Pushing sustainable material technology forward

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how ACE Laboratories and the Cool Roof Rating Council are pushing sustainable material solutions forward. 

In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth got the chance to sit down with Erick Sharp, the CEO of ACE Laboratories, to talk about how they are prioritizing sustainability on multiple fronts within the roofing industry. ACE has a unique position in the industry as an independent, third-party lab. This means they get to screen products from all parts of the industry, putting them at the forefront of new technology, especially on the material side. Erick explained, “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.’ And so, we get to screen a lot of new technologies in the sustainable space through that.”  

Erick highlighted a few of the new material technologies he and his team are seeing, “We deal a lot with things like taking ground, recycled tires and being able to put that back into product. We've done that with some of the roofing pieces where they extract the recycled carbon black out of tires and use it to make roofing membranes with it.”  

They have also seen polymer systems come through that are prioritizing plant-based over hydrocarbon oils. Erick explained that their laboratory is used to help get these types of products approved, “We start by evaluating the processability of it. If it goes to a customer that's making membrane, is it still going to go down their line and process the same way without them having to reconfigure everything? And then, when we get to the end application, that's where we're using some of our more day-to-day-type testing capabilities.” The lab tests against standards such as ASTM and they are ISO/IEC 17025 accredited. Further, they have partnered with the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) to be able to test things for their energy-efficiency and reflectivity certifications.  

In addition to all of this, ACE has sandbox capabilities that let them build upon the technology entering the lab. Erick shared, “We do quite a few projects internally, where we're kind of deriving from technologies and understanding new ways to use them in applications and then being able to help roll them out where we can see an opportunity for it to fit into. And I'd say probably 80% of the projects that we do in this are sustainability focused.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast for more about how ACE Laboratories is supporting sustainability in the roofing industry!