This year marks the 60th anniversary of the epiphany Cornelis Verolme, the founder of Verosol, experienced when he saw New York’s glazed cityscape for the first time. SilverScreen, Verosol’s pioneering product range, was created only a year after that and has been leading the market as an unmatched solar control solution ever since.
Here, Jules Di Bartolomeo talks about the devotion to sustainability that has guided the company since inception, how Verosol blinds can help industry professionals achieve net zero emissions – and why their products should be considered a benchmark for every project.
Why is sustainability important to Verosol, and how does this commitment manifest through your innovative product range?
This desire to solve widespread energy efficiency issues underpins the very conception of our brand, which means sustainability is in Verosol’s DNA. Our founder, a Dutch ship builder, sailed into New York harbour in the 60s and was struck by all the glass-covered skyscrapers. He wondered how these buildings were able to stay cool in such extreme sun exposure, and after realising they were relying entirely on air conditioning, he decided to come up with a solution that would help solve this energy efficiency challenge. That’s how he invented the world’s only purpose-built machine to metallise fabric.
Today, we still hold the highest reflection of any fabric that's ever been produced – 85% – on our SilverScreen range. This reduces energy required to cool down the building substantially, and in colder months the blinds can be used to harvest the sun. You can put them up to allow the sun in, and then put the blinds down again to keep the warmth in.
In addition, the range also stops about 98% of UV coming into the building so our products can help provide a healthier indoor environment by maintaining a consistent climate inside the building, and minimising heat and glare, while reducing CO2 and energy consumption all year round. And that’s without obstructing the view nor access to natural light. So they can reduce the environmental impact of the construction, generate a healthier environment - and improve energy efficiency while decreasing the costs.
We even receive letters from people telling us how much their power bills have gone down since the blinds were installed. And that gives me goosebumps even though I know how our products work, and how amazing they are.
And do you have ranges of how much your products can help lower temperatures inside?
We can do an analysis on a building anywhere in the world. Once we know the location and the glass that's going into those buildings, we can simulate what the energy costs might be. For instance, we did that not long ago for a building in Perth, and it was a staggering amount of $532,000 in annual savings in power costs.
Now, something we have won an award for in Europe, and will be introducing in Australia soon is the ability to give architects, designers and specifiers an idea of how quickly the blinds purchased for that building can become carbon zero upon the installation of our blinds. We can tell you that – for example – within 500 days from installation of our blinds you will achieve net zero, due to reduction in air conditioning emissions.
Can automation further augment these benefits?
Absolutely. The combination of motorisation, or automation to window furnishing provides enormous benefits, especially when combined with high performance fabrics. There is this symbiotic relationship here that results in having the best performing textiles on a window in the right place at the right time, all the time, without the need for human intervention. It really is the epitome of integration between humans and their natural environments, and the extraordinary benefits of Verosol’s automated products are quite clear.
And it’s worth adding that from a cost perspective, if you’re looking at installing performance blinds, automation and motorisation will definitely help maximise return on investment. In fact, one of our CPDs focuses entirely on the workings and benefits of automation and motorisation of high-performing shades. With the ability to connect to the lighting system, the Building Management System (BMS), electronic devices or a phone app, it’s really important to educate the industry on what automation can and can’t do, how to go about it - and how to maximise its benefits, particularly where sustainability is concerned.
Architect education is something you’ve always been passionate about. What does the future look like for Verosol, and what role does education play as part of these plans?
Preparing for a carbon positive future is a big focus for us. Our net zero emissions manufacturing plant in Australia is powered by solar energy which takes care of almost 100% of our consumption, and we have just finished trebling the size of our solar capability. In addition, as the embodied carbon poses an incredible challenge on the global scale, we have to start to measure the raw materials used during the manufacturing process, as well as the transport, and the transporting of your finished product. I want our people to be thinking about where we need to get to in terms of transitioning to electric vehicles, and being able to charge them on site. We are already investing in those capabilities so that when Australia catches up in terms of the required infrastructure, we will be ready.
The other part of that is continuously evolving the product. We definitely want to keep manufacturing products that tick all the boxes. We will continue pushing the boundaries of design and performance on the existing products, as well as coming up with new solutions – for instance, we’re looking at how we can use less materials and less carbon in the making of our products, and we’re exploring more sustainable metals that require less heat. There's a lot happening in that space.
And then, of course, education is a crucial part of our vision for a more sustainable future because it’s pivotal to promoting the most sustainable solutions in the market. From our perspective, it’s an essential way to keep future-forward architects, designers and specifiers across all of our initiatives and efforts in this environmental space, as well as the innovative solutions we are working on, and help them learn how they can use them to maximise performance, introduce cost efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions – all without compromising on their design vision.
It looks like your efforts in this space are definitely paying off, and Verosol has become the go-to for many architects who are after high-performing and sustainable window coverings.
Look, we may not be the right product for every project, and we may not be the right price for every project budget – I understand that. But if you think about your perfect project, and you’re thinking about sustainability and quality, then I think it would be irresponsible not to have organisations like Verosol up there as the benchmark. We invest in research and development, in technology, in sustainability and in architect education – and if I was to give advice to an architect looking for a high-performing product made by an organisation in a responsible manner, then they should start with companies like Verosol.
