Briefings

Contractor news

Tecta America awards scholarships

Tecta America Corp., Skokie, Ill., presented its fifth annual academic scholarships to 28 students this year. The scholarships are awarded to children of Tecta America employees who have been with the company a minimum of one year. Each student received a minimum of $1,000 toward his or her education, which became available at the start of the fall 2011 semester.

The scholarship recipient roster is available at www.tectaamerica.com.

Manufacturer news

LiveRoof® appoints regional grower and distributor

LiveRoof LLC, Spring Lake, Mich., has appointed Rocky Mountain Green Roofs Inc., Denver, as the newest regional grower and distributor of its LiveRoof Hybrid Green Roof System in Colorado. The LiveRoof Hybrid Green Roof System is delivered to project sites with modules of full-grown, thriving plants.

Rocky Mountain Green Roofs adapts and grows green roof plants for LiveRoof Hybrid Green Roof System installations in all regions of Colorado.

GAF Materials to open roof insulation plants

GAF Materials Corp., Wayne, N.J., will open two plants, one in Georgia and one in or near Texas or Oklahoma, to produce polyisocyanurate insulation. The plants also will have residential sheathing capacity.

The first plant is expected to begin operations mid-2012. It will be located in an existing 300,000-square-foot warehouse in Statesboro, Ga., and will employ about 50 people. GAF Materials currently is examining potential sites in Texas, Oklahoma and surrounding areas for a second plant expected to open near the end of 2012. Both plants will be located strategically to accommodate GAF Materials' commercial roofing demand.

Saint-Gobain appoints president and CEO

Saint-Gobain Corp., Valley Forge, Pa., has appointed John Crowe president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Saint-Gobain and its Valley Forge-based subsidiary CertainTeed Corp. The roles took effect Sept. 1.

As president and CEO of Saint-Gobain, Crowe will act as the company's representative in North America, overseeing its North American businesses and chairing its Executive Committee. He succeeds Gilles Colas, who will return to Saint-Gobain's Paris headquarters as senior vice president in charge of global strategic developments. He also succeeds Peter Dachowski as CertainTeed's president and CEO. Dachowski retired after 35 years of service in various senior leadership roles at Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed.

Crowe most recently served as president of Saint-Gobain's global abrasives business where he was responsible for more than 13,000 employees and 75 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y., and a master's in business administration from Boston College.

Dow sponsors solar decathlon events

The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., sponsored two student teams and several key events at the Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon 2011. The event was open to the public from Sept. 23 to Oct. 2.

DOE's program challenges 20 collegiate teams to design and build energy-efficient houses powered by the sun. Designs are encouraged to blend aesthetics, affordability, energy production and savings into a full solution residential housing option. Dow Solar was on-site at the Decathlon and partnered with the Solar Energy Industry Association® to host the Congressional Open House where U.S. congressional representatives and staff members were invited to tour the homes and meet the decathlete design teams.

Dow Solar also was a lead sponsor for the DOE Victory Reception held Oct. 1. The reception gathers students, faculty, volunteers and staff to celebrate the team accomplishments.

The Dow Chemical Co. supported two collegiate teams—the CHIP (Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype) Team and the Empowerhouse Team—with financial contributions and provided them with energy-efficient building materials from Dow Building Solutions' insulation products portfolio. The Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, formed the CHIP Team. Parsons New School for Design, New York, and Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J., formed the Empowerhouse Team.

Georgia-Pacific roof boards receive STC and OITC ratings

Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Gypsum's DensDeck® Roof Boards are the first gypsum roof boards tested to contribute to Sound Transmission Class (STC) ratings of up to 61 and Outdoor Indoor Transmission Class (OITC) ratings of up to 49 in roof assemblies for commercial framed construction.

STC and OITC ratings are measures of a building element's resistance to sound penetration based on different assumptions regarding the sound's frequency content. Higher STC and OITC ratings indicate better sound resistance for the specific assumptions of the rating.

The high sound attenuation levels are important as new code and building programs call for sound mitigation in wall and roof-ceiling assemblies, especially in high noise areas around airports, expressways, light rail and railroads, and military bases.

Tremco employee raises money for diabetes research

J. Michael Chadwick, a field adviser for Beachwood, Ohio-based Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance, led a team of 10 south New Jersey bicyclists who rode around Lake Tahoe, Nev., to help fight against Type 1 diabetes. The team raised more than $30,000 in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Chadwick was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 6 years old. Although all the riders from JDRF's New Jersey chapter have a connection to Type 1 diabetes, Chadwick is the only one on the team who has the disease. He and seven other riders from the South Jersey Ride Team also will travel to Tucson, Ariz., to join JDRF's team of riders in El Tour de Tucson Nov. 17-20, where participants may cycle 40, 66, 79 or 109 miles. At press time, the team has raised more than $50,000.

As coach of the South Jersey Ride Team, Chadwick recruits riders, schedules practices and helps riders meet their mileage goals.

Other news

ERA joins Twitter

The EPDM Roofing Association (ERA) has opened its Twitter account, @EPDMRoofing. ERA leadership will tweet information regarding research the association currently is supporting; scheduled speaking engagements of industry thought leaders and ERA officers; the growing body of data supporting EPDM sustainability; impending changes in code regulations; industry events and conventions of interest to ERA members; and the recycling efforts turning EPDM into widely used products.

Up the Ladder

ABC Supply Co. Inc., Beloit, Wis., has promoted 20 branch managers to managing partners. The managing partners are Steve Colton, Neenah, Wis.; Ray Coxe, Delran, N.J.; Jamie Crawford, Salisbury, Md.; Gregg D'Angelo, Youngstown, Ohio; Dennis DeBolt, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Stephen Duggan, Conley, Ga.; Mark Forbes, Rockford, Ill.; Bob Gieseman, East Peoria, Ill.; Brian M. Jenks, Green Bay, Wis.; Allen Karspeck, Santa Fe, N.M.; Chuck Lavalley, Mentor, Ohio; Scott T. Morgan, Akron, Ohio; Jeremy Nickerson, Manassas, Va.; Mike Reilly, Portland, Maine; Travis Schmidt, Chippewa Falls, Wis.; Mick Self, Kenosha, Wis.; Rod Siler, Huntington, W.Va.; Kirk E. Stitt, New Castle, Pa.; Jason Torrence, Calhoun, Ga.; and Dustin Williams, St. Joseph, Mo.

NRCA News

Melvin Kruger scholarship applications are available

The Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress is accepting applications for its 2012-13 Melvin Kruger Endowed Scholarship Program. The program, administered by Scholarship Management Services,® a division of Scholarship America,® is available to assist NRCA contractor and supplier member employees.

Employees and their families who plan to pursue post-secondary education in college and vocational programs are eligible for the merit-based scholarships. Scholarship recipients are selected based on academic record; potential to succeed; leadership and participation in school and community activities; honors; work experience; a statement of education and career goals; and an outside appraisal. Financial need is not considered.

Scholarship recipients will receive funding for full-time study at any accredited post-secondary institution of the student's choice. Each scholarship recipient will receive a $5,000 award, renewable for up to three years of undergraduate study or until a bachelor's degree is earned as long as recipients renew annually and maintain a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or the equivalent).

Applications are available online and must be completed and mailed with a current and complete official transcript to Scholarship Management Services postmarked no later than Jan. 31, 2012.

For more information about the scholarship and an application, visit www.roofingindustryalliance.net or contact Bennett Judson, the Alliance's executive director, at (800) 323-9545, ext. 7513 or bjudson@roofingindustryalliance.net.

NRCA University offers executive institute

NRCA University's new educational offering, the Executive Management Institute (EMI), is accepting applications for its first class.

EMI offers seasoned roofing executives the opportunity to learn from world-renowned professors from Evanston, Ill.-based Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management; apply learned concepts through a competitive team project; receive one-on-one company-specific feedback on assignments; and network with industry peers.

This year's EMI will focus on the latest developments and research in leadership and marketing during the program's two face-to-face sessions. The first session is four days long and will be held Dec. 11-14 at Kellogg School of Management's downtown Chicago campus. The second session will last 1 1/2 days during the 2012 International Roofing Expo® in Orlando, Fla.

The application deadline is Nov. 11. Tuition is $7,495 for NRCA members and $9,495 for nonmembers. Tuition includes books, accommodations, meals and activities. Applications are available at www.nrca.net/emi. For more information, contact Tom Shanahan, EMI's associate executive director, at (800) 323-9545, ext. 7538 or tshanahan@nrca.net.

Events

November

3-5
Roofing Issues: Decks to Dockets
National Roofing Legal Resource Center
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Contact: Anne Schroeder
(847) 299-9092
www.nrlrc.net

30-Dec. 3
CitiesAlive 2011 9th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC)
Philadelphia
Contact: GRHC
(416) 971-4494
www.greenroofs.org

December

4
Seventh Symposium on Roofing Research and Standards Development
ASTM International
Tampa, Fla.
Contact: Walter J. Rossiter Jr.
(301) 975-6719
www.astm.org

11-14
Executive Management Institute
NRCA University
Chicago
Contact: Tom Shanahan
(800) 323-9545, ext. 7538
www.nrca.net/emi

13-15
Low Slope Roofing Systems—Membrane, Metal, Sprayed Foam, plus Green Roof Applications
University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Engineering Professional Development
Madison, Wis.
Contact: Raymond C. Matulionis
(800) 462-0876
www.epdweb.engr.wisc.edu/courses