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Pittsburgh, PA 15272
Tel: (888) PPG-IDEA (774-4332)
Fax: (888) 434-3127
Web site: http://www.ppgideascapes.com
4 Kenview Boulevard
Brampton, Ontario L6T 5E4
Tel: (905) 790-5336
Technical Service: 1-800-441-9695
Today’s architects occupy the leading edge of a growing global environmental
consciousness. While the industry’s earlier masters were celebrated mainly
for the extraordinary design and functionality of their work, the contemporary
practitioner is now focused with equal intensity on creating structures that harmonize with the delicate ecosystems they occupy.
Concepts such as sustainability, renewability, reclamation, upcycling and
lifecycle analysis, only marginally understood a decade ago, have become common
to the architect’s vernacular.
Today, these terms are being codified into a new canon of architectural standards.
Perhaps the most widely recognized standards are those administered by the
United States Green Building Council (USGBC), whose LEED (Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ has gained primacy
among governmental agencies, municipalities and major corporations eager to
benefit from sustainable building.
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) also has established
ASTM E 2129. This is another recognized standard designed to assess the “sustainability
of elements or products” used in commercial and residential construction,
as well as a building’s overall design efficiency, its impact on the
habits of its occupants, and its influence on the surrounding climate.
The ASTM E 2129 standard addresses the potential environmental sustainability
of a building project according to five major criteria, encompassing Materials,
Manufacturing, Operational Performance of Installed Product, Indoor Environmental
Quality and Corporate Environmental Policy. Rather than establishing specific
standards within each of these categories, ASTM E 2129 poses a series of questions.
Answers to those questions demonstrate to what degree a structure adheres to
the principle of sustainable building.
While LEED does not certify individual building products, it does recognize
that the selection of such products can play a vital role in making a building
LEED compliant. PPG manufactures a variety of glass, paint and coating products
that can help architects earn LEED certification for their projects. These
products also positively address sustainability issues outlined in the ASTM
E 2129 standard.
While the growth of green building is a relatively new phenomenon, PPG’s
commitment to environmental responsibility is long-standing. For decades, PPG
has been committed to making products and pursuing business practices that
help sustain a healthy global environment.
In fact, most PPG building products transcend the LEED standard by addressing
long-term economic, quality and manufacturing issues that impact the environment,
yet fall outside LEED performance parameters. Many of these issues, such as
corporate environmental policy, are addressed in the ASTM E 2129 standard.
On the corporate level, this commitment is articulated through PPG’s
EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) policy, which fosters partnerships with
governmental agencies and environmentally focused groups around the world.
These partnerships support programs and meet strict standards for resource
conservation, habitat preservation, and cleaner air and water.
A strong environmental awareness also pervades PPG’s research and product
development efforts, which span numerous industries beyond the architectural
field.
For instance, PPG pioneered the development of technologies that help automakers
eliminate lead from primer coatings, purge chrome from rinses, cut VOC (volatile
organic compound) emissions, stifle the corrosion of metal, and save energy
by lowering curing temperatures for automotive paints and coatings.
Our engineers and scientists also have produced environmental advances that
intersect with human activity in nearly every moment of daily living.
The result is a vast reservoir of technical knowledge and engineering expertise
that enables PPG to translate the environmental advances it makes in one industry
into exciting new products that serve another.
EcoLogicalSM Glass for Architecture
Glass is one of the architects’ most versatile tools. Fused from raw
materials that are abundant and inexpensive, glass is a low-maintenance material
that has the capacity to retain or deflect the sun’s energy, while protecting
building occupants from wind, rain, snow and other disruptive environmental
forces.
Architects also treasure glass’s transparency, which can frame a dramatic
view or present limitless color, shape and reflectivity options. Along with
its decorative potential, architectural glass also performs two important functions
that are critical to sustainable building, LEED and the ASTM E 2129 evaluation
process.
For sustainable building projects, the ideal architectural glass is one that
permits the greatest amount of natural light to enter a building while limiting,
to the furthest extent possible, the thermal effects of infrared energy and
solar heat gain.
A glass’s ability to balance this “spectral ideal” is quantified
by its Light to Solar Gain ratio (LSG). Any glass that achieves an LSG of more
than 1.25 is considered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to be spectrally
selective. This designation became especially significant when the DOE, following
a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL), recommended
that all commercial buildings in the U.S. be glazed with spectrally selective
glass.
Not surprisingly, PPG was a trailblazer in the development of these critical
products more than 50 years ago. The company supplied the first spectrally
selective glass to New York’s landmark Lever House Building in 1952,
the first major skyscraper to use tinted glass as a design and environmental
control element. PPG also made history 30 years later when it debuted the first
Low-E coated product, Sungate® glass.
Today, the technologies that originated with these two products are industry
standards. The glass featured on the Lever House Building, now known as Solexia™,
is part of PPG’s inspiring Oceans of Color™ collection. With LSGs ranging
from 1.28 to 1.34, Oceans of Color represents the world’s most unique
and best performing line of spectrally selective tinted glasses.
Meanwhile, PPG’s original Sungate technology has evolved into two of
the industry’s most effective and widely specified products, Solarban® 60
and Solarban® 80 Solar Control Low-E Glasses.
Solarban 60 Low-E Glass and PPG’s other low-emissivity architectural
glass products are especially important to architects seeking to manage infrared
heat gain while capitalizing on the benefits of natural daylight. These versatile,
high-performance products can be combined with clear glass—or a complete
range of earth- and ocean-inspired tints—to offer clients an unsurpassed
selection of aesthetic and solar control capabilities.
Through their exceptional amalgamation of light transmittance and solar control
engineering, PPG architectural glasses help architects satisfy LEED prerequisites
in nearly every LEED environmental category, but especially those related to
energy performance, daylighting and views, and thermal comfort.
Lower heating and lighting costs aren’t the only way PPG glass enhances
the environment. We’re making positive contributions through our manufacturing
practices as well.
PPG was a leading pioneer in oxygen-fuel furnace technology and one of the
first companies to install it on a float glass production line in North America.
Today, this technology is in operation at two major PPG glass production facilities.
Thanks to this extraordinary advancement, PPG has cut the amount of fuel needed
to make finished glass by more than 15 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions at
these two plants also have been reduced by 10 percent and emissions of nitrogen
oxide have been lowered by 50 percent. Finally, more than 70 tons of annual
hazardous waste has been eliminated from the production cycle in these two
facilities alone.
Buildings also can earn LEED credits based on the amount of their recycled
content. All PPG glass products contain a minimum 20 percent of post-industrial
recycled glass. What’s more, every PPG glassmaking plant is equipped
with extensive systems to recover and store discarded glass. Otherwise known
as “cullet,” these materials are combined with other batch materials
during the melting process. A full 100 percent of the unused glass PPG produces
internally is recycled into production.
Finally, many of PPG’s glass products are shipped in reusable steel
cases. As a result, the amount of disposable packaging that accompanies architectural
glass products has been reduced from 75 percent to 10 percent.
PPG Certified Fabricator® Program
At least 20 percent of a project’s building materials must be manufactured
within a 500-mile radius of the construction site, according to LEED mandates.
ASTM E 2129 also advocates efforts to minimize the use of nonrenewable energy
in the delivery of building products to the building site.
PPG’s Certified Fabricator® Program (CFP) is a network of highly
trained and qualified suppliers with fabricating plants throughout the United
States. They specialize in the fabrication of high-performance solar control
and spectrally selective glasses, such as Solarban and Oceans of Color.
By purchasing glass from a local CFP, architects not only receive the highest
possible level of quality and performance from their glass supplier, but they
also can claim additional credit toward LEED certification, depending on the
percentage of glass material used in their project.
EcoLogicalSM Paints and Coatings
Indoor air quality is one of the prime areas of emphasis for LEED and ASTM
E 2129. Both standards reward products that reduce or eliminate the emission
of VOCs in interior spaces. VOCs are common by-products of many commercial
adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings and carpets, not just during their initial
application, but throughout their entire life span.
An Environmental Masterpiece
For architects and their painting contractors, the choice used to be difficult.
Specify a VOC-free paint that meets strict environmental codes or one that
actually stands up to the wear and tear of life in a school, hospital, home
or commercial office building.
Today the choice is easy, thanks to Pure Performance™ by Pittsburgh® Paints
the first high-quality, zero-VOC, low-odor interior latex paint. Since its
introduction in 2002, Pure Performance has secured its place among an elite
pantheon of environmentally progressive products, becoming the first paint
ever to earn Green Seal’s Class A Certification.
While the LEED guidelines merely require an interior coating to meet a minimum
standard for VOC emission, the demands for Green Seal certification are much
more rigorous, encompassing a broad range of issues related to energy usage,
chemical composition, manufacturing processes, packaging, design, disposal
and other lifecycle considerations.
Along with the Green Seal certification, Pure Performance also was named one
of the top ten “green” building products of 2002 by the GreenSpec
Directory and Environmental Building News magazine.
The formulation of Pure Performance has led to advances in the development
of other low-emission coatings. Interior primers and coatings such as Pittsburgh® Paints
Speedhide® Commercial Interior Latex and Pitt-Tech® DTM (direct-to-metal)
Industrial Enamel Primer/Finishes are both LEED compliant.
They also meet Green Seal’s GS-11 environmental standard for paints,
which are even more stringent than LEED’s.
Durable Exterior Coatings
Duranar® SPF Coatings for a Cool Roof. Look at that Color!
The LEED Rating System addresses exterior paints and coatings, but only in
terms of their ability to control and deflect heat. For architects specifying
pre-finished metal roof panels, that typically meant a limited spectrum of
tint choices, from the colorless to the bland.
Now architects wishing to express a more creative vision in their roofing
have an ally in PPG’s Duranar® SPF coatings. Formulated with a proprietary
infrared reflective coating technology, Duranar SPF coatings allow architects
to brighten rooftops with a bold selection of colors, including medium and
dark tones, while reaping the heat-reflective benefits demanded from LEED certification
guidelines.
These “cool roof” coatings do more than just look good. They also
cut cooling costs, extend roof life expectancy and aid in the reduction of
heat-related smog. Duranar SPF coatings comply with ENERGY STAR® reflectance
limits established for low slope and steep slope coated metal roofing products.
Metal roofs coated with high-performance Duranar or Megaflon® coatings
outlast many of the buildings they top. If a building with a Duranar- or Megaflon-coated
metal roof is being renovated, that roof can be reused and applied toward the
LEED credit earned for extending the lifecycle of existing building stock.
Breathing New Life into Old Building Panels
Architects restoring weathered exterior building panels can find an environmentally
progressive solution in Coraflon™ ADS (Air-Dried System). This revolutionary
line of colorful fluoropolymer coatings can be field-applied to exterior building
elements such as aluminum panels, walls, roofs, doors, window frames, column
covers and handrails.
Coraflon ADS not only earns LEED points for extending building life, but it
delivers economic benefits, too. A proprietary cross-link formulation allows
Coraflon-coated panels to last as long and look as good as any factory-made
panel. Because of this long life span, building owners may be able to treat
renovation costs as a capital investment (rather than a maintenance expense),
which can be amortized over an extended period of time.
Coraflon ADS coatings are the latest evolution of the Duranar coatings technology
originally developed by PPG more than 30 years ago.
Are you looking for a green floor?
Or a green flooring solution? PPG offers both with its breakthrough line of
MegaSeal™ Flooring Systems. A zero-VOC option for industrial floor coating,
Megaseal self-leveling epoxy is available in an unprecedented rainbow of colors.
The introduction of Megaseal Tint Bases means architects can enliven spaces
in schools, hospitals, restaurants and retail spaces, while delivering to their
clients all the hardworking benefits of a seamless, hygienic, low maintenance
industrial floor.
Photos:
A. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh is currently the
world’s largest LEED certified building. A varied collection of PPG glass,
paint and coatings, including Duranar? fluoropolymer coatings, Solarban? 60
Solar Control Low-E Glass and Pittsburgh? Paints Pure Performance? zero-VOC,
interior latex paint harmonize both the inside and outside the structure to
complement its dazzling riverside setting.
B. Shimmering like a jewel on a former brownfield site along Pittsburgh’s
Monongahela River, PNC Firstside Center was the largest building to earn the
Silver LEED version 2.0 rating from the USGBC. A soaring central atrium, skylights
and light wells combine to flood more than 90 percent of the structure’s
650,000 square feet of working space with abundant natural light. Sungate?
500 Low-E glass and panels, skylights and louvers coated with PPG’s Duranar?
and Polycron? III coatings contribute substantially to the building’s
environmental sustainability.
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