In October, members of the Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing were invited
to tour Kansas City, Mo.-based Performance Roof Systems Inc.'s manufacturing facilities
in Belgium and view roof-integrated photovoltaic (PV) system installations. The
group visited various sites in Belgium, including a vegetative roof system on the
Commission of European Community in Brussels and roof tour of VMM, a Brussels-based
television station with a 400-kilowatt PV roof system installation. The group then
traveled to France to view a DERBISOLAR installation in Nantes that will be the
largest roof-integrated PV installation on polymer-modified bitumen in the world.
Additionally, the center named its 2009-10 slate of officers. Elected by the center's
board of directors, the officers will serve on the center's Executive Committee
for two years. John Geary, Indianapolis-based Firestone Building Products Co. LLC's
vice president of technology, serves as the center's chairman. Richard Nugent, chief
executive officer of Nations Roof LLC, Bridgeport, Conn., serves as vice chairman;
Tim Davey, chairman of DRI Cos., Irvine, Calif., serves as secretary; and Fred Stephan,
vice president and general manager of Denver-based Johns Manville's Roofing Systems
business, serves as treasurer. Their terms began Jan. 1.
The Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress, a separate but related educational and
research organization of NRCA, continued its partnership with Penn State University,
University Park, Pa., to contribute $100,000 to green roofing and solar energy research.
The partnership's three initial objectives are pursuing the Solar Decathlon to explore
how building-integrated photovoltaic systems affect the roofing industry and promote
the roofing industry's role regarding solar energy systems to increase visibility
of the roofing industry among college graduates; contributing to the advancement
of green roof system research specifically regarding energy performance by sponsoring
state-of-the-art research and developing educational materials that promote green
roof system awareness (Alliance funding would pay for the testing of green roof
system specimens at Penn State University); and investigating the potential effects
and respective market strategies for the roofing industry as interest in building-integrated
photovoltaic technologies grows.