Clearview National December 2019 - Issue 217 | Page 50

PROUD SPONSOR OF
GLASS & SEALED UNITS EXTRA
Glass & Sealed Units Extra
Let’s sell the value of
high-performance glass
Chris Alderson is MD of Edgetech, the warm-edge
market leaders. He speaks to IGU manufacturers around
the country on a daily basis – and he’s concerned
that, in many cases, they’re not getting a fair deal.
» GLASS HAS NEVER BEEN
better. In the coming years, we’re
going to hear a lot about the need
for more sustainability and greater
energy efficiency – both vital if
we’ve got any chance of hitting
the country’s extremely ambitious
carbon reduction targets between
now and 2050.
But in the glass sector, they’ve
done a lot of the hard work
already.
‘decades of ingenuity’
Today’s IGUs offer a level
of performance that would’ve
been unimaginable twenty years
ago. But that didn’t come from
nowhere. Those improvements
have been hard-won – the
result of decades of ingenuity,
investment and dedication from
IGU manufacturers.
And, unfortunately, that effort
often goes unrewarded.
GLASS SHOULDN’T
BE A COMMODITY
As an industry, fenestration
doesn’t appreciate glass, or the
huge amount of work that has
gone into making it as good as it’s
now become.
We treat glass like it’s a
commodity – just another
component, with prices we want
to haggle as low as possible. And
the tragedy is that the businesses
who’ve invested so much into the
very advances in glass technology
that we all benefit from often
struggle as a result.
Let’s be clear about the extent
of their contribution in the space
of just a few years.
Only thirteen years ago, when
Edgetech held our Energy Efficiency
in Focus seminar, just fifty products
in the whole of British glazing had a
Window Energy Rating.
At the time, we predicted that
every fabricator in the industry
50 » DEC 2019 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
would be offering C-rated
windows as standard by 2010 – a
suggestion many were sceptical
about at the time.
In fact, the change was much
more drastic – by the 2010s, most
major window companies were
offering A-rated as standard.
Systems companies obviously
played a significant part in this
process, but IGU manufacturers
also had a massive impact.
WORKING TOGETHER
TO GET A FAIRER DEAL
FOR EVERYONE
Now, I recognise that this isn’t
something we can just blame on
one section of the market, we’re
all under pressure to offer lower
and lower prices, ultimately in
order to remain competitive and
attractive to end-users.
Personally, I think this is
an issue we can only tackle by
working together as an industry.
In my view, our objective has
to be persuading homeowners
to properly value glass, and
be willing to pay more for it –
creating a positive ripple effect
that benefits every sector of the
fenestration supply chain.
With the right strategy and
resources, I think we’d have a
good chance of breaking through.
People are more environmentally
conscious than ever before, and,
as the negative effects of climate
change become more and more
apparent in the years ahead, that’s
only going to increase.
If all parts of glass and glazing
work together, in other words,
I think we can continue to help
make Britain a more energy-
efficient, environmentally
responsible place to be – while
ensuring everyone gets a fair
deal.
www.edgetechig.co.uk