Changing the Sustainability Game in Philadelphia

Posted June 14, 2013 By Stan Gatland and has no comments yet.

GridSTARHouseBackPhiladelphia is making great strides when it comes to sustainability. The world’s largest green building event — Greenbuild 2013 — will attract more than 30,000 building industry leaders to Philadelphia in November. The city has received national recognition for its recycling programs. New codes and tax credits are fostering more sustainable building practices. And, there’s a hotbed of research and innovation underway at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

With our North American headquarters just outside of Philadelphia and as a sustainable manufacturer, we fully embrace the city’s push to become “America’s Greenest City”. We have invested time and resources into a game-changing, smart-grid project that can move the needle on Net Zero Energy in construction.

Led by a collaboration of researchers, manufacturers and economic development officials, the GridSTAR Center will roll out in three phases — the GridSTAR Net Zero Energy Demonstration Structure, a solar training center and an electric vehicle (EV) charging station. These buildings are powered by an energy storage system that captures the power and disperses it as needed.

For more than a year, I have been involved in the planning and construction of the Net Zero Energy Demonstration Structure, which will be a hub for CertainTeed Building Science testing and research on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. The structure also offers a valuable platform to further understand and optimize how our products work together — including photovoltaic roofing, solar reflective roofing, fiberglass and spray foam insulation, foundation drainage and waterproofing systems, insulated vinyl siding, water resistive barrier and gypsum board.

From a broader perspective, the GridSTAR project is a testament to the power of public-private partnerships. In this case, the project includes a consortium of representatives from Penn State, the U.S. Department of Energy, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, DTE Energy and five leading building product manufacturers.

This truly is a landmark project that will influence how we build and power our homes in the future. If you plan to attend GreenBuild 2013 in Philadelphia, I recommend that you take the tour of the Navy Yard which includes this project. It is truly changing the sustainability game in Philadelphia.

Watch for future blogs on this project as we begin performance testing of the systems.

 

About Stan Gatland

Stan Gatland is Manager, Building Science Technology for CertainTeed Corporation

Greenbuild 2012 is a Wrap! Philadelphia Here we Come!

Posted November 21, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has no comments yet.

San Francisco is among the top sustainable cities in the U.S. so it was exciting to be out there for Greenbuild this year.  The expo portion of the conference was only two days this year but from the beginning of the first day the show floor was packed with attendees who were really engaged. In fact, it was the most engaged audience I have seen since the recession began.  Hopefully, that is an indicator that the building market is returning.

NOVA speed dating

NOVA speed dating

In my travels around the show, I was surprised that I really didn’t see too many new innovations. There was nothing that stood out as a bright, new product or very innovative with the exception of the Saint-Gobain NOVA Innovation Competition.  The NOVA External Venturing division of Saint-Gobain rewards start-ups offering the most innovative solutions in the field of habitat, energy and the environment.  This was the first time the competition has taken place in the U.S. Over the last several months Saint-Gobain reviewed and selected eight finalists who would come to Greenbuild for a final interview process during the show days.  From those eight, three entrepreneurs where awarded cash prizes, however, all the contestants will have the opportunity to partner with Saint-Gobain in exploring potential joint development, licensing and other collaboration.

It was amazing the buzz that was created on the show floor by the NOVA Competition.  The final eight entrepreneurs participated in what might be referred to as a “speed dating” round.  These innovators were pitching their ideas to some of the best business leaders in our industry. It was exciting during the speed dating and a large crowd gathered for the announcement of the winners.  The top winner was Heliotrope, a developer of energy-efficient electrochromic glass that that switches reversibly between three states:  solar transparent, heat blocking, and heat and light blocking or darkened.  The second place winner was PlanGrid, a complete collaborative platform for construction information and the fastest PDF viewer in the universe.  Third place went to SmarterShade, a unique approach to the emerging technology being called “smart windows.”

Greenbuild 2013 is coming to Philadelphia – CertainTeed’s neck of the woods.  But, for Philadelphia, following San Francisco is like having the Beatles as a warm-up band.  While many folks who are into urban sustainability are aware of the great progress made my our Mayor Nutter and his team, just how far and how quickly Philadelphia has transformed its sustainable future may come as a surprise to some of our visitors next year. I’m certain that none of this would be possible without the support and efforts of groups like the Delaware Valley Green Building Council who is hosting GreenBuild for 2013. There are some very exciting projects taking place in Philadelphia and we are eager to share them with the green world.

I hope to see you in Philadelphia for Greenbuild 2013!

 

 

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Lucas Hamilton, CertainTeed Building Science

Posted November 16, 2012 By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

Lucas Hamilton

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

In order to achieve and maintain a healthy, sustainable built environment we need to educate the end users of these buildings.  The people who use the buildings need to be a partner in the process and be educated because they figure strongly in the success of the sustainability of the building. Only if the end users understand that their behaviors contribute to the success or failure of highly efficient systems can we ensure a healthy, sustainable built environment. There isn’t a life cycle without that three-quarter part of it – the people using and maintaining it. The Living Building Challenge is doing it right because they include an education component to the process.

What is your business doing to support this goal?

What we are doing is to educate, educate, educate – through training, webinars, and providing information to all audiences. We need to help end users understand that they are a critical part of the process. 

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

A Powerful Green Building Partnership

By Angie Dye and has no comments yet.

Saint-Gobain, CertainTeed and the Youthbuild Philadelphia Charter School took center stage at Greenbuild 2012 to share their experience in preparing young adults for a career in the building industry, while transforming a long vacant structure into a sustainable home. This public-private partnership provides a useful framework that can easily be leveraged by other communities, offering a win, win, win scenario.

First of all, the partnership provides young adults with valuable hands-on training that will prepare them for a career in the construction industry.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a growing demand for construction-related skilled workers, which means these students are especially well positioned for future success.

The CertainTeed building scientists who provided on-site training walked away with new ideas on how to design and install products — which was fueled by the fresh insight the students brought to the project.

From the community’s perspective, the project is helping to expand the availability of affordable, green housing.

Categories:
 GreenBuild

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Steve Jette, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics

Posted November 15, 2012 By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

 Greenbuild 2012 is the perfect venue to capture interesting perspectives on sustainability. We’re highlighting a few noteworthy individuals through our “Green Building Guru” column

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

The most important thing we can do to ensure a healthy, sustainable built environment is to be more efficient in the manufacture of products to lower the embodied energy in our products.  As we manufacture, we need to save on energy and water so that there is less embodied energy in products when they go to market, when they get assembled or when they get fabricated. We are components of end structures so we need to do our part to ensure the sustainability of the end project.

 What is your business doing to support this goal?

To accomplish this, we have conducted an industry first Life Cycle Assessment on our ThermalBond® foam tape.  This is a cradle-to-grave assessment that measures the environmental impacts of manufacturing and the benefits of using our product. For our customers to be efficient they need their components to be efficient and that is what we have to done – quantified our processes with the LCA.

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

Greenbuild 60-Second Stopby: Kohler

By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

Kohler unveiled a somewhat surprising new look at their Greenbuild 2012 exhibit. A far cry from their typical pristine white, appearance, the company took a rustic approach in showcasing their kitchen and bath products. Using a structure comprised of reclaimed wood, their entire booth was transported in one compact semi-trailer. After the show, the wood will be donated and repurposed. All in all, an interesting, environmentally responsible approach.

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Drew Brandt, CertainTeed Insulation

By Angie Dye and has no comments yet.

Greenbuild 2012 is the perfect venue to capture interesting perspectives on sustainability. We’re highlighting a few noteworthy individuals through our “Green Building Guru” column.

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

Companies that are developing and manufacturing products for green construction need to fully embrace environmental transparency and provide quality, accurate information to end users. This is the foundation for continuous improvement and innovation in product design that will help us collectively protect and preserve the environment.

What is your business doing to support this goal?

Most recently, we created the “Recycled Truth” website in reaction to the U.S. Green Building Council’s ruling that calls for more stringent parameters for calculating the recycled content of products. In essence, the ruling requires manufacturers to report recycled content on a by product, by plant basis versus a combined national average. At CertainTeed, we’ve always embraced plant-specific analyses and developed the site to help share our experience with other manufacturers, architects, builders, etc.

 

 

Categories:
 GreenBuild, Insulation

A New Perspective on Environmental Impact

Posted November 14, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has no comments yet.

From a product standpoint, conducting life cycle assessments has become a fairly standard practice. Building industry professionals as well as end users expect this kind of transparency and want to be equipped with information on how products are manufactured, the raw materials that are used, and their ultimate fate at the end of their useful life. This is all good (actually it’s great), but what if we also look at the environmental impact of an installed product from a broader, collective perspective? For example, there’s a whole range of products that can save — and even generate — energy for homes and buildings. This energy savings and generation can equate to significant reductions in carbon emissions.

Working in conjunction with Sustainable Solutions, we set out on a mission to further explore this idea. Using Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed products —  such as fiberglass insulation, solar window film and photovoltaic roofing systems — we created a model based on data from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. What we learned is that the carbon reductions of installed Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed products on an annual basis equates to the carbon dioxide emissions produced by more than 300,000 passenger vehicles or the amount of electricity needed to power more than 189,000 homes. Ultimately, these types of products have a long-lasting impact on the built environment and we take great pride in that…

Interested in learning more? Stop by the Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed exhibit #4359 at Greenbuild 2012.

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

Categories:
 GreenBuild

In the Green Zone: Modular Construction  

By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

Once again, sustainable modular construction is being featured in the GreenZone area at Greenbuild 2012. For anyone who missed it last year, the GreenZone, which is spearheaded by Building Design + Construction and Professional Builder magazines, made its debut in Toronto with a prototype for a medical facility. This year in San Francisco, there are two structures available for tour: a net-zero, LEED-designed home and an innovative green classroom designed to meet rigorous indoor air quality requirements. Both prototypes mark the convergence of an outstanding project team, including Bogue Trondowski Architects, Method Homes, Portland State University, Blazer Industries, Pacific Construction Services and Oregon Solutions. (And, yes, we’re very proud to have two CertainTeed products — AirRenew Indoor Air Quality Gypsum Board and Sustainable Insulation — included as well!)   If you are at the show, be certain to stop by the GreenZone located just outside of the North Hall.

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Greenbuild 60-Second Stop By: Sky Factory

By Angie Dye and has no comments yet.

With over 1,000 exhibits, the Greenbuild 2012 Expo hall can be a navigational challenge — there are so many interesting things to see and experience. Through the “60-second “stopby” segment, we’re sharing a few things that caught our attention.

The eye-catching, somewhat mesmerizing, imagery is what initially drew me in to the Sky Factory exhibit at Greenbuild. Based on the concept of biophilic engagement, the company manufacturers skylights and windows that bring the realistic illusion of nature into interior spaces. Used primarily in healthcare settings, Sky Factory’s products align closely with evidence-based design, which continues to garner significant attention from the green building industry.

Categories:
 GreenBuild

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