The Performance Window Group

'By not using Upvc to replace timber windows you can help grow another tree, and make a bigger contribution to saving our planet!’ says Roy Wakeman, CEO, The Performance Window Group.

‘Timber and its plant relations are still the only renewable natural resources on earth and have comforted the world's populations and animal kingdoms since time began for food, fuel and building materials. So why should we not continue to nurture, farm and replenish, just as we have with all other crops for so very long.

‘Upvc uses oil as a main ingredient and as laymen we all know the life expectancy of that commodity which is reflected in the daily experience of its price inflation.

‘The argument is clear to me and always has been since joining the timber trade as a trainee in the early 1960s. Even then, responsible shippers in Northern Europe and North America went to great pains to describe their responsibilities for reforestation,’ says Roy Wakeman.

‘So it beggars belief that we read Upvc can get an A rated credential in the latest BRE Green Guide on the basis that more Upvc windows are being recycled. What a superb job the consolidated capital behind the plastics industry is doing!

‘Of course, I am biased towards timber as it has provided me with a good living for the past forty years,’ continues Wakeman, ‘and I guess there is more acreage of farmed timber available for consumption as there was then, if not more, as reforestation has been improved and sustainability programmes have been introduced.

‘It did help also that influential bodies like Green Peace and Friends of the Earth argued vehemently against the timber trade in the 70s, 80s and 90s on sound grounds and that, as a result, the majority of the world's trade has now cleaned up its act and trades legally with good certificated schemes that can be recognised alongside appropriate Chain of Custody schemes.

‘As far as the window and door market is concerned the wood industry did itself no credit in the past, promoting and pushing lowest production cost to its customers over quality and performance which gave rise to poorly designed windows and doors that neither lasted nor performed.

‘This provided the plastic industry with an enormous market gap in the early 1970s and the sales message certainly got through: ‘Maintenance free and warm double glazing.’

‘These two messages were well received by the consumer who, for the first time, was able to buy these new products on the doorstep and on credit. It became fashionable and went in tandem with such things as cavity wall insulation and stone-faced effects for the facades of houses.

‘Today, the perception and mindset of the consumer is such that buying double glazing has become the key word that depicts these plastic products.

‘It's been an interesting story and experience for us timber boys and I can well remember, as a junior member of the old British Woodworking Federation marketing committee, trying to raise the standard of the timber window frame industry by introducing factory paint finishes and factory glazing with sealed insulated units in the late 1970s,’ says Wakeman.

‘Most of my efforts fell on stony ground, I have to say, and the stalwarts of the industry then bellowed down the table to me ‘over their dead bodies!’ Well whilst some, I dare say, have passed on now the majority were squeezed out of business through a general contraction and consolidation of the industry. I played my part in the latter and am proud to remember in 1987 using engineered redwood and white wood PSE blanks from Scandinavia that were designed almost from the sawmills log cutting list to suit our windows and it paid off as our quality improved and so did our profit. Sadly, my successors in that business reversed the process.

‘Happily though that business is still going and is part of a very large organisation and, more importantly, the reputation and performance of today's modern timber windows and doorsets is such that we are now clearly the leading product to choose from a consumers' point of view in contributing to the sustainability argument.

‘Today's timber windows are mostly built to very high quality standards with modern ironmongery and paint finishes that, together with engineered timber components, will give life expectancy of up to 60 years and more.

‘Timber windows and doors covered under Third Party Certificated Window Schemes like the TWA (BWF-Timber Windows Accreditation Scheme) will provide written guarantees on all of the components used in the manufacture of the product and labels that can track the product back to its source and then into the various Chain of Custody Certification back up for the raw material.

‘The BRE Green Guide clearly recognises timber for its leading environmental creditability by rating the products A+ in its latest guide which now puts timber back to its leading position as the ideal material from which to make performance products for the modern consumer. It also states that timber based products contribute less to Global Warming than other competing materials.

‘As the consumer is becoming more aware of the need to conserve the earth's natural resources through daily press on the subject, and by Government and international initiatives such as the Programme for Sustainable Homes, we will continue to see improved demand for our products. Current investment is good and will be further improved as we reinvest our profits into better processes, plant and new products.

‘So BRE Green Guide not withstanding using timber going forward, will improve investment in its natural replacement and therefore help grow more trees!’

Tel: 01621 818155