Serious Materials
“By re-engineering common products that use or lose the most energy, Serious Materials aims to develop and manufacture breakthroughs in product performance that save their customers money and energy, without requiring changes in behavior or in how products are used.
The ‘built environment’ is responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide compared to only 9% for cars and light trucks. Serious Materials believe they can slash that number by re-engineering common products that use or lose the most energy. And local plants can create thousands of green-collar jobs in the U.S., further reducing carbon footprints.
Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials, says ‘The manufacturing of standard gypsum drywall has remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years, when the environmental impact of building operations and materials manufacturing processes was not understood. The built environment is the single largest contributor to global greenhouse gases’.
Earlier, in September this year, Serious Materials, launched SeriousEnergy Manager, a software-as-a-service platform that provides building owners and property managers with continuous monitoring, analysis, optimisation and control of overall energy usage in commercial buildings. Used in over 60 buildings in the U.S. and India to date, SeriousEnergy Manager provides consistently fast energy-savings of 10 to 15 percent for rapid total solution payback in one to two years.
Surace also said that “with 5 million commercial buildings in the U.S. alone, there is a huge opportunity to save money. Our customers need the ability to manage, analyse, and maintain real energy-savings on an ongoing basis. We are the first major player to bring an advanced, yet low cost service to market.”
According to the EPA, an average 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted at energy costs of more than $100 billion per year in the U.S. alone. A SeriousEnergy Manager addresses this immediate opportunity for savings by quickly demonstrating energy efficiency improvements for building owners and managers of an individual building or entire portfolio for commercial Office buildings, Schools and University campuses, Government facilities, Retail operations, and factories.
Last year, Serious Materials was recognised by Wall Street Journal for their EcoRock drywall innovation by winning in the Environment category. EcoRock requires 80 percent less energy to make than traditional drywall and produces 80 percent less carbon dioxide due to the natural curing and drying process as well as eliminating the calcining processes, eliminating the energy-intensive processes of traditional gypsum drywall production.
It is made using pre-consumer recycled waste, including waste from steel and cement plants and zero gypsum. EcoRock is the first product to receive Environmental Claims Validation by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Environment. The UL Environment audit validates the following environmental claims for EcoRock: 80% recycled content, low VOC emissions (meets CA 01350), mercury free, and highly resistant to mold. And EcoRock is the first termite resistant drywall product available anywhere.”
Everyone’s talking about this highly innovative team, I suggest you wander through their impressive News & Announcements page because it has to be seen to be believed how far vision, belief and determination will take a dedicated team of people.
