In building and construction, energy codes have long been viewed as an adversary of aluminum, but as these prescriptive codes give way to green and sustainability initiatives aluminum can once again reign supreme. To do so, cradle-to-cradle performance needs to be the focus of all aluminum proponents. As such, we must not allow the industry to dictate greenliness solely on how fenestration performs once installed, but to examine how that product came to be and what will happen to it once the structure is demolished. It is only then that we can have a clear view of the effect one material has on the environment vs. another. This paper will probe into how the energy savings of the most current designs and recycled aluminum compare to that of the existing prescriptive U-factors, and how other products compare under the same analysis. It will also examine the importance of the aluminum industry being the advocate for the inclusion of this holistic analysis in all environmental rating systems, and the ramifications of the continued acceptance of the current approach.
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