-By Stacy Straczynski

Johnson Controls is taking a “no pane, no gain” approach to sustainable retrofitting of the Empire State Building. The Milwaukee-based innovative solutions company announced yesterday (March 3) it selected Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturer of green building materials to upgrade the New York landmark’s 6,500 dual-pane windows to more energy-efficient single-pane models, enhanced via super-insulating technology.

To complete the upgrade, Serious will treat each dual-pane on-site with SeriousGlass™, a Heat Mirror® film technology developed and licensed by film and glass products manufacturer Southwall. The film will be suspended between each dual-pane window to create a super-insulating cavity, which will perform more like a wall to increase thermal performance by up to four times and reducing solar heat by half.

The upgraded windows are projected to have a three-year return on investment (meaning that the cost of upgrades will pay for itself within three years time) and save over $400,000 in annual energy costs.

“The Empire State building represents a model to others who may look to emulate what is being done at this landmark building from an energy efficiency standpoint,” says Iain Campbell, vice president and general manager for Johnson Controls’ Global Energy & WorkPlace Solutions, in a statement.

During the nine-month construction period, Serious will occupy a 5,000 sq.-ft. on-site space, which will serve as a processing and production area, and utilize its QuietRock soundproof drywall product to reduce noise.

The retrofit project is the first of its size for Serious, according to Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials. (To date, the company has performed similar upgrades but on a much smaller scale.) But what’s particularly unique, is that all of the glass is being reused.

“Most people throw out the glass and start anew,” Surace says. “It wasn’t cheaper to do this, but it was the right thing for the planet. [Anthony E. Malkin, owner of the Empire State Building] didn’t want the glass thrown away. ‘What if someone could reuse it but make it four times better and do it all on-site? What a spectacular example of sustainability that would be.’”

Surace says that he’s seen a 50 percent growth trend in the last few years toward retrofitting initiatives. However, he says the reasons behind the green waves are not necessarily driven by a desire to save the environment. “What’s driving people today is how fast people can get their money back on energy or water efficiency and the comfort of the building. Yes, they’re going to use zero VOC paint, if that’s a choice. Yes, they’re going to choose chairs that are Cradle2Cradle. Nobody’s going to argue those points anymore—those are givens. But they’re not going to do an upgrade or a remodel simply to bring in recycled content.”

But Dennis Capovilla, Southwall’s president and CEO doesn’t entirely agree. He says, in a statement, that “windows have been traditionally overlooked in the energy efficiency discussion…Increasing customer demand to save energy and reduce carbon emissions is driving the need for a new generation of windows that are proven, available, and insulate like walls.”

The retrofitting of the Empire State Building, originally designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates, and was previously voted as America’s favorite building in an AIA poll, began back in April 2009 and is a collaboration between Johnson Controls, the Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute. Overall, the project is projected to reduce energy use by 38 percent, save $4.4 million annually in energy costs, and save at least 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years. Learn more about this amazing initiative at Talk Contract.com.