NFRC held its 2022 Fall Membership Meeting from Oct. 24 to 26, at the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa in San Diego, California. More than 100 people attended and were treated to a thorough preview of what’s to come in the fenestration industry, ranging from new technologies to the finer points of the new ENERGY STAR® standards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NFRC CEO Deb Callahan kicked things off with a short welcoming address, and then turned the podium over to three entrepreneurs featured in the Emerging Technology Series: Chris Angelo, CEO and co-founder of Glass Dyenamics; Veeral Hardev, vice president of strategy of Ubiquitous Energy; and Aaron Baskerville-Bridges, vice president of operations and co-founder of AeroShield.

Angelo and Glass Dyenamics are developing glass with dynamic tints, which can be adapted to current weather conditions to optimize a home’s energy efficiency. The glass can be darkened slightly in summer to keep heat out, or become clear in winter to allow heat in. The windows can be controlled through a mobile app or a dimmer switch.

As of 2022, several companies provide this kind of glass for commercial buildings; Glass Dyenamics hopes to be the first to scale up this technology for homes. The company is starting to take orders for its first products, which are focused on glass in doors as well as entryways and transoms but anticipates widening to more types of residential windows.

Veeral Hardev took the podium next to talk about Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar panels. It’s not the only company working on merging solar panels and windows into one product, but one big challenge to adoption is applying solar cells to glass without also adding color to the glass. Ubiquitous Energy’s product is transparent, however, and works using the principle of selective absorption – the energy harvested to generate electricity comes from solar rays that human eyes cannot see, and therefore consumers are expected to find them less intrusive. The company is partnering with Anderson Corp. to develop its first residential products and expects them to have a U-factor at 0.25 or below and a solar heat gain coefficient between 0.2 and 0.4.

AeroShield’s technology is focused on giving current double-glazed windows more insulating power. It does so by converting transparent silica aerogels into an invisible coating that can be applied to the inside surface of the inner pane of a double-glazed window, Baskerville-Bridges told the audience. It can be applied at different thicknesses. According to AeroShield data, a window with a u-factor of about .23 and argon gas fill would see the figure drop to about 0.16 with a three-millimeter aerogel coating applied to it. That would fall to about 0.14 with a coating of 5mm of aerogel, and 0.13 if the thickness were increased to 0.8mm. The company is currently making about 1,000 square feet of the material annually and remains focused on testing its capacity before developing products to sell.

The entrepreneurs were followed by Katie Cort, a senior economist and project manager of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, whose presentation focused on the insulating impact of thin triples – three-pane windows with the middle pane at 1/32nd of an inch thick instead of the standard 1/8th, which makes the product lighter and easier to install. Thin triples represent 11% of windows rated by NFRC, but just 3% of market share. Current research suggests that boosting the overall insulating power of a building envelope will require thin triples, as increasing insulation, even tenfold, won’t make a bigger impact.

Mike Thoman, NFRC’s Director, Code Development, Technology, and Innovation, addressed the issue of how new technologies impact getting an NFRC rating for a window, and the benefits of working with the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, such as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Ca., to prepare developing technologies for the market and get an NFRC rating.

Thoman returned to the podium on the second day of the meeting to update the audience on the Efficient Windows Collaborative, and its Window Selection Tool. The former is NFRC’s consumer-outreach arm, and the latter is its feature offering: a customizable database that homeowners can search to find efficient windows with the right ratings and attributes for their home and climate. Both can be found at the newly renovated web site, www.efficientwindows.org. Window manufacturers in NFRC’s FenStar program that meet ENERGY STAR® requirements will have their products in the Window Selection Tool and can manage their own information as well as upload graphics and pictures of their products.

On the third day, Doug Anderson from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated the audience on the latest requirements for a window to qualify for ENERGY STAR 7.0. U-factors were lowered across the board to improve insulating power, with the biggest change being a 0.22 threshold for the northern zone, down from 0.27 previously.

All presentations from the Fall 2022 Membership Meeting can be found HERE: https://nfrccommunity.org/page/MeetingArchive.

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.