In this ribbon‑cutting ceremony Kevin Surace welcomes a diverse audience of government officials, local leaders, industry partners, dealers, and community members to celebrate the reopening of a Serious Materials window factory in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. He thanks the governor, congressional staff, county commissioners, mayors, and numerous environmental and building‑industry organizations for their support. Surace recounts the plant’s recent shutdown, which left 150 workers unemployed, and highlights the rehiring of many former Kensington Windows employees. He introduces Serious Materials’ “Serious Windows,” describing them as the most energy‑efficient windows on the market with an R‑value up to R‑11—four times more efficient than typical windows (R‑2 to R‑3). He cites independent lab data confirming the performance, claims that replacing U.S. windows with these would save the energy equivalent of shutting down 160 coal‑fired power plants, and estimates up to $100,000 in lifetime energy savings per home. Surace frames the project as a triple win: creating green‑collar jobs, reducing household energy costs, and cutting carbon emissions. He references broader policy context, noting President Obama’s green‑job goals, the Recovery Act funding for retrofits, and the role of Pennsylvania leadership in positioning the state as a clean‑tech hub. Throughout, he emphasizes the urgency of improving building energy efficiency—buildings and their materials account for 52 % of global energy use, far exceeding the 9 % from passenger cars. The speech concludes with a call to action to continue advancing efficient building products and reviving American manufacturing.
Chapters
Welcome. It is wonderful, wonderful to be here on a— actually on a beautiful Pennsylvania day, right? So this is a great day. So thank you. Thank you. I am very happy to welcome everyone here today to Vandergrift to celebrate green jobs And the reopening of this window factory. Thank you all very much for coming from near— truly near and far to join us. The people here today in this tent are a testament to the great collaboration we have and we need to rebuild America, create green jobs, and work together to save the environment. Amazing people from across our industry and customers are here, as well as our government and community partners. And we celebrate today with an awful lot of people. I'm going to try to catch everyone. I hope I don't miss anyone here. I'm Kevin Surace. First and foremost, Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, thank you so much for being here. Representative of— representatives of Senator Furlow's office. Yes, that's a plea. Go ahead and clap. Representatives of Congressman John Murtha's office are here. Representatives of Armstrong and Westmoreland County Commissioners' Office. I hope I get the names right here. Mayor Purificato of Vandergrift and Mayor Pascal of Leitchburg and members of the local chambers. Thank you. Local and parks township supervisors and representatives, our industry partners who we work with to drive energy efficiency standards and policies forward. This includes the U.S. Green Building Council, the Green Building Alliance, Clean Air Council, and the National Resource Defense Council. Many local community organizations working hard to revitalize this part of the country are with us today. We also celebrate today with many local business owners right from Vandergrift and surrounding towns. The people who painted and made the sign for that— I don't know if you saw the big sign out front of this building when you pull up. You can't miss the building anymore, can you? It's quite clear we hit that one out of the park. So we thank the people who are here who did paint that. You can't miss it. Yesterday actually, and so many business owners who banded together around this event and worked with us to reopen this factory today. We thank you so much for your enthusiasm, your support, and your hard work. Many of our dealers are here today, which we love because we can't survive without the dealers who actually get these products into customers' homes. Our partners who are getting our windows into the homes and buildings and doing a fantastic job servicing our Serious Windows customers every day. Many Serious Windows customers are also here today. We appreciate the people who have our windows in their homes and their businesses. I'd like to point out my colleagues at Serious Materials, including Ian, Robin, and Sandra, that I think are right here. General manager of the windows division, our chief marketing officer, and Robin Roy— where is Robin? Robin Roy right there, our VP of policy who works with local, state, and federal government. And of course, the people who we are really here for today The new employees of Serious Materials, the people who are back to work at this factory. All Serious Materials employees still, please stand up. Stand as a— Thanks. Wow. So that took about 10 minutes just to introduce everybody who's here. I hope— I'm sure I missed some very important people and I apologize. But hopefully we will catch up with you after this. I want to talk about where this came from and how it started and what happened 6 months ago. You know, 6 months ago this plant shut down, putting 150 people out of work in this town. Most of the folks who lost their jobs had been with what was Kensington Windows for 15, 20, and even 30 years or more. Can you imagine losing your job after 30 years? No. I know it was a tremendous body blow for Vandegrift to see a cornerstone of this community close up shop. But today we start rebuilding. Today we write a new beginning to this story. And I speak for everyone at Serious Materials when I say I'm so fired up to be a part of this great, great recovery and great story. Just a few weeks ago, this plant began churning out Serious Windows, the most energy-efficient windows in the entire world. These windows are made by many of the same skilled hands that kept Kensington running for 30-plus years. And they will be installed in government buildings, businesses, and homes across Eastern, Mid-Atlantic, and Central United States. We hope this plant will soon provide at least 100 or more of the green-collar jobs President Obama has talked so much about. Highly skilled manufacturing work like this is a triple win. First of all, it will save families money. by helping reduce America's energy use, protect our environment by reducing carbon emissions, and create new paths for economic growth. This is exactly the type of work that America needs to get moving again, and I can't think of anyone better to do it than the people who are here today, actually just sitting right there. People like Chuck Wetmore. Chuck, where are you? Chuck, raise your hand. People like Chuck Wetmore back there— Who was the former— Thank you, Chuck. Who was the former plant manager for Kensington Windows, who has been so integral in helping us rehire this workforce and restart this facility. People like Robin Scott, who we're going to hear from in just a few moments, and people like the leaders who helped provide incentives, support, and assistance to bring us Serious Materials all the way from California, all the way to Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. And I want to thank Governor Rendell, who has been such a vocal advocate for turning Pennsylvania into a green energy and clean tech leader. And I want to also thank Senator Arlen Specter, who can't be present today, but who suffered a lot of abuse recently to help pass the recent recovery package, which contains billions in funding to retrofit homes and government buildings with efficient materials like the Serious Windows that will be produced— will be produced at this plant. Thank you all so much. Thank you. For all of your support. It is so gratifying to have others see what I have known since the day I started this company. Serious Materials has an opportunity to be something truly special because there is no one else that does what we do. I don't think there's anyone else who feels the way we feel. It's a very unique place to work and a very special place to work. Allow me to briefly explain some of our windows and, and why they're a little bit different You know, we figured out a way to make windows that are as much as 4 times more energy efficient than anything else on the market today. You see, after a window is made, it is assigned something called an R-value, which gets a little technical, but we're gonna go off on this trail just for a second. Because the R-value is a measure of how efficiently windows keep energy inside a home or building, no different than we rate our walls an R-5, R-10, R-15. In fact, most of our walls today are at least an R-10, an R-11, an R-12. But most every window on the market today, unfortunately, regardless of how they're marketed, actually has an R-value of between R-2 and R-3. Now, they didn't tell you that when you bought your energy-efficient windows. So whenever I say that, I look around the room and I see people go, oh, I just bought windows last year and they didn't tell me that. That is absolutely true, but that means that 1/3 to 1/2 of the energy produced inside a building is going to be lost absolutely through those windows. And Vander Grief will produce serious windows with a rating as high as R-11, which means you're losing substantially less energy. And to put that in perspective, an R-11 window is almost as efficient at keeping in hot and cool air as a fully insulated concrete wall. Now we use 9 different technologies to create these windows, but here are the 2 things that our customers really want to know. A serious window is as affordable as a conventional window, and if you build a house here in western Pennsylvania Over the life of those windows, and you use some of our higher-end windows, over the life of those windows with increasing energy costs, you can save upwards of $100,000 in energy savings over the life of those windows, which is about 30 years. Now, if you're out there thinking it sounds ridiculous that our windows could be this much better than the competition, you're not alone. In fact, when we first told the National Fenestration Council that rates window efficiency, that we had an R-11 full-frame window, They told us in a very nice letter back to Ian, who's sitting right here, please stop lying to your customers. That's exactly what they said. He's laughing because he remembers getting the email and sending it to me. They said it was impossible to make a window that efficient. Well, I assure you they were wrong, because when we sent them the lab data and the test data from the labs— these are independent labs— they had to conclude what we already knew, that in fact, Serious Materials windows are the most efficient windows anywhere. Ever made, period. And more efficient windows aren't just going to save our customers money, they will be a key tool in America's fight for energy independence and against climate change. Right now, 5% of all the energy in America literally goes out the window. 5% of all the energy in America literally goes out the window, and we can stop that. If you replaced every home and building in America with our Serious Windows and Glass, it would have the same environmental and energy savings impact as shutting down 160 coal-fired power plants. That's what's happening with windows today. Our wasteful windows are just one example of the inefficiencies afflicting our entire built environment in the United States. We use too much energy producing our building materials, and we waste too much energy operating the buildings themselves. Buildings and their materials account for 52% of the energy consumed around the world today. Let me say it again. Buildings and their materials consume 52% of the energy around the world today, more than 5 times as much as the energy consumed by passenger cars. Passenger cars consume and generate about 9% of the world's CO2. Passenger cars. Buildings are 52%. So when you leave here today, I know that figure you'll take back to your families and share. Buildings are the big kahuna, and it's the one we can go after. And if we get serious about making them more efficient, we've got a real shot to solve America's energy and climate challenges. At Serious Materials, we're trying to do our part. In addition to Serious Windows, we've got several other sustainable building products that save energy and give buildings a dramatically lighter environmental footprint. It's going to take a while for our country to make the necessary changes, for all of us to get back on our feet. And for everything to turn the corner in climate change, in energy usage, and in our job situations. But we are going to get this economy back on track, and we are going to get serious about efficiency. And we are going to bring new life to American manufacturing, and the work has got to start somewhere, and it's got to start today. And I can't think of any better place than right now and right here, right here in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Thank you very much. Thank you.
