Understanding and applying sustainable building methods

By Emma Peterson. 

Sustainability often seems like an abstract, unattainable goal, but there are many simple changes you can make to incorporate efforts into your current operations.  

Heidi J. Ellsworth met with Shawn Stanley from IB Roof Systems™ for an episode of Roofing RoadTrips® to talk about how contractors can integrate sustainability into their processes. Shawn is the sustainability director for IB Roof Systems and is involved across the industry in helping create more environmentally friendly strategies. He has watched how sustainability has grown into a keystone focus of the roofing industry over recent years. 

One thing he notes is that, even as it becomes more and more of a priority, the term itself can be confusing. Shawn personally defines sustainability as “Something you wouldn't have to get new raw materials and remanufacture and ship and install because it's there for a long period of time.” In practice, he means that he wants the economy to become more circular, he wants recyclability and reusability to be paramount.  

He brings this into his work with IB Roof Systems by asking his team to look at everything the company produces and see if anything can be repurposed beyond its original use. For example, Shawn described, “Those cardboard cores that our master rolls come on, we give those to a flooring company because they can cut them up and use them as cores for their vinyl flooring.” He went on to point out that they go through over a thousand pounds of these cores a week. Recycling them is very difficult due to their construction, so repurposing them gives IB Roof Systems a more sustainable process by keeping them out of the landfill for longer.  

For contractors looking to apply this type of philosophy to their work, Shawn pointed out that everything starts at the bidding process. He explained that recycling materials used in the spec is required by some building owners. To give contractors an advantage and build sustainability into their process, he recommended, “They put recycling in a bid as an option so, at the end of life or the end of the warranty, it's already figured in and it can be done without any more out of pocket.” It is through methods like this that companies can shift their existing processes to operate more sustainably and stand out in a competitive field.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about sustainability in the roofing industry.