Solar Gard® Window Films - A Sustainable Solution to Improving Building Energy Efficiency

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” – Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Making the right decisions about energy-efficiency improvements for your home or building is challenging. Understanding your options is critical, whether your goal is to reduce operating costs, decrease carbon emissions or create a more comfortable and productive environment.

Your buildings’ windows offer one of the best opportunities for a solid return on investment for energy savings. Solar energy enters through windows and causes heat to build up inside the building, leading to uncomfortable hotspots and an increased need for air conditioning.

With proven heat-rejection properties, Solar Gard architectural solar control window films can help your home or business consume up to 30%¹ less energy for cooling, by keeping interior temperatures more stable. This reduces the need for air conditioning while moderating peak usage and allowing your cooling system to operate more efficiently. Less costly than installing new windows and more efficient than low-e coatings at rejecting solar heat² Solar Gard window films transform standard glass into high performance windows.

When evaluating opportunities to improve energy performance of a building it is important to consider the life cycle of the products that can be used to improve the building envelope. Compared to replacing windows, the embodied carbon of Solar Gard films is at least 30 times less than new windows. In fact in addition to saving energy Solar Gard’s architectural solar control window films are scientifically proven to be carbon negative and have a net positive environmental impact worldwide.

Solar Gard is the first manufacturer of window films to publish an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The EPD is based on a life cycle analysis of the cradle-to-grave impacts of Solar Gard’s products and fulfills the requirements of an ISO-compliant product category rule. The results are third-party verified per international standards (ISO 14044 and ISO 14025). Similar to a food label, an EPD provides a user with information on the environmental impacts and benefits of products.

Solar Gard has two EPDs covering 46 window film products (published in 2010 and 2012). They are published on two registries: http://www.thegreenstandard.org/EPD_Downloads.html and http://www.environdec.com/en/Detail/?Epd=8423