Committee Updates from NGA Glass Conference in Chicago

The Glass Conference Track held educational presentations and meetings of NGA’s Fabricating, Forming, and Advocacy Committees. Here are the takeaways from each committee:

NGA Fabricating Committee

The NGA Fabricating Committee, led by Chair Aaron Thompson of Viracon and Vice-Chair Bobby Chestnut of Walker Glass started a task group to develop best practices for the use of suction cups in glass handling.

The Committee welcomed D.J. Weil of Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions as the new TemperingLiaison. New business related to tempering includes a task group developing a standard for heat soaking, a task group proposing building code changes for exterior lites in the next code development cycle, an ad hoc group to review measurement procedures for materials used in photovoltaic modules and participation in a new ASTM task group discussing see-through distortion.

Decorative GlazingLiaison Michael Saroka of Goldray Glass reported the new NGA Decorative Glazing Manual is in the final production stages. Julia Schimmelpenningh of Eastman|Saflex, Laminating  Liaison, is forming a new task group to discuss fall out protection, and a task group to expand the glass nomenclature system to include additional glass types and thicknesses, additional coatings and gas fill percentages.

Insulating Liaison Robert Carlson of Tristar Glass announced resources ready for ballot, including Highly InsulatingGlass Units AIA presentation and IGU Spacer Types and Capabilities 101. Stephen Morse of Michigan Tech University presented an update on VIG Load Resistance Testing, a joint project with NGA and FGIA.

Vaughn Schauss of Kuraray America, Protective GlazingLiaison, led discussions of on-going updates to security glazing and wired glass technical papers, as well as a review of existing resources on aesthetic considerations for forced-entry glass. An ASTM task group is adapting language from NGA’s Bird-Friendly Glazing Design Guide into a Standard Practice. Bird-friendly language based on NGA’s Design Guide is now published in ASHRAE 189.1-2026 and the 2027 IgCC. José Colón of Intertek presented Testing and Certification of Building Products for Hurricane Protection.

NGA Forming Committee

The NGA Forming Committee is led by Chair Steve Marino of Vitro Architectural Glass and Vice-Chair Jon Griggs of Guardian Glass. Committee activity included updates to the NGA members-only state sustainability legislation database, and ballot updates for Flat Glass Industry Standardized Definitions and Anti-Microbial Coatings for Architectural Glass technical paper. A new task group, jointly with the NGA Fabricating Committee, will review International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) flat glass dimensional requirements for solar photovoltaic energy systems. Katy Devlin of NGA presented Glass Industry Trends Update. The Committee congratulated Steve Marino on his upcoming retirement. Marino appointed Logan Tautkus-berry of Vitro Architectural Glass to serve the remainder of his term as Chair. The Chair position will rotate to Guardian Glass in 2027.

NGA Advocacy Committee

The NGA  Advocacy Committee, led by Chair Paul Bush of Vitro Architectural Glass, recapped NGA Glass & Glazing Advocacy Days in Washington D.C. in May 2026, where NGA members held 45 small group meetings with legislative representatives from 26 states. The committee discussed next steps related to NGA’s priority issues: School Security Glazing, Bird-Friendly Glazing, Workforce Development and Strengthening the National Grid with High Performance Glazing.

NGA Sustainability Sub-Committee

The NGA Sustainability Sub-Committee, led by Chair Kayla Natividad of Pilkington|NSG included an update on the joint AEC/NGA End of Life Recycling Project from Sophie Pennetier of Digne as well as a panel discussion A Building Owner, Architect and Builder Walk into a Speakeasy…Let’s Talk Glass Recycling – with Sydney Mainster of Durst Organization, Nelson Russom of Turner Construction, and Stephen Katz of Gensler, moderated by Georgia Oehler of NGA. NGA’s PCR steering committee is working with TrueNorth Collective and SmartEPD to create the LCA model foundation for industry average EPDs for fabricated products, combine the two existing PCRs for flat and processed glass into a single, unified framework, create a web-based EPD generator tool. Read more about the initiative here.