American Architectural Manufacturers Association

GANA Energy Division to Launch at Fall Conference

Sponsored by

Brian Pitman, GANA

The Glass Association of North America (GANA) added an eighth division earlier this year as part of its Glass Week activities, but the first face-to-face meeting of the Energy Division took place in October at the GANA Fall Conference in Kansas City, which was held October 17 – 20. The first meeting featured a presentation titled "Air Leakage in Buildings: Mitigation and Code Issues" by Stanley Yee of Portland, OR-based The Facade Group. Yee first led the then newly-formed Energy Committee at Glass Week in 2008.

"It is an honor and a privilege to speak before the Energy Division at the GANA Fall Conference," said Yee. "It has been both encouraging and exciting to be part of and be witness to the evolution, growth and emergence of the Energy Division from its beginnings."

The Division's meeting was held on Monday, October 17. The conference schedule included several ambitious tasks, including development of a "Solar Glass 101" presentation for AIA accreditation, work on a dynamic glazing Glass Informational Bulletin (GIB), continued work on a solar products and applications matrix, a pending life cycle analysis study by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Yee's presentation. The agenda was spearheaded by Dr. Helen Sanders of Faribault, MN-based Sage Electrochromics, Inc., the immediate past chair of the Energy Committee who succeeded Yee.

"Energy is, and will continue to be, a front burner issue for the fenestration industry," said Sanders, who recently testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "The GANA Energy Division is a forum where we can come together to discuss, develop and implement strategies to address important industry issues related to energy, just as we did for the window-to-wall ratio issue in the last code cycle."

"One of our current areas of focus is on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for fenestration and particularly deciding how to participate with the many third parties who are attempting to carry out and set up rules for these analyses. LCAs are becoming an important part of our business going forward. Just as there are National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) performance labels today, we will soon be putting eco-labels on our products. In fact, in the future you may not be able to participate in a building project without a product LCA. It is, therefore, critical for our industry to educate ourselves, ensure there is accurate data available and be part of developing robust methodologies for analyzing fenestration’s carbon footprint. This will be one of the main initial goals of the Division."

Regarding the joint effort, “representatives from AAMA, GANA, IGMA and WDMA hammered out two tables full of critical assumptions for the NIST Sustainability Calculator,” said Rich Walker, president and CEO of AAMA. “This work provides the foundation for standardizing and analyzing the environmental credentials of windows. In LCA terminology, the assumptions are the basis for the development of window PCRs that will be the guidelines for developing specific LCA values through EPDs.”

"GANA has been involved with many energy issues facing the glass and glazing industry, such as ASHRAE 90.1 window-to-wall ratio and Building STAR," said Urmilla Sowell, GANA's Technical Director. "Additionally, GANA and ASTM International have successfully held joint educational Solar Glass Workshops. The GANA Energy Division will serve the membership by providing a structured forum to discuss energy-related issues, as well as educate the industry on topics like daylighting and high performance glazing.”

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