I get a lot of emails in my inbox every day, and almost all of them are deleted. I just simply did not have that accident at work or took out PPI on a loan I never had! However, an email from Saint-Gobain did catch my eye and what I read was a pretty large breath of fresh air.
The email explained that Saint-Gobain have launched an online debate about the issue of ‘Fabric First’. Some of you may have read about this subject on my site before. This is the general principle that we should be focusing on the quality of our construction, and in this case fenestration products as well, over any other issue – including price! I am very much in the quality camp and I would be all for a complete change in ethics, similar to the attitude seen in Scandinavia.
Saint-Gobain have launched their own dedicated debates website to tackle the fundamental issues within the fenestration sector. In particular, the debate about the ‘Fabric First’ approach can be found here: http://www.saint-gobain-debates.co.uk/fabric-first/#.Ut2R5GxFDIU
I say this is a breath of fresh air because it’s great to finally see one of the major companies within fenestration actively engaging themselves online and trying to host a debate which I think frankly has been needed to be had for some time! I myself will be adding my two penneth to the debate as soon as I can, today hopefully if I get five minutes. I will be firmly supporting the motion that the ‘Fabric First’ approach is the most economically viable approach.
Finally, after banging this drum on DGB for so long, I’m glad to see one of the bigger companies tackling the problem head on a setting up a great platform for this question to be answered. By the end of the debate, I hope that of the responses posted, most will come to the conclusion that quality should always come first over anything else, and that maybe the industry sees this and adopts a new and fresh attitude to their products.
The debate isn’t going to last long however. It opens today and will close on January 29th, with a decision on the debate being announced the day after. So if this is something you wish to take part in, don’t leave it long! I’ll be putting a link on this site to the debate whilst it is live. This will be on the right hand side of the site.
Debate site: http://www.saint-gobain-debates.co.uk/fabric-first/#.Ut2R5GxFDIU
