• Elimination of virgin material requirements

Every batch of glass contains some portion of cullet (recycled glass), depending on availability and color desired.  Glass is one of the few materials that can be recycled forever.

• Use of bio-based products

Sand is the primary raw ingredient of glass, composing over 75% of the finished glass. It is one of the most abundant and inert substances on earth. Several other naturally-occurring minerals are used, depending on the type of glass. No bio-based products are used, only inert minerals.

• Use of recovered materials

·         Glass manufacturers (our suppliers) typically reuse the cullet produced from breakage or scrap in the manufacturing process by adding this back into a subsequent glass batch.

·         We use the scrap glass from our larger custom projects in our mosaic projects that use much smaller pieces of glass.

·         When we remove or replace stained glass, we disassemble the windows and place glass pieces into our inventory for use on another project. For example, we removed and disassembled the colored glass from a decommissioned Baptist church and then incorporated that glass into the design for its new sanctuary.

• Reuse of product

·         Stained glass is traditionally 100% reused or repurposed. Windows removed from churches are reused in new churches or in residences. Panels removed from buildings being dismantled are salvaged and become independent (non-architectural) decorative panels or inserts into doors. We repair and resize many dozens of panels for this purpose every year.

·         We reuse the incoming crates (sheet glass from our vendors) for shipping crates of our finished product to our customers.

• Low life-cycle cost

Life cycle costs are very low because stained glass lasts for centuries.  Stained glass typically exceeds the life of the building and is removed to be repurposed at the end of building life-cycle.  Because stained glass is composed of many small pieces of glass in a lead matrix, it is easily repaired if damaged.  A typical stained glass cathedral window may have to be re-leaded approximately every 100-150 years.

• Ability to be recycled

See reuse above. If part of a stained glass window cannot be reused (repurposed or repaired), the panel is disassembled into the glass and lead components.  The glass is salvaged as recovered material (see above) and the lead is recycled through a specialized metals recycler.

• Use of environmentally preferable products

We encourage our customers to build green. We recommend encapsulation of our stained glass and consideration of low-e glazing.  Encapsulation (triple glazing) minimizes thermal gain or loss through the window and thereby reduces the carbon footprint of the building or home.

• Waste prevention (including toxicity reduction or elimination)

Because lead is considered a toxic substance, we take care to minimize the amount of lead scrap.  Shorter pieces of lead came resulting from larger projects are used in our geometric and speculative projects.  We take care to exclude lead from the general waste disposal system.

• Ultimate disposal

Because of the repurposing, reuse and recycling of stained glass, there is rarely any ultimate disposal. Hence stained (beveled, etched) glass is the ultimate in “GREEN” because it never goes into the waste system.