in the privately held Swiss company Flumroc AG.

[14] In November 2017 Rockwool completed acquisition of all outstanding shares of Flumroc; company sales have been largely limited to Switzerland.

[26] In other published cases, it has been unclear whether the Research Unit or the Foundation have been the actor, as in the case of examining the British health care system with an eye toward the financial cost of emulating the Kaiser Permanente system,[23] and an analysis of the impact on the Danish economy of wages lost through prisoner incarceration.