A window into the BPF

As the BPF enters its 75th Anniversary Year PRW will be featuring a monthly article on a key Federation activity. We put the spotlight in this first article on one of the BPF’s best- supported and most active business Groups, the Windows Group.

Today’s agenda of issues for the Windows Group: Sustainable construction, levels of recycling, the attitudes of local authorities and housing associations to PVC, all reflect the phenomenal success of the PVC window product in the marketplace since the Group was created in January 1981. Much of that success owes to the dynamism of the Group and the collaborative efforts of members to market what was, in its early days, a new kid on the block. Whilst PVC window frames had originally been developed in Germany in the mid-fifties as a response to the post-war shortage of building materials it wasn’t until the 1970’s that they were manufactured and installed in the UK. By 1981 it became obvious that a trade body was needed to facilitate the development of industry standards, codes of practice and the research needed to reassure customers on issues such as fire performance. The BPF Windows Group was born with Alan Bell of Hepworth as Chairman.

Whilst growth in the industry today is more measured than the heady days of the 1980’s the PVC windows industry’s top executives are as much concerned to use the BPF Group to  promote the benefits of PVC windows  in sustainable construction as to use it as  vehicle to drive sales growth. Many of the great company names of the early eighties are as active as ever today: Spectus, LB, Veka, Bowater, Anglian, Epwin and Deceuninck. Last year the Group was delighted to have Rehau join its ranks reinforcing the BPF’s position as leading the quality end of the market.

Today’s Windows Group Chairman, Martin Althorpe of Spectus, now in his second year in the role, presides over a sophisticated Group structure involving most profile extruders, the supporting raw material producers, additive producers and hardware manufacturers. Althorpe’s ambition is to improve the Group’s coverage of fabricators and installers who occupy a key position in the supply chain and who are ideally placed to help in communicating the glowing story about PVC sustainability to consumer and public sector purchasers.

A Group Management Committee, personally chaired by Althorpe, is at the controls, setting strategy and budget. The technical ‘nitty-gritty’ is the responsibility of the Windows and Doors and Conservatory Committees. Market exploitation of the Group’s output is in the hands of the Sales and Marketing Committee which has built up excellent relations with the Windows trade press. BPF Executive Tim Marsden co-ordinates the Group’s activities with the broader plastics in construction field in the BPF and Paul Jervis serves as the Group’s Technical Executive and his monthly Newsletter, ‘Outlook’ is an eagerly awaited bulletin.

The main thrust of the Group’s work definitely has an environmental flavour. In the late nineties the success of the product began to provoke a reaction from alternative materials industries who were losing out, notably timber, and from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace who saw that their attacks on PVC could be directed against one of its major uses. With windows representing one third of all PVC consumption in the UK, manufacturers found themselves criticized for their recycling record and use of lead stabilizers. The Windows Group, alongside its sister Group in the BPF, the Vinyls Group has succeeded in turning this situation around.

BPF’s Public and Industrial Affairs Director, Philip Law, recalls the dark days of more than a decade ago when the BPF was fighting  localized attacks against PVC windows from Lewisham to Norwich: ‘’Since that point the Windows Group calmly assessed its strengths, articulated these in a series of brochures which bristled with third party endorsements and blasted these into the marketplace’’. The Group was an early participant in the European PVC industry’s recycling programme, Recovinyl, and is looking to make a significant advance on the 22,000+ tonnes of PVC window profile recycled in 2006.

A massive recent achievement was the project placed with BRE (the former Building Research Establishment near Watford) to assess the life span of PVC windows. Many environmental assessments had become habituated to using a 15 year lifespan, ignoring the passage of time. The Group challenged this orthodoxy and scoured the UK and Germany for proven examples of windows which had been constantly in service since the early days of the industry. BRE were convinced and awarded PVC windows a lifespan of at least 35 years. Consequently, PVC windows will see a marked improvement in the Green Guide to Specification, to be published early in 2008 by the BRE. The ‘Green Guide’, as it is affectionately known, is widely regarded as ‘the Bible’ on sustainable construction.

With a programme embracing the use of PVC windows in heritage buildings, where stylish designs are highly compatible with historic structures, and the sustainability challenge set by the Olympic Delivery Authority, the Group is set to communicate its message to influential audiences.

A seminar programme initiated at the Emirates Stadium in 2007 will be enlarged this year and the group will take a stand at the Sustainable Construction Exhibition on 26th- 28th February at Earls Court. Key targets are architects, specifiers, local Authorities and Housing Associations.

The Group’s international outlook – several companies have foreign parents – is reinforced by its membership of the EU-level trade body EPPA (the European Plastics Profile Association) and its participation in Vinyl 2010, the EU PVC industry’s Voluntary Commitment to the Commission.

Martin Althorpe is rightly upbeat about the Groups activity: “PVC windows have tremendous benefits in use. The BPF Windows Group has been critical in articulating these and it will be the essential platform on which the industry will progress into the future.