Sunday, April 05, 2015

Good News on the Energy Efficiency Front

Since my last post two major energy efficiency efforts received big boosts.  And despite our current comfort with lower energy prices, energy efficiency is crucial to our society and our industry.  First the Shaheen-Portman Energy Savings Bill was re-introduced and the odds of it being pushed forward are positive.  If a bi-partisan bill like this can’t make it, then there’s no hope.  Meanwhile the Senate did pass the Better Buildings Act of 2015, which will push commercial buildings harder to be more energy efficient.  More details can befound here, but suffice to say we do have the products to get this done.  And these are examples of why I have been so bullish on the dynamic space.  That product line surely should be in the discussion with regards to these pieces of legislation.

Elsewhere…

--  Your monthly update on the Architectural Billings Index… the latest results had the index in the positive but the new project score did dip.  Overall attitudes are still very positive when it comes to building and the economy and from my own view I am seeing more cranes and shells of buildings in process than I have seen in years.

--  Folks don’t forget to get your nominations in for the premier award program in our industry- The Glass Magazine Awards.  Deadline for nominations is this week- April 10.

--  Birthday wishes to two cool folks in our industry… Happy and healthy ones out to Lewis McCallister of Coral Industries and Jan Rogan of PPG. 

--  A heads up to anyone who’s into SEO and websites… Google is making some big moves to their algorithms.  And the big part is changes to the coding with regards to location.  Back in the day, a tactic was to list your company and connect with every city you could think of, then just have it link back to your main site.  Well in this new update, Google is devaluing websites that do that, potentially moving them down the rankings quite a bit.  So heads up.  If you need more info, just drop me a note. 

--  The final agenda for Glass Performance Days is out and those of you going to Finland for it will surely experience a serious overload of glass and glazing education.  A few pieces to check out?  The awesome Jon Kimberlain of Dow Corning going deep on hyperelastic materials, tech legend Chris Barry on Spandrel Defects (Chris will make serious news I believe with his findings) and the extremely talented Jim Gulnick of McGrory Glass with a solar power case study.

-- And speaking of Mr Kimberlain, hopefully by that June trip he'll be over the Kentucky loss in the Final Four.  The great 1976 Indiana team still holds the mantle of being the last college team to go unbeaten all year.

--  Last this week… one big item I have missed was the growth of Health Product Declarations (HPD) in our industry.  Slowly but surely there’s been a significant demand for these and many in our industry have jumped on board and are able to supply them.  In addition having the document helps in the whole LEED v4 effort as well.  I can honestly say I don’t know the process very well at this point, but I’ve decided to dig in and figure it out… especially with HPD 2.0 now in process.   In any case it looks like this is a need that is here to stay for sure- so be aware.

LINKS of the WEEK

--  Amazing effort from a 570 pound man running 5K’s.  Great work!

--  The pressure of college… and it may not even be needed for many.

--  Amazing story here- how a guy has to sell his house because he can’t get internet.  Fascinating on so many levels including horrendous service and outright monopolies.

VIDEO of the WEEK

And here are the top news bloopers for the month of March… some good, some bad, some tasteless…




1 comment:

Rich said...

Lol, I needed a good laugh. 4:10 is especially funny.