INCREASED ENERGY EFFICIENCY
According to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction Status Reports of 2022, buildings accounted for almost 34%¹ of the world’s energy consumption in 2021. At Saint-Gobain Glass, we strive to play a leading role in creating sustainable buildings by offering energy-efficient solutions.
We promote a “fabric first ” approach meaning that a building should primarily have a high-performing envelope. Therefore, the need for heating, cooling, and lighting will be kept to the barest minimum. The remaining required energy can be then supplied from renewable and decarbonized sources. This approach is applied to renovation and new construction projects to ensure an energy need (kWh/m²/yr) close to zero for both new and existing buildings.
Implementing energy efficiency measures should accordingly include the entire building lifecycle. This means that thermal insulation and solar protection are fundamental to reducing heat gains or losses depending on the local climate.
HOW DO WE ACT?
We believe that the choice of glazing is essential to manage the exchange of heat between the outside and inside of the building in any climate, hot or cold while allowing a high level of natural light to enter.
Indeed, our glass products range provides multiple benefits that enable buildings to save energy and take care of the occupants' thermal and visual comfort indoors. For that purpose, we continuously elevate our product range through innovation.
In particular, our magnetron-coated glass products are designed to enhance the energy performance of buildings regardless of the climate. This coating technology is extremely efficient as the emissions due to its whole life cycle are generally offset after the first 3 months of use on the building. The magnetron coating acts as an invisible thermal shield on the glass to provide solar control and/or low emissivity properties for a carbon footprint of around 1kg of CO2 eq/m2 only.
KEY PROPERTIES OF OUR ENERGY-EFFICIENT GLASS PROPERTIES
| Properties | Benefits | Performance factors | Saint-Gobain Glass solutions |
| Solar control | Controls the solar heat and daylight entering the room by reflecting and absorbing energy coming from the sun |
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| Thermal insulation (Low-E) | Preserves the temperature inside the room | Ug-Value: Heat loss transmitted through the glass per unit of surface and per degree of temperature between outside and inside (the lower the Ug-value, the better in terms of thermal insulation) |
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¹ Global alliance for buildings and construction: 2022 global status report for buildings and construction