I ’ ll still be working on new product development , supporting our customers to maximise efficiency , and keeping up with changing regulation .

But going forward , I ’ ll also be helping oversee Edgetech ’ s activities in the ESG sphere – Environmental , Social and Governance .

Over the last twenty years , there ’ s been a marked shift in what people expect from the businesses they work at , invest in , or buy from .

On an issue like climate change , for instance , we ’ ve got a moral duty to minimise the impact we ’ re having . But increasingly , there are commercial pressures , too .

We understand now that one in every four dollars invested on the New York Stock Exchange has some sort of ESG consideration behind it .

People care about the environment and sustainability factors . They care about human rights and people ’ s working conditions . And they want to work with companies that are ethical and transparent .

In one sense , we have a head start with this task , because

Edgetech has always been very progressive in that regard . But there ’ s always more we can be doing .

What kind of improvements are you hoping to implement ?

In the last year , we ’ ve changed the way we dispose of waste that means we now don ’ t send any material to landfill .

We ’ ve also increased recycling of the plastic reels our flexible spacers come on . At present , we ’ re recycling over 80 % of these reels , each of which can be used at least half a dozen times .

In the months ahead , we ’ re going to be investigating whether we can provide a similar service for customers who use our Super Spacer ® Heritage™ products also .

Something I ’ m very interested in is the principle of the circular economy – the idea that the waste produced by one industrial process can be used as the valuable raw material for another .

For example , we send waste material we can ’ t recycle to a Coventry-based waste management company to turn into RDF ( Refuse Derived Fuel ) - this is then used by a local cement works as an alternative to fossil fuels .

Fenestration , and the IG sector in particular , have made huge leaps in energy efficiency in recent decades . Do you think we ’ ll continue to see similar progress in years to come , or will it inevitably slow ?

There ’ s clearly going to be an enormous drive for change , and exploration of alternative technologies and materials , as the world ’ s major economies push to decarbonise .

That will naturally drive R & D efforts and capital investment in better equipment , infrastructure , and materials , which should definitely yield benefits .

In the last decade , there have been extremely impressive advances in materials , particularly in polymer technologies - much of it driven by the automotive and transport sector ’ s drive for lighter , cleaner and more sustainable materials . Similar

approaches are now filtering into the construction products industries , and being employed in building fabric products .

But with my NPD hat on , I also know it ’ s going to be a big challenge . Take spacers , for instance – energy efficiency and sustainability are hugely important , but they ’ re far from the only consideration .

The first ever warm-edge spacer was patented in the 1860s to be made from rope or wood strip and sealed with tar , which from a thermal standpoint would have made a very efficient spacer even by modern standards .

But product development in fenestration is a constant balancing act . As well as thermal performance , durability , and product function , you ’ ve got to think about ventilation , fire safety , security , potential overheating , noise control and so on – and sometimes , these

56 MARCH 2022

CLEARVIEW-UK . COM