Six months old PVCaware.org takes stock and builds momentum for future

Six months since the launch of PVCaware.org in June (2008), the campaign to provide correct information on PVC windows has been publicised in some 250,000 copies of window trade and end user magazines and is populating numerous websites.

The message that PVC is a top-rated material for window framing is loud and clear, says Jon Skinner, who chairs the British Plastics Federation marketing committee for the campaign.

Jon reports that an even bigger campaign is being fine tuned for 2009 to build momentum and penetrate further in to end user markets and to build on the progress made to date.

To date advertisements to encourage support from the industry have been placed in the majority of the window trade media and the message has been taken to the public sector and house building markets through their media.

In addition, numerous press releases and several articles have gone out to the media and issues have been hotly debated in the letters’ pages. Plus, editors in the building and consumer media, and most recently for BBC news online, have been asked to correct misleading information to stop the perpetuation of incorrect facts about PVC windows.

The PVCaware.org website is being updated to reflect the campaign becoming more and more specifier and consumer facing, and a major re-vamp will be launched soon.

The biggest breakthrough, though, is down to the BPF marshalling systems companies to demonstrate that PVC windows have a 35 year life cycle. Thanks to this PVC windows achieved the top A and A+ rating in the BRE’s Green Guide published in June (2008), which, Jon says, emphasises just how effective campaigning through a trade body can be. PVC window fabricators have also worked hard. Some 90% of A rated windows under the British Fenestration Rating Councils (BFRC) Window Energy Rating (WER) are PVC-U.

Exhibition stands have been booked for 2009 at Glassex and Ecobuild to get more windows companies behind the campaign while continuing to spread the message to end users.

Re-emphasising the importance of working through trade bodies, the BPF has also gained the valuable support of the GGF for the campaign.

Jon Skinner comments: “Next year will be an important one, as we are aiming to set the path on which the whole campaign can continue to build momentum for years to come. We’ve now got the support of some good organisations in the windows industry, we’ve debated what our key messages should be, we have very good technical support to ensure the product does what we say it does, and the UK is on track to recycle some 50,000 tonnes of used PVC in 2008. We are in a strong position.”

For further information, please contact
Jan Comer, Aurora PR, for PVCaware.org on
tel 020 8287 1124, mobile 07970 258 023,
email jancomer@aurorapr.co.uk

or

Tim Marsden, Industrial Issues Executive –
Construction at The British Plastics Federation on
tel 020 7457 5000, email: tmarsden@bpf.co.uk.