How Victorian Sliders Puts The ‘Eco’ In ECOSlide

Demand for energy-efficient products is higher than ever – and in the years to come, that’s only going to increase.

Not that long ago, the environment was still seen as a niche in glass and glazing – manufacturers would promote products based on their thermal efficiency, but framed it more as a way of cutting energy bills rather than protecting the environment.

Now, that’s totally changed. Driven by high-profile protests, increasingly alarming predictions from climate scientists, and hugely influential TV shows like David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, millions of British people are looking for cleaner, greener ways to live – and that’s impacting every industry, ours very much included.

Research commissioned by Getty found that 84% of UK consumers now say sustainability is important to them.

A study from consultancy Britain Thinks found 56% of house owners now consider sustainability when it comes to selecting products, and a fifth of British shoppers are more likely to buy ones that clearly display their green credentials on the packaging according to Unilever.

Environmental awareness is even higher among certain age groups – 73% of millennials are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, according to a study by global data analytics firm Nielsen.

Millennials are often mistakenly assumed to all be very young – but the oldest ones are now 39, and increasingly moving into the age bracket where they’re more likely to be homeowners.

Meanwhile, research conducted by Forbes found that 62% of Generation Z, the homeowners of the future, prefer to buy from sustainable brands – meaning the need to offer green products is only going to grow in the years ahead.

To succeed in the 2020s, you need to go green

Coronavirus might’ve overtaken it as the world’s number one priority, but climate change still poses a much bigger longer term threat to the way we live and work.

In the coming years, we’re bound to see the negative impacts of climate change become more obvious, and the government accelerate its attempts to reach its extremely ambitious 2050 net zero target.

Together, that’s likely to cause public concern about the environment to increase even further – and mean that, if installers want to succeed in the decade to come, they’ll have to offer products with very strong green credentials. Energy efficient windows will become a must.

Sash windows with superb U-Values and thermal efficiency

At Victorian Sliders, that’s what drives our ongoing attempts to make the greenest uPVC sash windows possible.

In part, we just want to do our bit to help reduce Britain’s carbon footprint – but we also want to give our more than three thousand installer customers everything they need to thrive and grow in this ever-more eco-conscious age.

From the very start, we intended for ECOSlide to be a cost-effective and sustainable PVCu sash window.

Thanks to their modern double glazing, they achieve energy ratings of A+ as standard – putting an end to uncomfortable draughts, and reducing heating costs and offering outstanding insulation. They deliver U-Values of just 1.4, in line with the upgraded requirements of Part L.

What’s more, every component of our sash windows can be recycled up to 10 times with current technology – and in future, as that technology improves, this is likely to increase.

Also, one thing that’s often not appreciated is that sash windows tend to offer better energy efficiency than casements simply because of how they operate.

When you open both sashes, it dramatically increases the airflow in a room – the cool air that comes in pushes warm air out, meaning there’s less need for air conditioning and electric fans.

Refurbishing Britain’s homes

This is vital, because for Britain to reach its ambitious net zero target, millions of homes around the country will require extensive retrofitting – including thousands of period properties, which would’ve been specifically designed with sash windows in mind.

In many cases, it will mean replacing aging timber windows with single glazing with energy-efficient twenty-first century alternatives, reducing heat loss, enhancing thermal performance, preventing condensation, helping with draught proofing and ensuring buildings and their occupants use less energy as a result.

Replacing aging frames with durable new windows will play a vital role in helping the UK strive for greater sustainability – and products like ECOSlide will allow properties with traditional windows to retain their historic aesthetics.

Green investment

We’ve also invested extensively to create a market-leading PVCu recycling facility at our Ammanford HQ.

That allows us to take old plastic window frames and turn them into PVCu thermal inserts, that play a critical part in delivering our sash windows’ excellent energy-efficiency performance.

For a business of our size, we also have a relatively low carbon footprint – we carry out the whole manufacturing process in-house, thanks to our long-standing commitment to supplying the best quality PVCu sash windows.

Almost every component we use, we manufacture ourselves here in South Wales – therefore limiting the transportation of goods between suppliers, which make a major contributor to a company’s carbon footprint.

Earlier this year, we also took the decision to stop using plastic bubble wrap packaging for our sash windows and replace it with recyclable cardboard corner protectors instead.

There’s still a lot more we want to do. Later this year, we’re planning to make investments to expand our recycling facilities even further.

But in 2020, we think you’ll struggle to find a greener PVCu sash window product than ECOSlide.