Green with energy

Glass Times editor Nathan Bushell believes the green credentials of glass and glazing products need to be pushed to the homeowner.

Endurance Doors has achieved an audited zero landfill mark, the company announced this week.

The company said that it was part of a wider sustainability programme, but as a piece of news to share with customers, to be cascaded down to the end user, it is exactly the sort of development the industry should be regularly shouting about.

I was told by one installer recently that homeowners don’t tend to talk to him about sustainability. This bothered me for some time following the conversation because it appeared to suggest that homeowners were not interested in the sustainability of their windows.

However, is it possible that they weren’t expecting to choose windows and doors on the basis of their sustainability, given that they had chosen new windows because they were going to be more energy efficient?

It’s a bit like replacing your ten-year-old TV, but you don’t quiz the salesperson about whether or not it is 4K, because you expect that to be the case anyway. But then – in an effort to upsell – you are given the choice of OLED, higher refresh rates, and excellent contrast ratios.

Suddenly, you are interested in the overall picture quality, and the salesperson has got you in their hands.

There is no doubt that sustainability is going to affect the way consumers buy items, from toothpaste to conservatories, but it may not be until they’ve got two products in their hands that it becomes a deciding factor: if a homeowner is looking at two doors, and the manufacturer of the one with the better margins recycles its waste for community heating projects and animal bedding, then a decision could be made.

As you should know by now, Glass Times is pushing sustainability up the news agenda, so please keep us informed of your eco-news.