GANAPerspectives

The Year Ahead
A Look at What to Expect from GANA in 2013
By Brian K. Pitman

The Glass Association of North America (GANA) enters a year with a giant “13” at the end of it not with trepidation (no triskaidekaphobics here in our office!) but with an aggressive plan to make this year one of the best for GANA and its members. We have several things on tap for 2013 that will continue much of the work GANA has been spending considerable effort on for more than a decade, all for the benefit of the commercial glass and glazing industry.

GANA Annual Conference
As you may remember, GANA repositioned the former “Glass Week” as the GANA Annual Conference last year, a change that generated positive comments and feedback from our members. The event focused on GANA priorities and a plethora of committee and division tasks. That enhanced focus resulted in the release of new Glass Informational Bulletins (GIB) and presentations from GANA last year. This year’s event will continue that new precision as we finalize work on several items. It also features some compelling lunch speakers (another new concept introduced at last year’s GANA Annual Conference), including Tom Munker, a financial dynamo with incredible knowledge of the markets and reports on oil and gas futures that may possibly surprise you.

GANA’s BEC Conference
The glazing staple in GANA’s events, the BEC Conference, is once again pushing Vegas into the forefront of network opportunities. This year’s event is headlined by Guardian Industries Corp.’s Scott Thomsen, who has brought a frenetic energy within the company that no one in the industry has missed. With their booths at glasstec and Greenbuild drawing huge attendance and interest, Scott is the perfect keynote for the event. Look for some of his energy to rub off on conference attendees. And we have many beneficial surprises to share with attendees, such as Lee Corso. As most know, Corso is one of the more interesting personalities in college football, and his appearance at the BEC Conference will be legendary. We are also bringing in noted leadership trainer Rich Drinon to talk about the traits of excellent leaders in this industry.

PCR for Flat and Float Glass
One of the more exciting projects that will come to fruition in 2013 is the Product Category Rule (PCR) for flat and float glass, which GANA is working on with many partners. Product Category Rules define the elements of a life cycle assessment (LCA) for a particular product group and what to include in an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), a third-party-verified report summarizing the data generated from an LCA. This PCR will provide a science-based and internationally recognized method for reporting the environmental impact of glass products and materials throughout their entire life cycle. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has a pilot credit that recognizes materials that have third-party verified EPDs. The impact of the PCR can be tremendous for our industry.

Manual Updates
The GANA Tempering Division Engineering Standards Manual includes current technology and standards for heat-strengthened and fully tempered glass products. This manual is designed to assist manufacturers/fabricators and users of heat-treated glass, engineers, architects, architectural specifiers and consumers. In 2013, we will release a fully-revamped edition of this manual with updated and new information, as well as updated graphics. The last full revision of this manual was more than a decade ago, and we know many who are excited to get their hands on the new stuff.

And Even More …
We have the GANA Fall Conference coming, more GIBs to release, dozens of new fabrication and technical videos to release in our online Glasseducation.com property, presentations on decorative glazing at NeoCon and so much more. We will keep you up-to-date on all the exciting happenings here in this column, but also visit www.glasswebsite.com to get even more current information on events, products, advocacy efforts and more. You may even realize that joining (or re-joining) GANA makes complete sense if you are participating in the commercial glass and glazing industry.

Brian K. Pitman is the director of marketing and communications for the Glass Association of North America in Topeka, Kan.

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