In this episode of If Walls Could Talk, W&C Group Publisher Jill Bloom talks Ron Rice of CertainTeed Ceilings/Saint-Gobain. The industry veteran was specially honored at this year’s CISCA Connect in Las Vegas in April.  

CISCA Honors Ron Rice

CertainTeed’s (and industry activist) Ron Rice was recently honored at this year’s CISCA Connect, held in Las Vegas.

One of his most notable contributions to the association was in 2014, during his committee chair work on the EPD Task Force. Ron and that team helped to establish the very first EPD for metal ceilings with CISCA’s companies that specialized in metal ceilings. Those EPDs were and are “cradle-to-gate” EPDs, which do not include “end-of-life” usage for the materials.

“I’m a big fan of aluminum and like to consider the aluminum Coke can as a simple example of aluminum materials that may come off a jobsite deconstruction,” said Rice. “These cans are constructed from two different aluminum alloys, a lightweight and easily formable 3000 series for the body and a 5000 series for the top given pressures—and of course the pull-tab. A recent two days spent at a recycling convention educated me on the collection, sorting, cleaning, and shredding involved in recycling. I had seen the back-end of the process with smelter, melting, casting for coils, coil coating and sheeting operations while at Hunter Douglas’ Rotterdam operations in 2015.”

For commercial construction renovation, modernization, and repurpose-and-reuse facilities, Rice believes a new and deeper mindset needs to evolve in the construction industry to support what architects are leading and general contractors are supporting.

Establishing Parameters to Support Material Circularity for Materials Utilized in Buildings.

Rice describes “conversation of materials,” one that needs to consider such terms as “urban mining” from an aluminum company he knows and “buildings as a material bank” as described by a Dutch architect.

“Some of the largest architects and general contractor firms are firmly on board and leading with materials and practices.  Gensler, HOK, HKS, Perkins & Will and other architectural firms are setting standards for material qualifications, while the largest general contractor firms like Skanska, Turner, Hensel-Phelps, and others have teams involved in sustainability.   University programs across the country from Georgia Tech to Vermont to Cal Berkeley offer Sustainability and Environmental Studies, along with Construction Management degrees, so more a more talent will pour into this.”

“With our localized project work we need purposeful learning about deconstructing a building, preserving the materials, and creating pathways so companies can collect, sort, recycle, reuse, repurpose and make brand new products, whether it’s a one-to-one recycle or turning the content into another type of product of the same or similar material.”

Deconstruction and recycling saves energy that would otherwise be spent on mining and formulating new materials. Recycling aluminum saves about 95% of the energy required to produce virgin aluminum products.

His current company, Saint Gobain and CertainTeed, is one of the global manufacturers pushing for the sustainable practice of circularity with partners throughout construction as a whole. Programs turning shingles in asphalt, and plate glass into cullet for insulation, or mineral board ceiling panels as a take-back program, are examples.

“As a society, we’re going to have to become a lot better in material selection, deconstruction and circularity, and I believe manufacturers have a place to guide that knowledge and effort at architect, general contractor and, in the future, subcontractor sustainability team levels.”

When talking about CISCA specifically, he also proposes: “The association has a place to play in the discussion of sustainability and environmental preservation, given the material hands-on with interior and exterior construction.”