Acing the test: How one laboratory is making a difference in promoting sustainability across the industry

By Anna Lockhart.  

ACE Laboratories has partnered with the Cool Roof Rating Council to promote sustainable material creation across the roofing and construction industries. Hear their story!  

In a recent episode of the Roofing Road Trips® podcast, host Megan Ellsworth sat down with the CEO of ACE Laboratories, Erick Sharp, to discuss the lab’s sustainability efforts and impact on the roofing industry through their work with the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC)! 

In 2015, Erick founded ACE Laboratories, a laboratory which focused on offering comprehensive products and material testing. Now, the lab is a construction and roofing industry leader in offering testing on rubber, silicone and polymer products. Erick shared that they’ve come a long way and that these days, they can test products for the construction market, for how they will perform in the field!  

When asked about what sets ACE Laboratories apart from the rest, Erick explained that in part, their success is due to their dedication to customer service. “We have a laboratory that understands service, which can be obtained through putting in proper systems internally to give you those efficiencies and allow you to be able to be responsive and interactive with your customers. We’re able to install those systems to allow efficiency and responsiveness.” 

Not only does ACE Laboratories prioritize their commitment to customer service, but they’ve placed an emphasis on promoting sustainability when and where they can. Through their work with CRRC, the lab has made it a focus to prioritize sustainability in the roofing solutions they work with. Erick shared, “We deal with sustainability on a lot of different fronts. One of the cool things about being involved on the material side is that we get to see a lot of new technologies, especially because we are an independent third-party lab, so stuff gets sent to us for screening. So as people are developing new sustainable materials, they often send them to us and say, ‘hey, compare them to incumbents that aren't maybe as sustainable and see how they stack up, to see if this is going to work.’” 

He continued, “And so, we get to screen a lot of new technologies in the sustainable space through that and the fact that we are attached with material and in this industry, we're able to bridge that gap of saying, ‘hey, this material looks good in this type of application and this is a fantastic positioning into this type of industry because it does really good on weatherability, really good sustainable aspects’ and so, we were able to kind of position it in there.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about ACE Laboratories and their work with the CRRC to promote sustainability in the industry.