Alpen High Performance Products, a designer and manufacturer of super-insulating, high-performance windows and doors, welcomed 20 delegates from the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Administration’s Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) Energy Efficiency in Residential and Commercial Construction program to its facilities in Niwot, Colo.
Designed to train mid- to senior-level residential and commercial building professionals from Eurasia seeking to engage with those at the forefront of the U.S. high-performance and sustainable construction industry, SABIT carefully selected delegates from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Ukraine for this year’s program.
SABIT delegates visited four U.S. cities—Washington D.C., Boston, Providence and Denver—during the nearly month-long program where they were introduced to a range of topics in the energy-efficient construction industry, such as design and architecture, renewable energy, technologies, and certification and green building standards.
Alpen CEO, Brad Begin, and the company’s founder, Robert Clarke, hosted the delegates in an afternoon of facility and showroom tours and in-depth discussions on Alpen, its product line of innovative windows and doors and the state of energy-efficient construction and green building within the U.S.
“It is fascinating to engage with other like-minded professionals from across the globe, to discuss the future of green building and efficiency and the challenges that they face in their own countries,” says Begin. “We are honored to have been selected by the Department of Commerce to be part of the tour and the opportunity to share with the international community Alpen’s unyielding dedication to providing products that deliver quality, superior efficiency and advanced building envelope performance to the building and construction industry.”
“Alpen’s demonstrated products are a combination of fiberglass frames, energy-efficient glass, films and inert glass developed through extensive research and development. Its windows, which reflect daylight deeper into the interior space, are very new for (the Russian) green building market,” says Aleksei Poliakov, executive board chair of the Russian Green Building Council (RuGBC) and SABIT delegate.
Colorado, and specifically the Denver-metro area, was an ideal stop within the tour for identifying exemplars in sustainable building and energy efficiency. Home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Rocky Mountain Institute, Sustainable Buildings Council of Colorado and more, the region continues to be the frontline of the industry, pushing innovation, curriculum and standards nationwide.
Following the nationwide program, SABIT and its continuing efforts aim to produce lasting benefits for the participating delegates providing them with the necessary tools, contacts and knowledge to apply green building principles into projects within their home countries.
“Because of current demands in our local markets and an increase in energy-related policy, developers are striving for ideal products, and as a representative of a residential and commercial developer in Western Ukraine, Alpen’s energy-efficient products were of particular interest to me,” says Taras Trynoga, technical director at Lviv Property Development LLC. “Although, because of a myriad of reasons, its products are not available yet in our local market, Alpen represents the future of this industry.”
“Engaging with those from the built environment on a global scale fuels our fire in continuing to produce products with exemplary quality and optimal performance,” Begin shares. “Alpen is excited to see the results, even five and 10 years down the line, of the conversations we had with these representatives.”