The Priority Blender: The impact on embodied carbon on how we think about climate-friendly glazing

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PUBLISHER

For at least 20 years, the emphasis for environmentally conscious building envelope designers has been reduction in operational carbon emissions by making facades airtight and more insulating. After years of investment in R&D, the glass industry has the technical capability to meet government goals for net zero construction. But now focus is shifting to the impact of carbon emissions created by the manufacture, fabrication, installation, maintenance and disposal of building components, and soon government codes will call for measures of these “embodied carbon” contributors to climate change. Novatech engineer and Glass Canada columnist, Claudio Sacilotto, will explain how embodied carbon changes the calculation for what constitutes “climate-friendly” glazing, and the trade-offs designers will need to balance when specifying the high-performance designs of the future.

Claudio Sacilotto

Director of Engineering and Quality

Claudio Sacilotto is a professional engineer with over 16 years’ experience working in testing, design, R&D and fabrication of commercial glazing components at Intertek and Sunview Patio Doors (now part of Novatech). He runs Sunview’s R&D facility and gets to play with 3D printers and build test apparatus all day. He’s a member of the CSA A119 Technical Committee on Performance Standards for Windows, a CSA group representative in the Joint Document Management Group and sits on Fenestration Canada’s Technical Services Committee.In a moment of weakness he recently agreed to write Glass Canada’s technical column, The Engineer.