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Green Building Movement Tops WDMA Agenda
Cambridge, Md.—How individual companies and the association as a whole can respond more pro-actively to the green building movement was the topic of a panel discussion highlighting the agenda of the Window & Door Manufacturers Association summer meeting taking place here this week. Pete Walker of Huber Engineered Woods and chairman of WDMA’s Environmental Stewardship Committee, unveiled a new section on WDMA’s Web site devoted to sustainability issues, reflecting the organization’s efforts to date to gather information and resources.
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WDMA’s green building panelists included (from left to right) Brian Strombotne of Green Builder Media, GreenSeal’s Cheryl Baldwin, Curt Alt of the Composite Panel Association and Pete Walker, Huber Engineered Woods. |
Walker also noted that WDMA plans to become more involved as an advocate in the green building arena—pointing to the need for industry representation in such organizations as the U.S. Green Building Council. Jeff Lowinski, WDMA’s technical director, also raised the possibility of WDMA expanding upon its current Hallmark certification to cover numerous other “green” issues, such as recycled content.
The green building or sustainability movement covers a whole spectrum of issues, noted Brian Strombotne of Green Builder Media. Window and door manufacturers must look beyond such single issues—like the energy efficiency of their products—to how their company operates as a whole. Companies need to take such environmentally friendly steps as water reclamation, energy efficiency in their plants, raw materials, emissions, waste management, transportation and packaging. “You need to bring life-cycle analysis into new product development,” he suggested. “What happens when your products have finished their useful life? Do you have a take-back plan?” Suggesting that an overall goal should be a public declaration of sustainability backed by meaningful procedures and processes, Strombotne said, “You need to create a whole sustainable culture” within a company.
Green certification definitely covers a broad range of company practices, not just a product, noted Cheryl Baldwin of GreenSeal Inc. She followed Strombotne, reviewing her organization’s “leadership standards” in various product areas, including windows. GreenSeal, she continued, has been focusing its promotional efforts toward institutional customers to date, but now plans to raise the profile of its green-certification program, which covers a broad array of products, among consumers as well.
Curt Alt of the Composite Panel Association reviewed his organization’s efforts to create a green certification program for its products. “Wood products by their very nature are green. Composite wood products are very green, because they are made of recycled content,” he explained. “So we have a very good story to tell. The question is how do we get this message out.” The association’s program, he noted, focuses on product characteristics, such as recycled content and formaldehyde levels.
Responding to one manufacturer’s question about how to choose between all the possible rating programs and labels that could be put on a window now, Lowinski suggested adding green criteria within WDMA’s certification program would certainly be an option if members wanted to go in that direction. As an organization, he suggested, there’s no reason WDMA couldn’t develop criteria for rating products in the various areas of concern to green-conscious customers. “We already have pieces of a green program in place. We’re already in the plant, so we have the enforcement.”
NEW MATERIALS
The movement toward sustainability is a key driver in a “materials revolution,” according to Blaine Brownell, an architect and author who also spoke at the WDMA summer meeting. “We’ve seen more new materials in the past few years than in the whole previous history of buildings,” he noted, adding that, “Architects are very interested in this development.”
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A “materials revolution” is taking place, and it’s generating much interest from architects, Blaine Brownell told the WDMA audience. | Photovoltaic technologies, including products incorporated into window glass and new product ideas—incorporating mirrored ducts and fiber optics—to bring natural daylight into a building were among the products he showcased using these new materials. He also showed an “Eco-Curtain,” a façade incorporating vertical turbine blades to harness wind power, and suggested that vertical environments in urban settings represent many opportunities for multiple functions.
Materials development is being influenced by new ideas, such as biomimicry, Brownell stated, with engineers and scientists looking at nature for inspiration. A spider web, he explained, is ounce for ounce stronger than anything, and researchers are looking to replicate that strength in new manmade materials.
WDMA wraps up its summer meeting today. Further highlights will appear in next week’s WDweekly and a full report will be featured in the September issue of Window & Door.
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