After adding an eighth division earlier this year as part of its Glass Week activities, the Glass Association of North America (GANA) has announced that the first face-to-face meeting of the Energy Di…
After adding an eighth division earlier this year as part of its Glass Week activities, the Glass Association of North America (GANA) has announced that the first face-to-face meeting of the Energy Division will take place at the GANA Fall Conference 17-20 October. During the meeting, Stanley Yee, building enclosure consultant at the Facade Group in Portland, will present Air Leakage in Buildings: Mitigation and Code Issues. Yee first led the then newly-formed Energy Committee at Glass Week in 2008. It is an honour and a privilege to be invited to speak before the Energy Division at the GANA Fall Conference, Yee says. It has been both encouraging and exciting to be part of and be witness to the evolution, growth, and emergence of the Energy Division from its beginnings as the Energy Committee. It reinforces the notion that GANA“s membership, the glass and glazing industry, is a valuable player in the various forums relating to energy; be it in the areas of conservation/management, harnessing of solar potential, or in the code arena. The meeting of the Energy Division will take place on 17 October, and includes tasks such as: development of a Solar Glass 101 presentation for AIA accreditation, work on a dynamic glazing glass informational bulletin (GIB), continued work on a solar products and applications matrix, a pending life cycle analysis study by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Yee“s presentation. The agenda was pioneered by Helen Sanders, vice president of technical business development for Sage Electrochromics Inc., and past chair of the Energy Committee. Energy is, and will continue to be, a front burner issue for the fenestration industry, says Sanders, who recently testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. The GANA Energy Division is a forum where we can come together to discuss, develop and implement strategies to address important industry issues related to energy, just as we did for the window-to-wall ratio issue in the last code cycle. One of our current areas of focus is on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for fenestration and particularly deciding how to participate with the many third parties who are attempting to carry out and set up rules for these analyses, Sanders says. LCAs are becoming an important part of our business going forward. It is therefore critical for our industry to educate ourselves, ensure there is accurate data available, and be part of developing robust methodologies for analyzing fenestration“s carbon footprint. This will be one of the main initial goals of the division. Urmilla Sowell, GANA“s technical director, said: GANA has been involved with many energy issues facing the glass and glazing industry, such as ASHRAE 90.1 window-to-wall ratio and BuildingStar. Additionally, GANA and ASTM International have successfully held joint educational Solar Glass Workshops. The GANA Energy Division will serve the membership by providing a structured forum to discuss energy-related issues, as well as educate the industry on topics like daylighting and high performance glazing. The GANA Energy Division will serve as the voice for the glazing industry on energy management issues related to glass, glazing and fenestration.