Contractor members of GAF’s Certified Green Roofer program have hit the jackpot, earning more than $60,000 in incentive money, the company says. The two-year-old program encourages greener business practices and pays companies for recycling roofing material.
Martin Grohman, GAF’s director of sustainability, says that the company’s contractors “wanted to have a meaningful designation that they could use to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.”
Developed with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), Certified Green Roofers must pass a written test, completing a sustainability assessment, join their local USGBC chapter, and commit to recycling shingles if recycling is available.
Grohman says that the recycling incentive works similarly to LEED’s submittals for recycled construction and demolition waste. “The roofing contractors upload the weigh tickets showing tonnage recycled to our dedicated system, and we issue incentive dollars to their accounts at the end of each month,” he says. “A typical roof weighs 3 to 4 tons, and we award one ‘GAF Buck’ per ton, which has been a fairly meaningful incentive.”
For more information on the program, visit gaf.com/green. Find shingle recycling facilities at CMRA’s website shinglerecycling.org.
