Without ignoring the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected people’s lives around the globe, it is time for the fenestration industry and green building community to look forward and ask what we can accomplish now in this changed world.

The pandemic reminded us that change is perpetual, pervasive, and exponential. In fact, one global study says the pandemic has motivated 57% of companies to accelerate their sustainable transformation plans.

Moreover, research by the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) shows this has led to three trends likely to drive public interest in green building.

Newfound Cooperation

As the world recovers, it becomes increasingly apparent that the COVID-19 crisis affected all the members of the green building community similarly, though with varying intensity levels and in staggered waves.

Even before COVID, we knew it could be challenging for any one organization to work single-handedly toward a cause and win, and this commonality reveals that drastic, transformative change is possible and has made us all more receptive to forming new partnerships that provide leverage to create a more energy-efficient future.

Additionally, design-build professionals do not want to create a better version of the past. Instead, they are embracing the value of collective action and seek to become better informed by science so they can help facilitate a strong recovery with sustainability taking center stage.

Increased Demand for Healthier Homes and Buildings

The accelerated pace of change has also increased demand for healthier homes and buildings through improved indoor air quality. Accordingly, many home builders, commercial real estate developers, and facilities managers view themselves as the frontline caregivers.

Additionally, market analysis shows facilitating employee health and wellbeing (33%) will take precedence for companies throughout 2022, even ahead of emissions reduction (30%). Moreover, investors cite employee health and wellbeing as a priority, preceded only by assuring sustainable supply chains.

These two factors can precipitate sweeping changes throughout the commercial and residential real estate markets. Although many companies have become partially or fully virtual, one study says that as of September 2021, new demand for office space was at its highest level since the onset of the pandemic. In fact, Chicago and Seattle are above pre-pandemic levels, while Los Angeles and New York are hovering at over 95% of pre-pandemic levels.

While balancing the demand for fresh air ventilation with the need to conserve energy presents a challenge, it also positions the fenestration industry to develop more innovative products. Studies tell us indoor environments that mimic or allow access to the natural world can lower blood pressure and cortisol levels, improve concentration, and strengthen the immune system.

Studies also show that compromised indoor air quality exacerbates many diseases. In the U.S. alone, the cost attributed to “sick building syndrome” in commercial workplaces is as high as $70 billion annually. From this perspective, creating healthier structures is one of the most important endeavors of our time.

Responsible Consumption and Product Certification

Finally, today’s post-pandemic shoppers want to consume more responsibly and seek assurance that their purchases are sustainable.

Industry analysis estimates the global energy-efficient windows market will grow from USD 13.1 billion in 2021 to USD 18.3 billion by 2026 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.0%. The commercial window market size was estimated at USD 2.8 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.2% through 2027.

Moreover, global demand for green building materials is expected to grow from $238.91 billion in 2021 – driven mainly by the growing awareness about environmental sustainability – to $383.85 billion in 2025.

Turning to consumer attitudes and behaviors driving this trend, 73% of consumers want to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact, and 85% think about sustainability more than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, most Millennials (75%) are willing to pay more for an environmentally sustainable product, compared to 63% of Gen Z, 64% of Gen X, and 57% of Boomers. Additionally, 77% of Americans are concerned about the environmental impact of products they purchase.

Furthermore, one study says 64% of Americans are willing to pay more for sustainable products, but most (74%) do not know how to identify them.

The same study showed 78% of Americans are more likely to purchase a product that is clearly labeled as environmentally friendly or energy efficient and that 53% of Americans have doubts about companies’ sustainability claims. Finally, 45% say they need a third-party validating source to trust such claims fully.

Conclusion

The wants and needs of building occupants continually change in the dynamic world of commercial real estate.

Prior to the pandemic, tenants considering new office space looked carefully at price, location, accessibility, and ownership reputation, all of which represent the landlord’s traditional selling points.

During the pandemic and its aftermath, however, the focus has changed.

I routinely see many tenants and landlords more interested in indoor air quality. For instance, many clients will not even tour a property unless they are assured the air conditioning and heating systems are relatively new and well-maintained.

A related issue growing in importance is windows that save more energy and provide greater comfort. In fact, I’ve recently seen several landlords replace existing windows to gain these benefits, and building occupants want to know their workspace positively affects their health, wellbeing, and performance.

When landlords can add the benefits of windows that save energy, provide access to plenty of natural light, and help reduce carbon emissions to their buildings, it becomes yet another selling point for them – one that is likely to align with the values of today’s sustainability-conscious customers.

Jonathan I. Hamburger is Vice President of Advisory and Transaction Services at CBRE, a full-service real estate services and investment firm that operates in over 100 countries.

 By Helle Carlsen Nielsen

When the VELUX Group launched our Sustainability Strategy 2030 last fall, we set an ambitious goal of becoming Lifetime Carbon Neutral by 2041. Using science-based targets, we’re taking responsibility for our past and our future carbon emissions. 

We call the strategy “It’s Our Nature,” and it’s a roadmap for the decade of action. It will transform the way we do business, and the products and solutions we provide.

To become Lifetime Carbon Neutral, we will capture our historical carbon footprint and at the same time reduce our future emissions for our company and value chain in line with climate science. To capture our historical carbon footprint since our founding in 1941, we partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to conserve and restore the forests cover of an estimated 200,000 hectares of high-biodiversity value tropical forests. The first projects are located in Uganda and Myanmar, and all five forest projects are expected to be developed to capture approximately 5.6 million tons of carbon equal to our company’s emissions since our founding in 1941 through 2041.

Calculating our historical carbon footprint

How does a skylight manufacturer in business since 1941 with a growing footprint of sales companies in 40 countries, production facilities in 10 countries and approximately 11,500 employees measure the amount of carbon it emitted since its founding? 

No standard methodology exists today for how to calculate a historical carbon footprint, because valid emission factors and energy consumption data from decades ago often do not exist. Therefore, VELUX developed a method based on the recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard and applied it to our historical data. This methodology, including the underlying assumptions, are independently verified by Carbon Trust, which helps companies set targets for carbon reduction plans, and reviewed by scientific experts at WWF. The calculation includes our direct emissions from company facilities and cars and indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the company, since our founding. 

Becoming a carbon neutral company; reducing value chain emissions by 2030

The other part of becoming Lifetime Carbon Neutral is to reduce our future emissions in line with climate science. We are committed to become a 100% carbon neutral company (scope 1 and 2), and we will halve the carbon emissions from our value chain (scope 3) during the decade of action starting now through 2030. VELUX is committed to reduce future CO₂ emissions in line with a 1.5°C decarbonization pathway, and our targets are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.

Other targets in our Sustainability Strategy 2030 include:

Our 2030 Sustainability Strategy also includes actions to ensure our company is diverse  and  inclusive and a healthy place to work. To that end, we set the following targets:

The meaning behind the name “It’s Our Nature”

Calling our sustainability strategy “It’s Our Nature” draws on two meanings: First, it  is our nature to have sustainability at the heart of our business. And second, we want to do our part to alleviate climate change and support the nature that we – and all life on earth – rely upon. 

Under that guiding principle, we will share our experience with other companies interested in taking responsibility of past and future carbon emissions. Join us on May 4, 2021, at 11 a. m. EDT for an NFRC webinar to learn the best practices and key takeaways we’ve gleaned thus far.

Helle Carlsen Nielsen, Head of Sustainability, External Relationsand Sustainability for The VELUX Group

It was June 2003, and the newly installed chief building official of Parker, Colo., stood before a room of builders to deliver a message he knew they wouldn’t like. But Gil Rossmiller also knew they’d come around. He had a plan for energy efficiency, and wouldn’t need much money to make it happen. Rossmiller wanted them to think differently about buildings – as a system of integrated pieces, that interact with each other, and would do it best if designed in a specific sequence. He cited an example: when builders design air-conditioning systems without first picking the windows and calculating a building’s thermal envelope, they’re doing it wrong. He knew they could boost energy efficiency, add comfort, and save money.

Rossmiller went on to private consulting, currently with Shums Coda Associates, but left Parker, a Denver suburb of 55,000, with a method to ensure efficient energy use in buildings and a group of local builders who support it.

“We took logical steps, integrated them with existing processes, and learned together with our builders,” Rossmiller said. “Energy code enforcement is now just a part of the process like any other building code.”

These are steps most American municipalities have yet to take, he said – energy codes aren’t as well understood and complied with as other parts of the International Code Council’s International Building Code (IBC). For windows, doors, and skylights, also known as fenestration products, that’s in part because of an assumption that an energy-performance label from the National Fenestration Ratings Council (NFRC) affixed to a newly installed window is typically all that’s required for compliance. But the reality is that energy efficiency requires early planning at the design phase. And whilst leaders work toward top-down solutions for compliance, that’s not the only way to drive efficiency– consumers demand it. Efficiency isn’t just a best-practice ideal. It’s also good for business. 

Rossmiller first understood that when he was a builder himself. After working in construction, and then as a private-sector building inspector for a company providing that service to municipalities, he worked in the 2000s as a systems-improvement manager for a local builder struggling with moisture issues in its houses.

“We came look at a house as a system, and that you can’t change one thing in the system without impacting other parts of it,” he said.

Fenestration was central to the challenge for compliance. Rossmiller and colleagues realized they were designing HVAC systems too early in the process. By committing to first calculating a house’s overall thermal envelope, including the fenestration factor, they realized that they could cut HVAC capacity by half, and that solved the moisture problem.

“Customer callbacks for comfort issues practically disappeared,” Rossmiller said.

He took these lessons with him when he became Parker’s chief – and only -- building official in 2003. He aimed to boost efficiency through a greater awareness of and compliance with the International Energy Conservation Code, one element of the IBC. Rossmiller convened builders working in Parker for training sessions given for free by product suppliers, for goods such as house wrap and insulation.

Together, he and builders learned more about defining a building’s thermal envelope, such as considering whether crawlspaces, attics, and HVAC ductwork would be placed inside or outside that envelope. They then moved on to other elements of the building process, and Rossmiller gave buildings time for adaptation before enforcement. By 2006, most of those builders were producing houses at least 15 percent more efficient, and often qualifying for ENERGY STAR® status.

“They resisted at first, but many later told me they’ll never go back to the old ways,” Rossmiller said.

Municipalities that follow the international family of building codes, and make clear that what will be inspected, will eventually find that training and inspection becomes less necessary over time.

Targeting efficiency is increasingly easy, Rossmiller said, given the natural improvements vendors make to their windows, doors, house wrap, and other materials. And code inspectors today have more tools, especially on-site. When Rossmiller was a young code inspector, he’d have to do longhand math on paper during inspections and didn’t have a smartphone available to look up code specifics. This combination of improved products and readily-available technical information should help today’s young building inspectors to better understand what they see in the field, and also create an opportunity to simplify and clarify the building codes themselves.