The Glass Association of North America (GANA) has formed an NFRC liaison committee is working to ensure the interests of the glass and glazing industry are recognized and respected by the National Fenestration Rating Council's (NFRC) development of a non-residential fenestration certification and rating program.

The committee, which was formed at the end of March after the NFRC's spring meeting, has been developing an educational overview of the commercial fenestration industry's continuous efforts to develop and promote energy-efficient products in response to marketplace demands.

"GANA expressed concerns as the NFRC developed its original site-built certification program, and so we have increased our involvement as NFRC strives to create a more viable rating and certification program for commercial fenestration products," said Stan Smith, GANA executive vice president. "We believe our committee can provide useful information about the commercial construction industry and insight as to how NFRC can achieve its goal of providing cost effective value to the commercial fenestration end user."

GANA plans to distribute the documents developed by the liaison committee to industry members, architects and designers and the NFRC board of directors. Each document will be accompanied by an overview from the committee of the potential non-residential program.

"Through our active involvement in the NFRC activities, we are hopeful that their board of directors and members will accept industry efforts to help study the commercial fenestration market, existing means of documenting product performance and opportunities to promote the use of energy-efficient technology," said Greg Carney, GANA technical director and chairman of the NFRC non-residential product certification program task group.

The documents from the NFRC liaison committee will be released prior to NFRC's next meeting, which will take place July 24-28 in Quebec City, Quebec.