"water supply"

One of the most common questions asked by homeowners about the installation of their steel roof is whether an underlayment is needed. The answer to this question is “yes” in most situations. The underlayment plays a critical role in controlling the migration of condensation that might develop on the underside of the steel sheet thereby preventing accumulated water entering the building resulting in costly damage.

The new Orlando VA Medical Center needed glazing that would not only provide light and transparency, but fire and hurricane protection and improved energy performance. SuperLite® II-XL in GPX® Hurricane Framing from SAFTI FIRST® was installed in exterior fire-rated locations that were exposed to the elements. These assemblies were rigorously tested and certified for fire and radiant heat protection for up to two hours, large missile impact, air and water infiltration, and cyclic wind loading.

Global warming and climate change are two terms found increasingly in headlines around the world. Initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol have brought these issues to the forefront and provide a framework and objectives for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG). GHG are heat trapping gases, such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, or methane that absorb the earth’s heat and hinder it from being released into space. As levels of GHG build up in the atmosphere, a greenhouse effect takes place that warms the earth’s atmosphere and makes global climate change inevitable. A?itudes on environmental issues are changing worldwide. Developed nations are commi?ing to reducing GHG emissions to 5.2% below the 1990 baseline by 2012. Notably, Canada has commi?ed to reducing its GHG emissions to 6% below 1990 levels, which corresponds to a gap of 29.1% of where the nation is and where it wants to be. An ambitious undertaking, considering that Canada’s GHG emissions have been steadily on the rise over the years and in 2004 was actually 26.6% higher than 1990 levels. On a positive note, in the last two years emissions have started to decline, but there remains a long way still to go. =e quest for a greener Canada continues and helping to lead the way to a greener Canada is the nation’s steel industry, which is making great strides in reducing GHG emissions, conserving energy, and lessening impacts on our air, water, and land.

Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for financier Sir Henry Pellatt.Part of the renovations carried out was improving the water management on the exterior terrace located at the back of the building. The requirement was for the stormwater to be collected and disposed of efficiently without creating an unsightly 3D grading of the terrace surface. Linear drainage was the natural selection.ACO KlassikDrain KS100 was chosen for its robustness and ability to withstand Canadian weather conditions. The perforated stainless steel grate will resist corrosion and it is AODA and heelproof compliant, important requirements for this public venue.

Located at the foot of the Cascade mountain range in Chilliwack, the brand-new Molson – Coors was inaugurated in 2019. It has the capacity to produce 300 million litres of beer a year. The brewery is equipped with advanced technologies for operational efficiency, and it is considered Molson’s most modern facility.The plant was designed with optimised equipment layouts that help reduce beer loss and wastage. Hygienic industrial drainage is a major component of the design and ACO drainage was selected for its proven performance.Benefits of ACO StainlessEasy to clean hygienic designStainless steel is highly resistant to corrosionHigh hydraulic efficiency for fast removal of surface waterACO’s experience in drainage for food processing environments

Buildings have a profound impact on our natural environment, economy, health and productivity. In North America, the built environment accounts for approximately one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water and material consumption and generates similiar proportions of pollution. Indoor air quality is regarded as one of the top environmental health risks today, affecting the well-being, productivity and performance of many people. As concerns increase about sustainability in building design and operation, there is a need to develop a framework for assessing and quantifying buildings so that questions such as, “What is sustainable design?” and “How green is this project?” can be addressed. In response to this, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system was developed to provide such a framework for North America. This document explores how the use of steel structures and components can contribute to achieving a LEED certificate for a building.

Plaquemines Parish Detention Center was one of the major structures devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In rebuilding, designers L. R. Kimball looked for an all-in-one clear, wire-free glazing solution that protects against fire, bullets and forced entry. SAFTI FIRST® supplied a complete single-source tested and listed assembly that was easy to install and maintenance-free.

The west-facing elevation of The Kensington in Boston, MA, was in close proximity to the property line, prompting the building official to require part of the curtain wall had to meet ASTM E-119/NFPA 251/UL263 for 60 minutes. SAFTI FIRST® supplied SuperLite® II-XL 60 insulated with Solarban 70XL in GPX® Curtain Wall Framing in a continuous span from the seventh to the tenth floors.

Prairie Hills Junior High School's south-facing elevation features a glazed aluminum curtain wall that incorporates PPG Solarblue and PPG Solarban 60 glazing. Parts of the curtain wall had to meet a two-hour rating because it was adjacent to a two-hour block wall through the building's interior. SAFTI FIRST® supplied SuperLite® II-XL 120 IGU in GPX® Curtain Wall Framing in order to meet ASTM E-119/NFPA 251/UL263 requirements.

The newly opened Exploratorium has brought energy and excitement to the city's bustling waterfront. EHDD transformed the historic Pier 15, built in 1915, to a 330,000 square foot indoor and outdoor campus, being touted as the largest net-zero building in the city and potentially the largest net-zero museum in the world. SAFTI FIRST® supplied a total of 19 pairs of 45-minute steel doors 11 pairs on north side and 8 pairs on the south side using SuperLite® II-XL 45 IGU in GPX® Builders Series Fire Protective.

The new San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters combines maximum daylighting and fire safety with a multi-story, fire rated glass stairwell from SAFTI FIRST. Dubbed as the "greenest building in North America," this Class A LEED Platinum office building features a transparent, 2-hour fire rated stairwell, situated prominently near the main entrance. SAFTI FIRST supplied SuperLite II-XL 120 in GPX Architectural Series Wall Framing and SuperLite II-XL 90 in GPX Builders Series Temperature Rise Door starting from the lobby all the way to the topmost floor.

Designed by Pritzker prize winning architect Shigeru Ban, the brand new 33,000 sf Aspen Art Museum boasts large exterior glass walls designed to keep the visitors engaged with views of the beautiful Aspen landscape. SAFTI FIRST®’s engineering team provided design assistance and supplied a 2 hour fire resistive curtain wall with SuperLite® II-XL 120 with Starphire Ultra-Clear Glass insulated with Viracon VE13-85 in GPX® Curtain Wall Framing. A woven screen encloses the glass curtain wall to provide shading from direct sunlight.

The architects at Morris Adjmi wanted large, 11-ft. tall glass walls to highlight the breathtaking views for the reimagined Warehouse in New York City’s growing architectural wonderland of Chelsea. However, the building was on a lot line, mandating 2 hour fire walls. SAFTI FIRST® made this dream a reality by supplying the largest tested and listed 2 hour fire resistive glazing available today. The inclusion of low-iron glass in the fire-resistive glazing units ensured superior clarity and aesthetic continuity with the adjacent non-rated windows. The fire resistive units incorporated high performance glazing and were filled with argon for energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

The construction industry is a vital part of the growth and success of a country. It is responsible for building the physical infrastructure that provides transportation and facilities for citizens, businesses, industries and institutions. Construction has a major influence on the economic wealth, societal well¬being and sustainability of the built environment. The Canadian construction industry employs more than 1.2 million people. In 2010 it accounted for 6% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP), with a total value of 73.8 billion dollars. From 2000 to 2010, the GDP from construction increased 42.7% whereas GDP for all industries increased 20.2%.(1) Construction also has a profound impact on our natural environment. In North America, the built environment accounts for approximately one third of all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as energy, water and materials consumption. Given the increased awareness of “green” construction, there is growing interest in using steel because of the major recycled content and recyclability attributes it provides to architects, engineers and specifiers in the construction industry. The steel industry, through the Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute is committed to providing steel solutions that promote the use of sustainable materials in construction applications. This fact sheet provides an overview of the two main methods used to produce steel, and describes the recycled content of the steels used to manufacture building products such as roofing, cladding, decking, structural and non-structural framing and the many other construction products used in the industry. Once iron ore is extracted and refined into steel, its life never ends. This makes steel an ideal material to deploy in sustainable strategies for the construction industry. Today’s steel is produced using two technologies both of which require “old” (recycled scrap) steel to make “new” steel. The combination of these technologies enables Canadian steel mills the flexibility to produce a variety of steel grades for a wide range of product applications

Architects and Specification Writers are increasingly selecting unpainted metallic coated steels for architectural roofing and cladding applications on building exteriors where they want a “Silver” metallic finish. This is occurring more frequently, and even on “prestige” type projects. The Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute whose fabricator members manufacture a wide variety of building panel profiles for roofing and cladding applications, are being asked to supply unpainted (natural finish) galvanized or resin coated 55% Aluminum-Zinc coated steel for these architecturally exposed end uses. Oftentimes, these materials are specified because the designer finds the natural finish of these products very appealing and sometimes because of material cost savings opportunities. This Fact Sheet has been developed to provide guidance in material selection and provide information on the Architectural Metallic Finishes that are available for highly visible steep slope roofing and cladding applications. 

Buildings consume one-third of all energy and two-thirds of all electricity generated. Cool metal roofs can help reduce energy consumption by lowering cooling loads with their wide array of finishes, designs and colors.Cool metal roofs are energy-efficient. • The roof can have the greatest impact on the energy use of a building. On a typical summer afternoon, a light-colored, more reflective roof that reflects 80 percent of sunlight will stay about 310C (550F) cooler than a darker roof that reflects only 20 percent of sunlight, as reported by the Heat Island Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. • Cool metal roofs are an excellent option for commercial retrofit applications because they can be efficiently installed with above-sheathing ventilation, allowing heat to dissipate through the ridge vent in hot weather while acting as an insulating layer when it is cold. Metal roofs can result in as much as a 30 percent reduction in heat gain through the vented roof. • Metal roofs provide the optimal foundation for photovoltaic installations since the roof can be expected to last longer than the PV system it supports. • Wall and roof solar heat recovery systems can be integrated with steel cladding and used to provide air, water or process heating needs. • Cool metal roofing is available unpainted, with thermosetting coil-applied paint finishes, or with granular-coated surfaces. This family of roofing can achieve solar reflectance of over 70 percent, meeting the EPA Energy Star Roof Products Program performance criteria. • Emittance as high as 90 percent can be achieved for painted and granular-coated metal roofing. • Painted metal roofs retain 95 percent of their initial reflectance and emittance over time. They resist the growth of organic matter and shed dirt more readily than other materials. • Cool metal roofing can help to mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect because of its high reflectance, which can reduce ambient air temperatures. Cool metal roofs are cost-effective. • Metal roofing has low life-cycle costs, making it the choice of many school, government, commercial, industrial and institutional building owners. • Due to its light weight per unit area, structural savings can be realized in a building when compared with heavier non-metal roofing alternatives. • For re-roofing projects, metal roofing can often be applied over the original roof, saving removal and disposal costs. • Metal roofing is fully recyclable when ultimately removed as part of building renovation or demolition, allowing it to credibly claim both recycled content and 100 percent recyclability by recognized definitions. The product’s recyclability also provides significant savings on construction removal and disposal costs.

According to certain “studies,” wood claims a smaller environmental footprint than any other major building material. However, a closer look at the facts reveals some significant inconsistencies with that claim. MYTH: Studies demonstrate that wood is a more sustainable material than steel. REALITY: The most-cited study contained numerous incorrect assumptions about steel, and it omitted wood impacts. • A study cited often by the wood industry was published by the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) and is based on outdated information. For example, it made incorrect assumptions about the quantity of steel needed for its comparisons. • Wood is typically a single-use material. At the end of its life, a building’s wood frame is typically landfilled or incinerated. This returns any stored carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as either carbon dioxide or methane, shifting greenhouse gas burdens to future generations. • In comparison, steel is the world’s most recycled material. Steel construction products have a recycling rate of more than 90 percent, meaning that at the end of a steel building’s life, more than 90 percent of its steel is recycled into another steel product, using significantly less energy than was necessary to create the original product. A material that can be recycled continually over centuries with no loss in quality and that lowers the burden on future generations is the very definition of sustainability! MYTH: Wood is more sustainable than steel because it is a renewable building resource. REALITY: Being renewable is not the same as being sustainable. • The wood industry claims that for every tree cut down, one or more new trees are planted. However, the claim does not take into account that it will take decades before those saplings mature. In the meantime, the forest is depleted of the oxygen, water storage and filtration, wildlife habitat, global cooling, and other benefits provided by the mature tree. 1 • Trees are often harvested by clear-cutting, leaving large gaps in the forestland that also impact the plants and animal species left behind. MYTH: Wood is more sustainable than steel because wood construction products store carbon. REALITY: Carbon storage for construction products is temporary, only shifting impacts to future generations. • Carbon is sequestered in the fiber of trees, but that does not mean that wood buildings become large reservoirs of carbon that is stored indefinitely. Upon harvesting, the unused root and leaf systems immediately return their CO to the atmosphere by decay. For wood products, the reality is that carbon storage is also temporary and it is released back into the atmosphere at the end of the wood building’s life either by the demolition and subsequent decay of the wood or by incineration. • Ann Ingerson of The Wilderness Society states: “As a result of wood waste and decomposition, the carbon stored long-term in harvested wood products may be a small proportion of that originally stored in the standing trees―across the United States, approximately 1 percent may remain in products in use and 13 percent in landfills at 100 years post-harvest.” 2 2 Photo courtesy of the American Institute of Steel Construction Photo courtesy of SCS Global Services MYTH: All wood construction products are certified as being sustainably harvested. REALITY: The majority of forests in the U.S. do not meet the wood industry’s own sustainable harvesting standards. • Eighty-one percent of forests in the United States are not certified, 11 percent are Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI®)-certified, and seven percent are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®)-certified.3 The sustainable harvest certification provided by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative has often been challenged as to whether it reaches the required threshold of sustainable forestry. SFI was created in 1994 by the paper and timber industry. A report on SFI by ForestEthics concludes in part: - “SFI is funded, promoted and staffed by the very paper and timber industry interests it claims to evaluate.”4 - “Of SFI’s 543 audits, up to the time of the report’s issuance, there were no major noncompliance issues related to soil erosion, clear-cut procedures, watershed issues, or chemical usage.”5 - “SFI-certified logging practices are having a disastrous impact on North American forests.”6 • In actuality, only seven percent of the forestland in the United States reaches the threshold of being considered sustainably managed. References 1 “Understanding Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for Wood (Current Problems and Future Possibilities),” The Sierra Club Forest Certification and Green Building Team, September 24, 2013. 2 Ingerson, Ann, “Carbon Storage Potential of Harvested Wood: Summary and Policy Implications,” The Wilderness Society, October 23, 2010, p. 1. 3 “Forest Certification Around the World: Georgia-Pacific, Sustainable Forestry and Certification,” Georgia-Pacific, 2014. 4 “SFI: Certified Greenwash – Inside the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s Deceptive Eco-Label,” a report by ForestEthics, November 2010, p. 2. 5 “SFI: Certified Greenwash – Inside the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s Deceptive Eco-Label,” a report by ForestEthics, November 2010, p. 9. 6 “SFI: Certified Greenwash – Inside the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s Deceptive Eco-Label,” a report by ForestEthics, November 2010, p. 11.