Windows for a low-carbon future

Over the course of several years of collaboration with social housing providers on low carbon timber buildings, Woodknowledge Wales had come to understand that there were some technical as well as perceptual barriers to using wooden windows. At the same time, social housing providers expressed strong interest in replacing uPVC windows with low-carbon wooden ones, ideally manufactured in Wales, while some joinery businesses explored manufacturing prototype windows from Welsh wood. The window of opportunity for a joint approach to product innovation and delivery seemed wide open.

They discussed how best to harness the potential for timber windows in Social Housing in Wales. Potential opportunities and existing barriers were discussed and a number of ideas for supply chain solutions further developed by working groups on the day. Strong support was given by all participants to co-developing a standardised window design for new buildings and retrofit which would respond to requirements for building performance and security certification. Levels of enthusiasm were high, the road ahead looked promising. This was in December 2019.

We all remember what happened in early 2020, when the Covid pandemic started to spread across Europe. Joinery workshops and factories remained closed for several weeks, no-one knew when business activities would resume. Morals were low for many and yet there was hope. In early May 2020 we had our official kick-off meeting online. We were joined by 15 participants from joinery businesses, suppliers for coatings, ironmongery, window scantlings and industry bodies, many of whom were not familiar with video conferencing nor typically found behind a computer. We were venturing into uncharted territory with a sense of joint commitment to the road ahead.

In a series of online surveys and semi-structured interviews with social housing developers, architects, contractors and timber frame manufacturers we established that simple does it – with rising expectations. A simple casement window, similar to what Welsh joinery businesses already manufactured, was most procured for new build and retrofit projects. However, industry expected future developments to require windows achieving performance criteria equivalent to Passivhaus standard, a major leap in performance of standard windows and not something Welsh manufacturers were producing, yet. This sounded ambitious and exciting.

With the best intentions, we agreed on specifications for a standard window fit for the current market and a high-performance window in line with future demand, the prototyping of which to be conducted in an iterative approach. Now we needed to establish a common manufacturing process which would work with the variety of tooling each joinery business had. While we knew that this would likely be one of the most challenging parts of the journey, we hadn’t anticipated facing skyrocketing demand for custom made timber windows putting all of our collaborators at capacity for months to come. Sales figures went up. So did material prices and shortages. Our innovation project almost ground to a halt. No-one had the head-space or time to invest in prototyping. What had been an exciting opportunity started to become a burden.

The latest edition of these legal requirements was delayed but expected to be published any time soon. Should we wait to get some clarity or try to forge ahead with the risk of delivering something to market the certification of which would no longer be in line with latest requirements? At the same time, some tooling suppliers started developing their own windows scheme open for window manufacturers to buy manufacturing licences for in the future. They were facing the same questions whilst offering us a potential alternative to our own approach.

The scheme would need to facilitate one client procuring a large number of windows, subsequently manufactured by several small to medium sized joinery businesses. Again, we engaged with the different parties involved - joinery businesses on the supplier side, housing associations and local authorities on the client side - to establish how we could best organise the coordination of tenders and contracts. Of the three options discussed, strong preference was given to the “neutral vendor”, an agency role gleaned from the recruitment sector which had been suggested as an ‘out of the box’ option by one of the joinery businesses. A working group was formed to further explore how this model would work in practice considering all legal and commercial aspects including pricing, branding and marketing.

Manufacturers were crucially aware that their commercial success and reputation ultimately depends on consistent quality of products and services across all businesses in a group scheme. The window certification demands rigorous quality standards and identical production protocols. If anyone fails, the scheme fails. This was our Achilles' heel. It quickly became clear that reluctance was high among manufacturers to face potential risks despite a list of audit requirements they had defined for anyone joining their scheme. Joining a licensing scheme of a tooling supplier seemed by far the better option for the vast majority of our group. We had to acknowledge the facts and change course.

Joinery businesses are supplying their existing customers and have neither need, nor capacity to invest in developing new products to suit the social housing market. Social housing providers are still looking for high-performance timber windows that meet their particular requirements in terms of durability and robustness, maintenance, whole-life carbon, security certification and cost. And they want to invest in local manufacture that benefits local people.

A number of ‘investment’ options could take us there: from setting up a manufacturing cooperative with housing associations to joint ventures with manufacturers of timber systems and anything in between. We’ve decided to tap into the power of collective intelligence to co-create our path forward. Stay tuned.