Editor's Notes

Glass Magazine’s annual Top 50 Glaziers celebrates its 30th anniversary with this year’s report. That’s three decades of tracking the impressive evolution and growth of the U.S. glazing market. 

Top takeaways on the state of the market from Katy Devlin at GlassBuild in Dallas.

GlassBuild 2024 brings labor into the spotlight, with presentations designed to deliver actionable strategies focused on reaching, recruiting and training the next generation of glass industry workers. 

The Paris games feature one permanent centerpiece—The Paris Olympics Aquatics Centre, a striking example of new sustainable construction, complete with a sweeping timber structure and glass façade.  

I invited AI to describe its capabilities and address the risks companies face when using this new technology. What follows is a transcript from a conversation with ChatGPT, the language model by OpenAI.

Seventy percent of workplaces have been affected by the opioid crisis, according to estimates from the National Safety Council.

As part of its new workforce development initiative, NGA has developed a free downloadable guide for companies: A Guide to Recruiting at High School Career Fairs. This how-to guide is available in the NGA store, along with stickers and postcards designed to attract student attention to the trade.…

There is little agreement among economists about what 2024 will hold. They are split over whether the overall economy will enter recession. They are split over labor market expectations. Over interest rate projections. Over the future of inflation. Construction economists are similarly split…

At Glass Magazine and its publisher, the National Glass Association, we regularly track a series of economic and industry trend data to better understand what’s on the horizon for glass companies. We look at macro-economic data points, including unemployment and GDP, right along with construction…

Katy Devlin takes a kayak tour through a now-flooded former silica sand mine that provided the raw materials for the flat glass plant that sat atop it.

NAWIC recently hosted 70 teenage girls for a free weeklong learning program offering a hands-on approach to construction careers. This year's curriculum also included education about glass and glazing, courtesy of NAWIC board member Kristie Rehberger, also the general manager of A Glasco Inc.

Advocacy efforts bring the conversation about glass directly to decision-makers, and they are essential to advancing industry innovation and ensuring glass and glazing products are a part of the high-performance building future. 

How do you make time to train and mentor new employees? How do you incentivize workers to stay? Is the next generation ready to take the reins?  

At the 25th anniversary of the BEC Conference in Las Vegas this month, we celebrate the remarkable advancements in glass during the previous 25 years, and we look ahead at what the next 25 might hold.

The National Glass Association's Women in Glass and Fenestration Panel at GlassBuild 2022 is just the start of the NGA’s efforts to provide community for women currently in glass, and to encourage more women to enter the glass and glazing field.

The glass industry has an opportunity to become a new type of “first responder” by providing security products that protect children, teachers and staff against school shooters.

Summer 2022 has brought high temperatures right alongside higher prices for everything from gas to groceries, and yes, to glass. How has the industry responded? 

While the sentiment may seem audacious, it’s also true. 

I’m neither an economist nor a forecaster. However, there are a few key market indicators I’ve been tracking in recent months in an effort to see though the cloudy forecasts of leading construction economists.  

The glass lifting and handling market is booming, driven by a need to handle larger and heavier lites, to keep employees safe, and to accomplish more with fewer workers.

What’s keeping the glass industry up at night? Exhibitors, attendees and speakers at GlassBuild America all pointed to two major challenges: the ongoing labor shortage and pandemic-related supply chain constraints.

In preparing our Innovation Issue each year, we get the opportunity to collaborate with the ambitious and inspiring innovators behind these product and project achievements. One such innovator was Bernard Lax, the founder and CEO of Gardena, California-based Pulp Studio, who passed away…

Two related leadership priorities can help companies to recruit and retain employees, improve engagement and profitability, and keep workers safe: one, promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace; and two, address racism and discriminatory practices on the job.

It’s not often the North American float glass industry welcomes a new plant, let alone an entirely new company, to the market. Learn more about Canadian Premium Sand's plans to start a float plant outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

A conversation with Urmilla Sowell, technical and advocacy director, National Glass Association about the versatility of glass.

4 code & regulatory takeaways from the NGA Glass Conference

How can glass companies prepare for 2021? I asked some of Glass Magazine’s expert contributors to weigh in, and they offered insights on everything from legal and contract best practices to labor concerns.

 5 key takeaways from industry experts at the July NGA Glass Conference.

COVID-19 has turned 2020 plans upside down for us all. It has asked us to adapt and change; to find new ways of connecting, working, collaborating, problem solving. Now it’s forcing us to pivot once more when it comes to our industry’s gathering place.

Even in isolation, glass creates the possibility for an essential connection—connection to the outdoors, to nature and, most importantly, to people. 

New requirements for better performing, more sustainable and thermally efficient glass and glazing products represent an important opportunity for the industry, said Apogee CEO Joe Puishys during his keynote address at the 2020 Building Envelope Contractors Conference.