handle with care

• handle with careThe Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy sponsored award is one of the most competitive categories in the Trade Association Forum’s annual awards. It recognises a successful initiative, by a trade association, to tackle an important issue that will drive the future prosperity and growth of its members. The UK glass industry is pursuing an active programme on energy efficiency and decarbonisation. But building the business case to secure funds remains a barrier. Capital costs can be very high and paybacks periods are often in excess of two years; traditional loans are usually unattractive for this work. Owing to the property’s location in heart of the Yorkshire Dales, it was also vital that the new windows and patio doors offered superior thermal efficiency and acoustic performance as well as ease of operation and an attractive appearance. The British Glass entry features its three-year programme to facilitate collaboration between glass manufacturers and government to create a decarbonisation action plan – setting out the sectors’ priorities for energy efficiency and decarbonisation in areas such as research and development, technology implementation, energy infrastructure, recycling, skills and funding. In April of this year all ten of the UK’s large-scale glass manufacturers signed up to the voluntary action plan. The Barnsley based REHAU fabricator has seen a surge in enquiries from installers and consumers in response to its ongoing advertising, PR and web campaign and these are being passed to its stockists and distributors nationwide. Offering exceptional thermal efficiency, build quality, and desirable minimalist aesthetics, Üni_Slide can achieve frame sightlines as slim as 20mm, and a slim central interlock, while being able to support sliding panels of up to 3m high and 2.2m wide. The product can be assembled in a limitless run of units, with each panel capable of holding up to 320kg of glass.