Tag: BEC Conference

Rising to the Challenge of Prioritizing Sustainability

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The Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) Conference always represents a good opportunity to take the pulse of a critical part of the commercial glass and glazing industry.

This year, I noticed a few things that I believe are indicative of some broader trends. The first is plenty of fresh faces and younger attendees from various stakeholder companies and organizations. This is encouraging as companies within our space get more invested in training, engagement and passing institutional knowledge to a new generation.

The second is a real, driving focus on sustainability across many of the panel discussions and presentations at the conference. That might not sound surprising on its face but considering that most of the BEC attendees are glazing contractors, such a focus is worth noting. Sustainability initiatives and conversations have typically been more predominant with the design and manufacturing community—less so on the installation side.

Such was the change at this year’s conference. It tells us a lot about the challenges and opportunities a broadening push for greater sustainability will have for all industry stakeholders going forward. As we move into the future, sustainability is no longer a niche concern—it’s everyone’s responsibility.

One topic of discussion at BEC revolved around Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). An EPD transparently reports objective, comparable and third-party-verified data about a product’s environmental performance from a life cycle perspective.

Among the code and architectural communities, EPDs are gaining traction as a way to measure a new structure’s environmental impact by necessitating these declarations from building materials used throughout the project. As things are trending, codes and project specs may soon begin demanding such declarations at more individualized, product-specific levels.

This might be all well and good, but there are a few complicating factors. Using an EPD as a point of direct product comparison is frowned upon. That’s because EPDs typically rely on estimations of impacts. Therefore, the accuracy will differ for any particular product line and reported impact. EPDs are not meant to be comparative assertions and may not be comparable or have limited comparability.

Second, the necessity of EPDs at the individual component level would have some major business consequences for anyone going to market with proprietary products or formulations. An EPD necessarily involves the disclosure of a product’s composition—and no manufacturer divulges the specifics of what makes their product competitive.

The commercial glass and glazing industry will need to grapple with this in the coming years. An ongoing dialog with the architectural and code communities will be important. It will be incumbent upon glass and glazing professionals to collaborate and educate on the most effective ways we can help create more sustainable buildings.

And therein lies our opportunity. There is no shortage of ways commercial glass professionals can contribute to sustainable, high-performance commercial structures. We must continue to advocate for the important role that glass and glazing play in our built environments and push the envelope to deliver increasingly high-performance products.

As I said earlier, sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. If we embrace this challenge and continue to innovate, our continued collective success is inevitable.

Joe Erb is a national account manager for Quanex.

The Increasing Importance of Mock-up Testing

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Not long ago I wrote about the importance of long-term performance once commercial glass products have been installed in a new building. Major investments are being made in new technologies, and in order for those products to meet their potential (and to protect our industry’s reputation), validating performance and sound installation practices are increasingly important.

I found this to be true during some of my recent travels over the past few weeks. In March, I and one of my technical services colleagues spent time at a test lab for project-specific mock-up performance testing on a commercial vinyl window system that is to be installed in a large mid-rise development project. The testing was necessitated by the project architect—some of the largest multi-lite openings needed to hit a certain criteria to keep the project moving. Windows were installed in a full-size representation of the proposed exterior wall system. Structural integrity, air tightness and water performance were all validated through the process, helping to grant confidence that the systems will deliver long-term performance.

While this is not standard procedure for every project, I think we’ll begin seeing an increase in required mock-up testing in large new commercial jobs. More evidence: The Building Envelope Contractors Conference (BEC) returned to Nashville for the first time in two years in March. There was plenty of chatter about how the industry has navigated the past few years, but a particular panel discussion on field and laboratory performance mock-ups caught my attention, correlating with my experience a week or so earlier. Presented by Jose Colon, regional sales director, Intertek; Szymon Zienkiewicz, president, Larsen Zienkiewicz; and Vic McConnell, Smith Cashion & Orr, PLC, the panel served to highlight the importance of performing physical mock-up testing to validate that the system as designed will be fit for use following sound installation.

Why an increasing emphasis on mock-up testing? I think there are a few drivers here:

Risk mitigation. First and foremost, testing helps validate performance—and that’s important for building owners in today’s environment. For many, making the investment in mock-up testing is a worthwhile venture to be more certain of long-term performance. System failures following completion of construction can be major liabilities. Especially as the construction space continues to face labor and skills challenges, a robust testing protocol can help reveal any weaknesses before the job is fully complete, allowing rework if necessary.

Quality assurance for new technologies. Building owners are further looking to new building and fenestration technologies for higher energy performance (more on that in a second). And as these new technologies are deployed, owners want assurance their selection can provide those benefits without sacrificing any of the reliability of legacy technologies. That testing I mentioned earlier was for Quanex’s commercial-grade vinyl window system, and structural performance was a critical part of the evaluation. I’ve noted before how commercial vinyl technologies can offer a wide range of benefits in punched opening and multi lite applications, and I believe that successful testing to commercial performance criteria like this will help broaden the acceptance of these types of options and further validate their place in the commercial market.

Efficiency and sustainability. Building codes and other measures will continue to drive the need for more thermally efficient glass and window systems, a trend that I don’t think we’ll see go in reverse any time soon. For example, last month I wrote about the burgeoning growth of passive house-certified buildings, which seek to drive energy consumption to the lowest possible point. Mock-up testing can help validate that the chosen window systems will provide the kind of air tightness required by passive house standards, for instance. As emphasis increases on making buildings more sustainable, I think it’s reasonable to expect testing will help contribute to those goals.

All in all, I think this kind of mock-up testing is a good thing for our industry. It’s an effective way that we can help grow trust and acceptance of new and emerging commercial glass and glazing technologies that can help make better buildings.