Alkali activated cements (AAC) have been pointed as probably the most promising alternative to traditional Portland cement. There is still significant debate surrounding such claim, as several already identified obstacles have yet to be addressed by most, if not all, the agents involved in the construction industry. However, it appears that some applications of the AAC can be developed and introduced in current practice at a faster rate than, for instance, structural concrete. One of these applications can be the production of materials with thermal valency, based on the capacity of the AAC to expand during the initial reactions. Several techniques capable of producing this expansion have already been tested and developed, contributing to an increasing perception that this is a short-term viable solution for the implementation of AAC. The present paper tested an array of industrial by-products in the production of porous cement pastes, activated with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate, with the intention of producing façade panels. Two additional by-products were incorporated as thermal damping reinforcements, and the pastes were assessed in terms of flexural and compressive strength, as well as density, after which the most performing were selected for microstructural characterisation (SEM/EDX), environmental behaviour (leaching tests), porosity analyses (MIP testing) and thermal performance (thermal coefficient testing). The results showed that the production of panels for thermal insulation, based on alkali activated industrial by-products, is competitive with traditional materials based on Portland cement and other commercial solutions.