Due to our cold climate, we spend upwards of 90% of our time indoors.

However, indoor air pollution levels can be up to 100x higher inside than outside due to tightly sealed buildings and poor air circulation.

The wave of “Sick Building Syndrome” cases in the 1980’s drove home the importance of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and it’s now indisputable that the built environment affects human health. Today, architects and building owners focus on IAQ by 1) Installing operable windows, and 2) Minimizing indoor air pollution.

GlasCurtain rises to the IAQ challenge by being one of the few curtain wall framing systems designed with operable windows in mind, allowing occupants to enjoy fresh air at their convenience, and by striving for material transparency to minimize our environmental impact.

GlasCurtain’s drive towards transparency is demonstrated in our Athena Sustainable Materials Institute Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), in which our fibreglass composite curtain wall framing was found to emit 60% less GHG and contain 40% less embodied energy than conventional aluminum framing.

To minimize our impact on human and environmental health, we’ve also worked with our suppliers to ensure that our finished product contains no substances on  Cradle to Cradle’s Banned List of Chemicals Version 3.0 in excess of the required 1000 ppm, including heavy metals such as arsenic, flame retardants such as PBDEs, halogenated polymers such as PVC, chlorinated hydrocarbons such as PCBs, and VOCs. This clears the path for GlasCurtain to become Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certified in the near future.

Taken together, these actions demonstrate our commitment to improving the built environment and the environment at large. We share this world and it’s our shared responsibility to take of it.

That’s why we tread openly. That’s why we tread transparently.