Sustaining the argument

PVC-U window and doors systems are – like all building and other products – subject to increasing challenges regarding their environmental and sustainability credentials. Mike Stevenson, Marketing Director of WHS Halo, considers the issues – and finds the scales tipped in favour of the material.

The curse of the ancient prophets Jeremiah and Cassandra was to foresee the future, tell the truth – and to be roundly ignored. Until relatively recently, the same tragedy befell environmentalists the world over.

While they are tracking, and predicting, the ‘progress’ of global warming, the fallout from industrialisation and associated pollution, and the increasing volatility of our weather; mankind – in something approaching denial – ploughs on with its despoiling of the earth and heavy consumption of fossil fuels. Governments of developed – and developing nations – are inclined to heed the powerful lobbies of energy producers and industrialists to resist the environmental prophesies; while the rest of us continue to fly to Spain for a quid or, metaphorically speaking, chuck our rubbish over the fence.

In that context, one has to consider whether the fenestration industry’s products can be considered environmentally sustainable. The environmentalist Jonathon Porritt has sought to define – usefully – sustainability as, “The capacity for continuance into the long term future”. Basically, anything that can go on being done is sustainable; while anything that can not go on being done is unsustainable. Within that context, sustainability is deemed to have three pillars – economic, social and ecological.

Dealing with the ecological issue on this occasion, it will be noted that there are many who would have Government, customers and end users believe that the PVC-U sector is not sustainable. For the second consecutive decade, the sector finds itself under fire from those who seek to do the material down either through ignorance or to realise some competitive advantage. In the 1990s, the attackers were the aesthetes of English Heritage (EH) and others whose aesthetic snobbery led to all manner of ill-founded assertions. In the ‘noughties’, the attackers remain single interest lobbyists, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and (material) competitor organizations.

The EH onslaught was resisted through a combination of good communications, rational argument and common sense from the industry. The current challenges warrant the same – but, before rising to the bait; it is necessary to consider the questions over the material first.

Materials – raw and process

The main problem with the PVC critics is ultimately one of gross exaggeration and lack of context and comparison. In the first instance, it should never be forgotten that 57% of the ‘content’ of PVC-U derives from salt – a material that is safe and inert in its natural state; and one that is obviously spectacularly abundant. Criticisms of the chlorine content of PVC are also spurious as, firstly, ‘organochlorines’ occur in nature and, secondly, vinyl chloride also occurs naturally in soil. Of course, there is a hydrocarbon element derived from feedstock sources like gas and oil, but also biomass.

The material is also speciously criticised in respect of its dioxin content – but, for instance, this has to be considered adjacently to the fact that dioxin emissions from fireworks on a single Bonfire Night is equivalent to 30,000 years of total UK PVC production!

And on each and every occasion, PVC compares favourably – if not better – to its competitor materials in terms of sourcing and energy required for production. Whereas carcass timber, say, is heavily sourced from overseas countries – with the concomitant carbon transport footprint of shipping to the UK – and aluminium and steel necessarily have to be mined and processed at great energy cost; PVC production and processing takes place almost exclusively domestically and far more efficiently.

If this were not enough, the industry is taking bold steps to further improve the environmental performance of the material. There is already an active shift to eliminate lead based stabilisers – the most important additive within PVC – with (calcium) organic substitutes. Leading systems companies – such as WHS Halo – are also working closely with PVC manufacturers to develop non-oil based alternatives for manufacture and to realise water based primers for lamination.

Ultimately, all materials – steel, aluminium, composites and even wood –  have sustainability issues; but PVC has more than respectable credentials, is continuously improving and upgrading them and is well placed to resist the brickbats and take its message to the marketplace

Lifetime costs and recyclability

The cost-in-use benefits of PVC-U windows and doors are well established; as are the technical performance characteristics. However, where the qualities of PVC – in an environmentally sustainable sense – are possibly underrated, particularly compared to wood for instance, is in its recyclability. Wood, when treated and/ or painted, cannot be recycled and is and difficult to dispose of.

The amount of recycled product incorporated into window and door products is increasing all the time – as technology allows – and is extremely high in non-structural and decorative products like cills, roofline and other boards.

Where the industry, like all others, can and will improve is by moving from linear resourcing – raw material through to disposal of post-consumer product – to a totally cyclical resource chain; whereby post-consumer waste is the raw material. Such a perfect loop is a little way off, but must be what to which we strive.

Beyond product

Responsible businesses – like WHS Halo – will, or will have to, take steps to, first, ensure their products are sourced in as low-impact fashion as possible, while remaining cost-effective; and second, moderate their consumptive behaviour.

In the first instance, a drive toward effective energy management will see business benefits from reduced costs and increased efficiency elsewhere in the business, especially in ‘lean manufacturing’ processes. Industry is also coming under increasing legislative – combined with economic (taxation) – pressure in this respect; and it seems prudent to anticipate and pre-empt much of this to reduce the pain of cost and compliance. Whether through taxation, or permit trading schemes – where businesses can buy or sell their carbon ‘allocation’ depending on need – the sector will be increasingly compelled to manage its footprint.

Secondly, there is no need to set arbitrary baselines and targets as with trading schemes. Thirdly, the imposition of carbon taxes can be used to lower taxes elsewhere in the economy to maintain overall competitiveness of business and/or people's real disposable income. Fourthly, current fuel taxes can be coordinated with other carbon taxes to provide a balanced package of carbon taxes. Finally, tax collection is administratively straightforward and can cover all emitters – not the case with trading schemes”.

From an environmental perspective, PVC ticks the major boxes of sustainability – it is locally sourced and processed, its raw materials are abundant and relatively safe, it is cost-effective in manufacture and use and is very recyclable. Its credentials are every bit valid as competitor materials; and exceed them in many ways. If sustainability is defined as “anything that can go on being done”; then there can be no doubt that PVC door and window solutions will be produced – and accepted and adopted by customers – for a very long time to come indeed.

Ends.

Editors’ note:

WHS Halo is a division of Bowater Building Products and one of the UK’s leading extrusion businesses. WHS Halo is firmly committed to responsible sustainable development; while continually providing customers with technically superior products that promote the optimum in longevity, low maintenance and performance.

WHS Halo's history of innovation includes: production of the first interchangeable window and door system (1987), creation of the first authentic vertical sliding sash window (1995), introduction of the first five chamber system in Europe (2000) and being the first to produce a patented hybrid beading system (2004).

For further information, please contact:

WHS Halo

Water Orton Lane

Minworth

Sutton Coldfield

West Midlands B76 9BW

Tel: 0121 749 3000

www.whs-halo.co.uk

For further press information, please contact:

John Levick, Johnny Dobbyn

Facta

25 Floral Street

London WC2E 9DS

Tel: 020 7031 8290

Fax: 020 7031 8293

e: whshalo@facta.co.uk

January 2007

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