“Save a tree use PVC”. Remember that? It was the sales slogan for plastic windows and it infuriated wood window producers. It was an unfair statement, they protested, as the timber they used was renewable. But their pleas that they weren’t the eco-enemy fell on deaf ears, in no small part because they didn’t have the marketing machinery to respond in kind. Plastic windows consequently hoovered up market share.
It also didn’t help, timber window makers now admit, that in the 1970s and 80s some of them had churned out pretty shoddy products using low grade wood. So, never mind timber’s eco performance, the plastic sector’s other claims, that wood windows warped, rotted and needed frequent maintenance, stacked up for all to see.
How things have changed. Recently a PVCu window maker wrote to The Glazine website urging fellow producers to “generate positive PR in the face of attacks from the green lobby and the timber industry”.
Clearly the environmental boot is now on the other foot. The timber sector is getting its sustainability message across and it’s plastic that’s in the greens’ firing line. This was underlined by Greenpeace last year when it republished its “Look Out” leaflet on buying and specifying windows. This categorically stated that wood was the best choice, as long as it was sustainably sourced.
The wood window sector has done itself competitive favours too. More factory finishing and glazing and use of better timber and coatings have raised overall quality and durability. And this is backed with better marketing, both from individual companies and via the British Woodworking Federation and the new Wood Window Alliance.
Now wrapping all this up with a bow is the latest edition of the BRE’s Green Guide, the bible for sustainable sourcing in construction. This subjects products to searching life cycle analysis covering the material they’re made from, how they’re manufactured, how long they last and, finally, how they’re disposed of. Wood windows scored the top A/A+ rating, setting the seal on a turnaround in the products’ market potential that should cheer the timber industry as a whole.
