GlassTalk

Specialty Fenestration Group makes commercial fenestration for two of the toughest applications there are: security glazing and drive-through windows. Marketing director Brian Hanson joins GlassTalk to tell us all about ballistic and blast-resistant glass – what it is; what the standards are; how it’s made; how it’s tested and what works in what situation. And yes, they do get to shoot, smash and blow up their samples in labs. As concerns about occupant security and extreme weather rise here in Canada, Hanson brings some key information we will all want to bear in mind.

When you look at the big picture for yourself and your business, what do you see? Dawn Bloomer is a business consultant who helps small business owners get out from under the day-to-day grind of putting out fires and fixing leaks to take a look at their goals and find ways to organize their businesses to meet them. She joins Glass Talk to offer some sage advice on issues like delegation, succession planning, strategic thinking, maximizing Episode value, effective hiring and planning for the future. Take Dawn’s advice and take an hour out of your day to hear what she has to say…we promise you won’t regret it.

It’s safe to say Kelly Doran is one of the people driving Canada’s approach to limiting the carbon dioxide emissions in our built environment. He’s an architect by training who has counseled Toronto on embodied carbon standards for its Green Building Standard, worked with NRCan on its plans for meeting Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments, attended UN climate conferences and is speaking to architecture and construction groups across the country. So who better to give us the heads up on what the new focus on embodied carbon may mean for those of us who build with two of the highest embodied carbon materials in the industry: glass and aluminum? Doran’s perspectives give us a great insight into what the architecture and environmental community are thinking about how building design will evolve…critical information as you position your business for the changing world ahead.

Suhel Kachwala’s last name means “glass man” in Parsi. It doesn’t get a lot more fitting than that, because Kachwala is the second-generation managing director of FG Glass, one of India’s largest glass fabricators. His father and uncle started the business in 1976, the year he was born, and now he runs it alongside his brother and two cousins – all engineers. Kachwala’s business brings him to North America several times each year, so he is in a perfect position to tell us about the Indian glass industry, what is trending in Asian façade design and how the North American and Indian businesses are different. It was a fascinating conversation…enjoy!

Amy Roberts, Canadian operations and glass technical director for the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance, has been looking into where we might find the skilled and unskilled labour we are all lacking in our operations. Roberts’ research has revealed that there are several provincial and federal programs – some with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding – aimed at helping you recruit, train and pay new entrants into your workforce. Especially if those workers are from under-represented groups. She joins the podcast to discuss what that challenges are in finding the staff we need; what the barriers might be to our system generating those workers; and how the present system works and could work better. Immigration, apprenticeship and inclusion are all on the table.

Federal resources for recruiting and training

Construction Career Pathways – BuildForce Canada

Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot – Immigration and Citizenship Canada

Temporary Foreign Worker Program – Ministry of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion

Skilled Trades Awareness and Readiness Program – Employment and Social Development Canada

A new world of sustainable building practices is bearing down upon us, with embodied carbon considerations pushing to the fore. Air/water tightness and insulating factors are so last century. Vancouver will begin asking for environmental product declarations on new builds this summer, with limits on the allowed embodied carbon coming within two years. Here to explain it all is Caroline Butchart, a building engineer with a PhD in structural glass, who is the program manager for the Carbon Leadership Forum, a non-profit group assisting the B.C. construction industry to meet sustainable building goals.

There are two industries putting glass on buildings: the residential side working mostly with vinyl in punched openings and the commercial side working mostly with aluminum to produce engineered facades. Even 20 years ago, the distinctions between the two were fairly clear and few companies did both. Today, there’s vinyl going on to high rises and aluminum windows going into suburban tract housing. Is a three-story multiunit townhouse with hundreds of vinyl windows a commercial or residential project? In reaction to these shifts in the industry, Fenestration Canada, Canada’s national organization for the window and door industry, has committed to expanding its services to encompass the commercial side of the business as well. Rich Porayko, FenCan’s new director of business development for commercial; Jeff Makimoto, FenCan’s new commercial technical director; and Terry Adamson, FenCan technical director, join Glass Talk to tell you all about the new focus and invite you to get involved.

New concepts are emerging in construction contracts aimed at bringing project owners, contractors and subcontractors closer together as partners rather than bosses and hirelings. But to navigate these new structures, especially on today’s larger P3 projects, glazing contractors are going to need to be prepared for a world of enhanced transparency, data collection and communication. Michelle Throssell and Barb Hooley help contractors sail these stormy seas through international project management consultant, Turner and Townsend, and join Glass Talk to explain some of the new jargon, outline the benefits of integrated project management and give us a sneak peek at what’s going to be asked of us in the years ahead.

Glass Talk host Patrick Flannery reconnects with an old friend who is now a lecturer in mechanical engineering with a focus on fenestration technology at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Thomas Simko has travelled the world researching the latest concepts in glass, glazing and building facades and he joins the podcast to give us the view from Down Under. Simko’s message is compelling: Australia lags North America significantly in its use of high-performance glazing, but that is about to change with tightening energy efficiency rules that will drive a new demand for insulating products and advanced framing systems that combine narrow profiles with support for large-format glass and better energy efficiency.

To see more of Thomas Simko’s work, check out:

Optimal Window Designs for Australian Houses

Vacuum Glazing: Development, design challenges and commercialization

Performance Criteria for Residential Zero Energy Windows

Glass Canada’s That’s Rich columnist, Rich Porayko, joins the podcast to look over some of the top stories from 2022 and engage in general industry gossip. Glass prices – should we be surprised? Embodied carbon – are we going to end up going back to monolithic? Contracts – who’s the dog and who’s the tail? Associations – what are they good for? And more. Happy New Year!