In today's market architects are designing ever taller and ever more spectacular buildings, but typically in an environmentally responsible way. In response to this concern and growing demand from glass processors and facade makers to reduce waste, AGC decided to take its commitment to sustainable production a step further by making it possible to produce glass in perfectly customised lengths right from the outset.
Short biography
Lorenzo Pesce is Product Manager Float and Coatings at AGC Glass Europe. He joined AGC in 2005 as Marketing Manager for Italy. In 2009, he moved to the European HQ in Belgium as Product Manager Float and Coatings. After holding various positions within the Group, including Middle East Development Manager, he returned to Belgium to continue developing float and coating products in Europe.
The carbon footprint of every renovation and newbuild project is now a central concern for architects and investors. In response to growing market demand to optimise costs and reduce glass waste, AGC Glass Europe is reinventing its service offering to deliver more customised and sustainable products. Lorenzo Pesce explains how and why this new service was set-up.
Lorenzo Pesce: “The glass industry, like many others, is a heavy industry. For years, AGC has been improving its production processes and reducing CO2 emissions in order to offer more environmentally friendly products, including via C2C certification. Developing new products and services featuring better environmental performance throughout their entire life cycle is one of the six environmental objectives AGC has set itself for 2030. This was the starting point for our Tailor-Made Sizes service.”
“Definitely! In today's market architects are designing ever taller and ever more spectacular buildings, but typically in an environmentally responsible way. In response to this concern and growing demand from glass processors and facade makers to reduce waste, AGC decided to take its commitment to sustainable production a step further by making it possible to produce glass in perfectly customised lengths right from the outset.”
“Implementing customised production involved a long process at AGC’s plants. Usually plants produce glass sheets in standard sizes, which are then cut down to the necessary measurements for the project. In order to be able to offer the flexibility of custom lengths for a wide variety of our glass products, we had to verify how feasible this was at all of our plants, reorganise our production and supply chain internally in order to adapt how we work, stock glass and guarantee delivery times in line with project requirements.”
“Instead of producing glass ahead of time in standard lengths and then selling it to the customer, we produce it directly at the customer’s required length. Moreover, we only produce the amount of glass needed, which in turn prevents waste and reduces the project’s ecological footprint."
"Not only were we keen to offer our customers a custom service, but it also has major environmental implications. For example: For a 10,000 m² project with windows measuring 3800 x 1600 mm, we calculated that using our Tailor-Made glass production capability can result in a 144.5-tonne reduction in CO2 emissions*.”
* Calculation based on a DGU unit having the following composition: 66.2 Stratobel –16 mm Argon 90 % – 44.2 Stratobel
“No. Tailor-Made Sizes will never fully replace the production of glass in standard sizes. Nevertheless, I am confident the service will be successful in the facade segment as there is a high demand in for this kind of service.”