Solar Gard window film cuts carbon emissions

SAN DIEGO, USA: Bekaert Specialty Films today announced its flagship Solar Gard and elite Panorama architectural solar control window films produce a net reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

They are the first building improvement products made in the US to measure and report their carbon footprint.1 By reducing the amount of energy used to cool commercial buildings and homes, Solar Gard and Panorama window films help decrease carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and help achieve zero energy building goals.

Solar Gard window films are carbon negative in all 50 states and across the globe. On average, they are carbon neutral within one year of installation. More efficient than low-e coatings at rejecting solar heat, Solar Gard window films are both carbon-effective and cost-effective, reducing a building’s carbon footprint more effectively and for less money than new windows. In fact:

* One square meter of a low-e wood window, the type with the smallest carbon footprint, has a carbon cost of 253 kilograms. The carbon cost of Solar Gard window film is less than one kilogram per square meter.

* Solar Gard window film saves 1001 times more GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere than is used and/or created during its manufacture.

* Solar Gard window film installed between 2007 and 2008 saved 3.6 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere; this is equivalent to the carbon output of 16,350 American families (with four people).

* Solar Gard’s impact on the reduction of global carbon emissions is enormous because heating and cooling systems in buildings produce significant levels of GHG emissions. Improved fenestration can lower energy consumption and GHG emissions by 10-40 percent in both commercial buildings and homes,5 and an installation of Solar Gard window film transforms standard glass into high performance windows.