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GAF and the Design Community Bridging the Gap with the Designers Collective

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GAF and the Design Community: Bridging the Gap with the Designer's Collective

January 28, 2016

Architects and the GAF team working together to problem solve.

GAF continues to improve its services to meet customers' needs. This includes thinking more and more about the challenges that designers face and how the company can help offer solutions. As a result, the design community can turn to GAF for comprehensive support from day one of their commercial projects.

The Designer's Collective

In support of this effort, GAF recently hosted its first Designer's Collective. The three-day event in New Jersey brought 11 of the East Coast's most influential architects and design consultants together with GAF department leaders.

Regional Sales Directors Natalia Gallo (Mid-Atlantic), Larry Cargal (Gulf Coast), and Cory Yawger (North East), cohosted and organized the event as a series of roundtables and one-on-one conversations. The intimate forum allowed the design community to express needs and concerns directly to GAF department heads, plus give real-time feedback on existing GAF resources for architects and specifiers.

GAF team members Natalia Gallo, Cynthia McArthur, Larry Cargal and Monica Wynn ready to learn from attendees

The Outdated Gap

"GAF started as a shingle manufacturer," explained Gallo. This meant that the company relied on contractors for an invitation to the table on commercial projects. But having manufacturers participate so late in the game was a disservice to owners, architects, project budgets, and the buildings themselves.

GAF can provide expertise across several segments of the roofing industry including Commercial and Solar. With so many resources, GAF knew it was time for the relationship with designers to also evolve and grow. "Architects have a partner in GAF, not just a vendor," said Gallo. "And we will help them guide their own customers to the right solution for their particular building."

It's nearly impossible for any single design firm to stay completely abreast of the constant changes in building codes. "That's why so many firms specialize," said Cargal. But GAF wants to and can help relieve the burden of navigating projects alone.

That's why GAF territory managers "show the architect, step-by-step," what is needed for a commercial project as well as the support available to them. "It's not about sales," said Cargal. "It's about education."

Opportunities for Improvement

GAF already offers architects comprehensive field services, technical support, and architectural services via the GAF Design Services team. But the Designer's Collective created an opportunity to further prioritize the design community's needs. When manufacturers can put more of their focus on the architects, everyone wins.

Designer's Collective attendees outside of GAF headquarters

Better Project and Building Outcomes

"When we know the building owner's goals, capital budget, and operating expense, we can better match the utility of roof assembly to the goals of their building and budget," said Cargal. Without a manufacturer-designer connection, it's left up to the roofer and general contractor who might have different goals. This means the owner's goals could get lost. As a result, "quality and budget can suffer, and the longevity of the building suffers, too," said Cargal.

More Time and Resources Saved for Architects

"In today's world, one thing you can't afford to waste is time," said Gallo. A close relationship between architects and manufacturers means GAF can directly address pain points instead of presuming. "When we know exactly what architects need, we can save them time," said Gallo. "That's the difference between service and hospitality. Making our customer important enough that we center their needs in the equation."

Learning from the Design Community about Their Challenges

The Designer's Collective provided the framework for architects to convey their industry needs, while also forging personal relationships with GAF leaders. In contrast to larger GAF events in the past, the Designer's Collective was intimate, explained Gallo. As a result, these designers and the GAF department heads are just a phone call away from each other for requests, concerns, and real-time feedback on GAF products and designs.

Here are some key insights attendees shared, which will help the GAF team uncover new opportunities to help minimize these issues and support the customer.

Employee Shortages

Architects are observing labor shortages. Overworked principal architects need employee training support. Firms are having trouble getting existing employees to come into offices.

Time Resources

Many designers find they waste time navigating manufacturer websites to find necessary code and installation information.

One existing tool GAF has in place today is our Design Services Resources. In addition to the information and assets available on the website, the Design Services team engages on a national scale with associations like the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), American Institute of Architects (AIA), and International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC) to bridge the education gap on the latest codes and trends in building design.

Product Differentiation

It's a challenge to differentiate GAF products and warranties, and explain performance value to building owners.

Cargal explained that GAF's warranties are lateralized across all systems. "It can be hard for architects to differentiate between importance of or value of different products and warranties," he said. "This event really helped us open our eyes to how we could help architects to help owners to understand."

Closing the Gap

Events like the Designer's Collective allow architects to "be more of a stakeholder in the process," said Gallo. "A direct relationship with manufacturers can increase the revenue to architects' own customers, because they can serve those customers better."

When the gap is closed, owners get a better finished product and a better performing building, explained Cargal. "We're serving architects exactly where they need us to. Without events like the Designer's Collective, we're in the dark about architects needs."

Learn more about events like the Designer's Collective and how to receive technical and design support, sustainable options, system integrations, code approvals, and much more from the GAF team.

About the Author

Annie Crawford

Annie Crawford is a freelance writer in Oakland, CA, covering travel, style, and home improvement. Find more of her work at annielcrawford.com.

At GAF, we're serious about our sustainability promise: to protect what matters most, including our people, our communities, and our planet. We recently published 21 new GAF product-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) as one way we're delivering on that promise.EPDs are critical to improving green building solutions. These standardized and third-party-verified documents outline the environmental impacts associated with a building product's life cycle—from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal or reuse. Through the EPD creation process, we have been advancing on our sustainability goals, demonstrating our commitment to the environment and our customers, and increasing product sustainability in the roofing industry.Here's a look at our most recent progress and what's expected to come.GAF Sustainability GoalsThe 21 new EPDs are an exciting milestone toward our GAF 2030 Planet Goals, which have four focus areas: increase product transparency, reduce carbon emissions, drive circularity in the roofing sector, and divert operational waste. By 2030, we plan to publish EPDs for our entire commercial and residential core product portfolio. As we've scaled the GAF EPD creation process, through extensive life cycle assessments across our portfolio, we better understand the environmental impact of each stage in our products' life cycles. This opens up internal and external sustainability opportunities as we learn from, and analyze, our life cycle assessment results.Evolving to Product-Specific Environmental Product DeclarationsRoofing has long relied on industry-wide EPDs created from aggregate product data. As a result, our architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) community members have had fewer opportunities to make informed sustainability choices around roofing materials.According to several sources, the built environment accounts for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions worldwide. Collectively, we as a roofing industry could help reduce this number by increasing our transparency documentation. With more product-specific Environmental Product Declarations, companies and customers can make more informed product sustainability decisions.And although GAF currently has the highest overall number of transparency documents for roofing materials in the industry, we know we also have an opportunity to grow.GAF Uses Life Cycle Assessments to ImproveWe review product Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to understand the environmental impact of each product's production stages, from raw material extraction to end-of-life. Then, we can use that information to identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions to reduce a product's environmental impact, resulting in a reduction in embodied carbon. The knowledge we gain from our LCAs creates the potential for product improvements and new innovations to help further our 2030 Planet Goals.Looking Toward 2030 and BeyondWe're working hard to continue leading the industry with transparency documentation such as EPDs, Health Product Declarations, and Declare Labels. But we're not stopping there.We're fostering collaboration in our broader building, construction, and design space to help reduce the built environment's total carbon emissions. At GAF, sustainability isn't checking a box. We believe in and champion protecting our homes and our planet. By changing how we do business, we hope to improve how builders can build and, ultimately, how our world lives.Empowering the AEC CommunityTransparency and product sustainability documentation help us all build a better world. We're committed to empowering designers, builders, architects, and engineers by providing information about the lifecycle and environmental impact of GAF products whenever possible.Explore some of our most recent EPDs below.Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ Barrier. Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ HD and HD Barrier Polyiso Cover BoardEnergyGuard™ HD Plus Polyiso Cover BoardEnergyGuard™ NH Barrier Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ NH HD Plus Polyiso Cover BoardEnergyGuard™ NH HD Polyiso Cover BoardEnergyGuard™ NH Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ NH Ultra Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ NH Ultra Tapered Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ Polyiso InsulationEnergyGuard™ Ultra Polyiso InsulationUltra HD Composite InsulationTPO Single-Ply MembraneEverGuard® TPO Extreme Fleece-backEverGuard® TPO ExtremeEverGuard® TPOEverGuard® TPO Fleece-backEverGuard® SA TPO Self-Adhered Roof MembranePVCEverGuard® PVCEverGuard® PVC Fleece-back Roof CoatingsHydroStop® System GAF Acrylic Top CoatLooking to explore more sustainable design solutions? You can learn how GAF is investing in our people, our planet, and progress for a more sustainable future, here.

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