I came to the Gypsum Association in 2014 after more than a decade spent in what people I met at parties often told me were “interesting sounding jobs.” I worked for a dictionary of English language usage, built history-oriented web content for the Library of Congress, headed PR and marketing for a highly regarded landscape architecture firm, and served as a staff writer for a design magazine. Admittedly, a job at a trade association dedicated to promoting “the use of gypsum products” sounded dry by comparison. I knew better: Any job that provided learning opportunities would hold my interest and stir my enthusiasm. Below are just a few areas that have fascinated me over the last ten or so years.

The A/E/C industry was, and is, familiar territory to me. Obviously, building products are important to design and construction, but it was a missing piece of the puzzle for me. Among my learnings: manufacturing products for inclusion in design specifications carries with it more responsibility than many in the A/E/C community suspect.

For example, codes and standards settings bodies, like the International Code Council, ASTM International, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers are key to the acceptance, safe use, and reliability of all construction materials.

The GA and its member companies devote a lot of time to work in these arenas. I wish I could say I mastered the ins and outs of even one of those organizations, but I’m fortunate to have colleagues for that. Their work is important. I know now that these slow-moving, consensus-based, processes are as important to the introduction of a new product and the continued viability of the tried and true, as that of any R&D department.

Power Surge

Sustainability was an arena that I was aware of and conversant in. Early in my career, I watched the U.S. Green Building Council develop and roll out Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. I witnessed LEED certification surge in the early 2000s and survive economic downturn. At the GA, I was encouraged to earn a LEED Green Associate credential. I wish I could say this was accomplished handily. It was not. I studied. I failed practice quizzes until the day I passed with a score of 92. Learning how to think inside USGBC’s green box was a sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding experience.

Ten years on, I believe LEED and USGBC don’t have the weight as they once did. Many of USGBC’s calls for sustainable building practices have been answered by ASHRAE 189.1, ASHRAE 90.1 and the International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Increasingly, building products are evaluated by their impact on the environment rather than through a USGBC-approved third-party label. Moreover, USGBC’s efforts to bring green building to the residential sector gained little traction. At this point, lack of inventory and the cost of housing are more pressing concerns for home buyers. Also, EPA’s Energy Star program has been very successful in helping people lower energy use in their homes. According to EPA, homeowners have achieved 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions reductions since 1992.

Instead, life-cycle assessment has moved to the forefront as a means of evaluating products and even whole buildings. LCA quantifies and interprets the energy and material flows to and from the environment, from cradle— in the case of gypsum panels, mining and manufacture—to shipping gate and even beyond. Environmental flows include emissions to air, water, and land, as well as the consumption of energy and material resources. Designers and owners increasingly rely on Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), a comprehensive environmental profile of a product, as they decide how to build and what to build with.

What I’ve learned from my years of wrangling industry average EPDs is that complexity is inescapable. There is seldom an outright “best” or most environmentally sustainable choice, because so much depends on context and trade-offs. Transportation distance and mode, for example, often have a major impact on how sustainable a product is beyond the parameters of the energy and other resources used to produce that product at the factory.

LEED the Way

LCA acknowledges complexity in a way that LEED, with its game-like points and scorecard, was not designed to do. LEED provides a pathway and directions toward improved sustainability in buildings. EPDs, which LEED incorporates into its scorecard, provide insights into specific impacts. Manufacturers gain insight into areas for improvement and consumers can select products that minimize the impacts they feel are most important.

During my time at the GA, I’ve represented a product that plays an important health safety role in the built environment. The fire resistance provided by gypsum panel products is acknowledged by the building codes and embodied in the GA-600 Fire Resistance and Sound Control Design Manual, which continues to be revised every three years. Codes and standards change (albeit slowly). Green building systems rise in popularity and fall. So far, however, gypsum panels have remained an essential component of fire-resistant construction. As we watch wildfires increase in number and encroach further and further on population centers, fire-resistant construction will remain an important line of defense.

The earlier years of my career may have sounded more interesting to people I met at parties because they were conducted on the edges of design, which connotes beauty and glamour, and history, which evokes a rarified, scholarly space. However, my tenure at the GA has been vastly more interesting than I expected. Turns out drywall isn’t dry at all. Moreover, I have the good fortune of leaving the GA and readers of this column in good hands. Brooke Fishel, the GA’s incoming director of stewardship and external affairs, is highly qualified, works well with our small team, and I’m confident she will bring new perspectives and insight to the role.

Please welcome Brooke.