On Tuesday, Senator Udall visited the Serious Materials commercial glass and windows factory in Boulder, Colorado. The trip was made to show his support for companies that manufacture energy-saving building products, and in doing so, create new American green jobs. See photos here.

“The economic opportunities for companies making sustainable products are endless, and that’s what today’s visit shows,” said Senator Udall. “For many years I’ve worked for policies that encourage the development of green technology and manufacturing because I believe it’s the right thing for our economy and for our environment. And I know that through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and other legislation, we can continue to increase the demand for sustainable building products – and create many more good-paying jobs as a result.” Full press release here.

How are windows critical to “the right thing” for our economy and our environment? Inefficient windows are in fact one of the biggest energy culprits in the U.S., costing consumers approximately $35 billion per year in energy. The next generation of windows could reduced this by more than half. In fact, 30% of building heating and cooling energy is lost through inefficient windows. Super-insulating high full frame R-value windows (of R-5 or greater) can solve this problem today and energy costs by as much as 50%.

It is extremely encouraging that policy, and policy leaders such as Senator Udall, support and recognize the important role and immediate opportunity advanced building materials can have in leading both economic and environmental progress. The energy saving programs created by the ARRA for Colorado totals $171,371,913, including funding dollars for Colorado State Energy Program, Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant Program, the largest state annual Weatherization Assistance grant from the DOE to help low income families save money by making their homes more energy efficient. For more info, visit Senator Udall’s Web site on Economic Recovery for Colorado and see your state’s dollars allocated towards energy efficiency here.

Today, it can simply start with the windows.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 7:19 am and is filed under Energy Policy, SeriousGlass, SeriousWindows, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.