Gaby Mendham, joint managing director at Ecoglass, looks back at almost three decades in glass, and says that the most important changes are still ahead.

When I joined Ecoglass as a director in 1997, I came with a fresh perspective on the fenestration industry and a clear instinct: to help shape a people-first company built for the future.

We embraced sustainability principles long before they became mainstream conversation and kept humanity and heart at the core of the business, not because it made good PR, but because it was true to the Middleton family business I was joining. Over the years, I’ve guided the business through various periods of change and growth, whilst maintaining the legacy that defines the company today.
Almost three decades later, that philosophy hasn’t changed. But almost everything else has.

An industry transformed
When I first started, the glazing industry was a very different world. Single glazing was the standard, and energy efficiency simply wasn’t a conversation anyone was having. The relationship between a glass manufacturer and its customers was largely transactional; you made it, they fitted it, and that was that.

What followed was a quiet but steady revolution. The introduction of sealed double glazing. The move to low-emissivity coatings. Argon and krypton-filled units. Glazing now features front and centre of home and commercial design. Each development has continued to raise the bar, not only on what glass can do, but on what customers rightly expect it to do.

I’ve watched this industry mature from the inside, and my time serving on the Glass and Glazing Federation Board from 2019 to 2023 gave me a broader view still, of the pressures, the opportunities and the direction of travel across the whole supply chain. What strikes me most is that the pace of change isn’t slowing. If anything, we’re entering one of the most significant periods of transformation the sector has ever seen.

The changing landscape
The Future Homes Standard has now been confirmed. Regulations were laid before Parliament in March 2026 and come into force in March 2027, with full mandatory compliance for all new homes in England effective from March 2028.

The standard requires new homes to produce at least 75% lower carbon emissions than those built to 2013 regulations, mandating heat pumps, solar PV and significantly improved building fabric across the board. For the glazing sector, the implications are direct: performance requirements for windows and sealed units will need to meet considerably tighter fabric efficiency targets, and the industry needs to be ready.
Meanwhile, Document Q, currently governing security standards for new builds, is under review.

Proposed revisions could extend its scope to replacement windows and doors, a change that, if implemented, would affect a far larger portion of the market than the Future Homes Standard itself. Similar regulatory developments are already emerging in Scotland and Wales.

Alongside this, there are more than 80 million windows in existing UK homes that don’t meet current building regulations. The retrofit opportunity this represents is substantial, but only if the industry meets it with the right products, the right knowledge and the honest ability to communicate why performance matters.

Window Energy Ratings have served the industry well for over 25 years. But consumer priorities are shifting. Security, acoustic performance and protection against overheating are increasingly part of the conversation, and the way we communicate product performance needs to reflect that. Our sector has the potential to be central to the UK’s ambitions for more energy-efficient housing, and we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to lead that conversation clearly.

What Ecoglass is doing
We’ve never been a business that waits to be told what to do next.

In the past two years alone, we’ve introduced a customer KPI programme that measures our performance against what clients actually need, sharing those results in full, even when they’re not perfect. We’ve built a technical academy, led by Ian Snow, to develop product knowledge across the supply chain.

And we’ve invested in key account management with Craig Hopper to ensure our customers have a dedicated, knowledgeable point of contact who genuinely understands their business.

We’ve also continued to invest in sustainability, not as a marketing exercise, but because it’s the right thing to do. As of March 2026, we’ve returned more than 413 tonnes of cullet through the Saint-Gobain Glass Forever Recycling Programme and planted over 6,500 trees through our partnership with Ecologi. We absorb those costs ourselves, because we believe our customers shouldn’t have to choose between doing good work and doing the right thing.

Most recently, we developed EcoSlim, a slim-profile IGU designed for period properties and conservation areas, delivering significantly improved thermal efficiency without compromising on aesthetics. It’s the kind of product that only comes from genuinely listening to what the market needs.

Looking ahead
What I’ve learned in almost three decades in this industry is that the businesses that last aren’t necessarily the biggest or the loudest. They’re the ones that stay curious, stay honest and keep showing up for their customers, through the good markets and the difficult ones.

The regulatory changes ahead will challenge the sector. The retrofit opportunity will reward those who are ready for it. And the expectations customers have of their suppliers, for transparency, technical support and genuine partnership, will only increase.

At Ecoglass, we’ve been preparing for exactly that. Not because the market demands it, but because it’s always been how we work.

The industry is changing. We intend to change with it, and to help our customers do the same.