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GANA Fall Conference – Day 1

Sept. 24, 2014 – The Glass Association of North America started its fall
conference yesterday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown in Toronto.
Over 50 member companies sent delegates to participate in technical
discussions and network with colleagues and suppliers. The conference runs until Sept. 28.

Sept. 24, 2014 – The Glass Association of North America started its fall
conference yesterday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown in Toronto.
Over 50 member companies sent delegates to participate in technical
discussions and network with colleagues and suppliers.

The
Technical Committee of the Building Envelope Contractors Division,
chaired by Chuck Knickerbocker of Technical Glass Products, heard a
presentation on reflected glare and solar heat from Vincente Montes of
Curtainwall Design Consultants. Then the committee got updates on the
progress of several technical publications from the various authoring
subcommittees.

Bill Yanek of Centric Management told the lunch
crowd about its association management provider and described Centric's
activities across the continent with various other associations. Ashley
Charest, GANA and Canadian Glass Association executive director,
introduced the CGA as Centric's newest client and announced it would now
be accepting memberships from individual companies in the Canadian
glass industry regardless of whether they were members of their
provincial association. She also introduced the CGA's new social media
channels: @CanadianGlass on Twitter and on Facebook under
CanadianGlassAssociation.

GANA, Centric and the CGA come together. Ashley Charest, Angelo Cairo of Stouffville Glass and Bill Yanek at the GANA fal conference.

The Energy Division convened after
lunch with Tom Culp of Birch Point Consulting giving members an update
on energy codes and standards. He said 2015 promises to be a big year
with a number of major updates to such standards as LEED, the
International Green Construction Code and the International Energy
Conservation Code due to be released. There do not appear to be many
major challenges for the glass industry in the proposed updates now that
GANA and IGMA have seen off the attempts to lower window-to-wall ratios
in ASHRAE 189.1. One potential challenge on the horizon is an
initiative by the National Fenestration Rating Council to look at
changing its solar spectrum table for rating solar heat gain coefficient
which would result in higher SHGC ratings for everything it labels.

Energy
Division chair Helen Sanders of Sage Electrochromics updated members on
the progress of the Life-Cycle Assessment Task Group which is close to
completing its work to develop Product Category Rules for Environmental
Product Declarations for windows and commercial glazing products. She
warned members to get familiar with EPDs as they may soon become
mandatory for green building projects. A lab was selected to develop the
final framework of the GANA-approved PCR.
 
The committee is working on a Glazing Information Bulletin that will
outline the energy-efficiency characteristics of several glass products –
double IG, triple IG, vacuum IG, curtainwall etc. – in one handy
document. It was decided that GANA would withdraw from the ASTM solar committee as
interest from the membership and participation in the manufacture of
photovoltaic glass by American companies has fallen to a very low level.
The committee took a look at a members-only white paper showing the
differences between LEED 2009 and the new Version 4 that will be
replacing all former versions soon. A subcommittee was formed to build a
library of research on the effects of daylighting on occupant health
and productivity.

The New Professionals Committee heard a
presentation from Frank Spitzer of the IGI Group on intelligent building
design. Spitzer recommends a very high level of integration in all
building systems with a design approach that incorporates
telecommunications and internal communications services right from the
start. The committee then moved into a closed session where GANA members
with less than five years' involvement could chat with a panel of
industry veterans made up of Ren Bartoe of Vesuvius, Arthur Berkowitz of
J.E. Berkowitz and John Dwyer of Syracuse Glass. A lively discussion
ensued, covering energy code acronyms, GANA's history, inter-association
relations and membership and participation challenges.

The day wrapped up with a reception celebrating GANA's 20th birthday.

For more information
glasswebsite.com