Archive/Subscribe | www.sprayfoam.org February 12, 2014
 

Industry News & Announcements

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Source: imt.org
The mayors from 10 major U.S. cities announced they will undertake a united effort to significantly boost energy efficiency in their buildings, a move that combined could cut as much climate change pollution as generated by 1 million to 1.5 million passenger vehicles every year, and lower energy bills by nearly $1 billion annually. The mayors will be participating in the new City Energy Project (CEP), an initiative from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market Transformation that is designed to create healthier, more prosperous American cities by targeting their largest source of energy use and climate pollution: buildings. The following 10 cities will be CEP’s first participants: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia and Salt Lake City.
 
Source: americanchemistry.com
The Spray Foam Coalition (SFC) of the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) recently adopted a new SFC Code of Conduct to further demonstrate the member companies’ commitment to the continuous improvement in health, safety and product stewardship of spray polyurethane foam (SPF) products. This is the first commitment of its kind in the SPF industry. The SFC Code of Conduct includes commitments to leadership, communication, applicator training, education and research. The Code can be viewed here.
 
Source: gupta-verlag.com 
The European Commission has found that the four major producers of flexible polyurethane foam – Vita, Carpenter, Recticel and Eurofoam – participated in a cartel and has imposed fines totalling EUR 114,077,000. The cartel covered comfort foam and specific types of flexible foam. The companies colluded to coordinate the sales prices of various types of foam for nearly five years, from October 2005 until July 2010, in ten EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and the UK).

Source: census.gov
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for December 2013, and also calculated the yearly increase in building permits. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 986,000. This is 3.0 percent below the revised November rate of 1,017,000, but is 4.6 percent above the December 2012 estimate of 943,000.
Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 610,000; this is 4.8 percent below the revised November figure of 641,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 350,000 in December.
An estimated 974,700 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2013. This is 17.5 percent above the 2012 figure
of 829,700.
 

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