Ecobuild 2010 Report

The Windows group of the British Plastics Federation exhibited at Ecobuild, which is one of the world’s biggest shows on sustainable design and construction. The Exhibition was held at Earls Court in London from 2-4 March 2010. There were over a 1000 exhibitors at the show which attracted 40,000 visitors.

The BPF Windows Group were exhibiting at Ecobuild as a part of their PVCAware.org campaign to promote the excellent qualities of PVC-U which as a material is sustainable, recyclable, can be designed to complicated shapes and is easily colourable. It is also flame retardant and has a life span of over 35 years which is accredited by the BRE.

PVC-U windows have also achieved ‘A+’ and ‘A’ ratings for commercial and domestic buildings within the BRE’s Green Guide for Specification.

We had a good mix of people on the stand; from Local Authorities/ Housing Associations and Social Housing, Architects, Students, Private sector home builders and home owners, looking to know mostly about the recycling initiatives underway, who are the major players in sustainable manufacture of windows, explore options for window designs and many were keen to see a wide range of colour profiles available.

There were still some questions on the recyclability of PVC windows; though not as much as last year; indicating perhaps that the message is getting through to the market place. People were still keen to see the process of recycling and that it isn't "just a gimmick”, which is where the P22 window came into use, as to show the technical possibilities. There was still some surprise as to the quantity of post-consumer PVC recycling done in the UK and many people didn't think that the UK would be at the forefront of PVC recycling in Europe.

It was a much busier show than last year, although last year wasn't bad. Over the past 3 years, the acceptance of PVC as a material has generally increased. The Ecobuild audience appears to have changed with fewer Green NGO types compared to 3 years ago.

Fire safety with PVC-U wasn't an issue either and was generally seen as a media-spin on the tragic Lakanal House fire issue.

The stand looked good and provided a meeting place for the members (kindly supported by P22 / Epwin, amongst others).

A large amount of interest and a good number of leads were generated at the stand, both for "other" BPF members, as well as the Windows Group. Some enquiries we had left me thinking that we should have a policy on the use of the PVC Aware logo. Something that the marketing committee should think about.

To summarise Ecobuild 2010, as an exhibition, was very successful and we hope to return next year.

Please click the link http://bit.ly/dhWNAv to view a review on Ecobuild from some of the BPF members.