PPG: Mike Rupert wins Shades of Green Leadership Award

Rupert was recognized for his leadership of the PPG team that developed Solarban 70XL solar control low-emissivity glass. Introduced in 2005 at U.S. Green Building Council’s International GreenBuild Conference, Solarban 70XL glass offered a major advance in glass technology with its unprecedented combination of solar control and visible light transmittance in a transparent, color-neutral glass.



As the industry’s highest-performing solar control low-e glass, Solarban 70XL transmits 63 percent of the sun’s natural light while blocking 73 percent of its solar energy in a standard one-inch insulating glass unit. The resulting light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratio of 2.37 represents a 29-percent performance enhancement over the previous state-of-the-art solar control low-e glass. Even two years after its introduction, no other commercial architectural glass has approached this LSG ratio.



As a result of these characteristics, Solarban 70XL glass has demonstrated the potential to generate significant energy savings in commercial buildings where glazing is a major architectural element. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s most sophisticated modeling software, substituting Solarban 70XL glass in place of the next-highest-performing solar control low-e glass on a standard glass-walled eight-story office building in Los Angeles can cut annual energy costs by 6.6 percent, or more than $40,000 per year (based on 2006 energy rates).



Specifying Solarban 70XL glass over its nearest competitor also enables architects and building owners to reduce the cooling capacity and equipment requirements for their buildings. According to the same U.S. DOE study, the eight-story office building in Los Angeles would require an initial investment in HVAC equipment of nearly $120,000 less if using Solarban 70XL glass instead of the nearest competitive product. And the potential savings are even more pronounced when Solarban 70XL glass is compared to other commonly specified solar control low-e and tinted low-e glasses.



Mark J. Orcutt, PPG vice president, performance glazings, said he was proud of Solarban 70XL glass and the product development team. “We are pleased to contribute significant savings to bottom-line energy costs for building owners and to be part of the building industry’s ongoing nationwide effort to reduce energy consumption,” he added.



Rupert is a 33-year veteran of the PPG performance glazings technical and product development team. The introduction of Solarban 70XL glass was the result of his three-year leadership effort, which encompassed every aspect of the product’s development, from identifying customer needs and expectations to overseeing research and development to assisting in the actual product launch in the marketplace.



The Shades of Green Leadership Awards are given annually by the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh to highlight the efforts of distinctive persons in Western Pennsylvania who have contributed to the region’s environmental transformation through green leadership.



PPG is the largest flat glass manufacturer in North America and supplies glass for commercial and residential construction markets, industrial and specialty uses, and automotive, aircraft and other transportation applications.