Glazette’s First Expert Chat Session: A Summary

January 29th, 3 pm: TM Gopikrishnan & Subhrangsu Ghosh, Marketing and Technical Managers at Saint-Gobain Glass India hosted an Expert Chat Session, the first of its kind on Glazette.

The participation strength was fair, with 15 users online at any point in time between 3 and 5 pm on that Friday, shooting away their questions about Fire Safety Glass, its uses, applications, advantages, and so on. The managers found it rather hard to keep up; but did a good job nevertheless, encouraged by the volume and quality of questions!

The most active participants were architects, and it was heartening to see that fire safety, an aspect of building architecture that was not given due importance in the past, is now considered a hygiene factor during construction. This was evident by the kind of questions asked. The depth of knowledge about fire safety glass as well as other fire-resistant construction material was appreciable.

Questions included those about the duration of fire resistance offered by fire rated glass, the use of rubber and vinyl coverings for fire escape handrails, comparison between metal and glass fire doors, and so on. Vishwas, an architect with Neeraj Manchanda Architects in Delhi, was an enthusiastic and informed participant, from whom several questions came. Also part of the session was D Krishna Kumar, an engineer with CPWD.

Certain questions which were not relevant to the subject were also asked, those on LEED being among them. Though the fire glass experts were able to answer LEED-related questions to a certain extent, further questions were redirected to glazette.com.

New participants kept entering the chat room, and roughly 25 of them were part of the Expert Chat between 3 and 5 pm. The questions kept pouring in non-stop, and it was only at 4.30 pm that the experts got a breather when the speed and volume of questions started declining! The experts were patient and approachable, and had unquestionable and profound knowledge on the subject.

All in all, the Expert Chat Session was well-received by all parties involved. Glazette thanks Saint-Gobain Glass India, Mr. TM Gopikrishnan and Subhrangsu Ghosh, the portal members, visitors and the back office team for the success of the session.

Glazette will shortly be collecting feedback from the participants on various aspects of the session. From the opinions collected, Glazette shall strive to improve, innovate and use similar platforms for dissemination and exchange of knowledge and expertise on glass.

Saint-Gobain Rewarded For Green Practices

Saint-Gobain Glass India (SGGI) has always championed the cause of not just socially responsible but also of environment-friendly business practices. In recent times, this fact has been reinforced by Saint-Gobain receiving 2 awards from Confederation of Indian Industries (CII):

• National Award for Water Management as an Excellent Water-Efficient Unit


• National Award for Innovative Case Study for Water Management

Both these awards were received for the Saint-Gobain Glass India World Glass Complex located at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. The sprawling 177-acre facility showcases the Company’s commitment to investing in state of the art, world class manufacturing facilities whose hallmark is efficient as well as effective use of natural resources and energy. Indeed, sustainability and eco-friendliness is truly the company’s motto, given that their portfolio of glass products also caters to the needs of green architecture.

The Effort

The Integrated Quality, Environment, Occupational Health & Safety Policy of SGGI clearly brings out the company’s single-minded commitment to protecting the environment through a Consistent Monitoring, Continual Improvement and Environmental Risk Management process. The Integrated Management System certification obtained under QMS, EMS and OHSAS enshrines the above policy.

The following diagram illustrates the Water Management approach at SGGI:

The monitoring & reviewing of the Water Management process at SGGI is performed at all levels, right from the Shift Engineer to the Corporate Delegation.

The Results

All this effort has yielded significant and measurable result. The per capita consumption of water has come down from 140 litres/day in 2006-’07 to 85 litres/day in 2008-’09. Also on the decline is the generation of waste water - while 2006-’07 saw 92,652 kilolitres/day of waste water, 83,371 was the corresponding figure for 2008-’09.

Zero Water Discharge concepts is being applied whereby water is recycled and reused to the extent possible, beyond which it is put to non-industrial use as well. Over the 10 years of its existence, the SGGI World Glass Complex has nurtured 15,000 trees, 12 acres of lawn and 5 acres of foliage.

Awareness and consciousness towards the environment has also actively been spread by company representatives throughout the society; both to families, local communities as well as school children.

Environment, Health and Safety Initiatives have been taken for the local community as well. De-silting of local lakes, building of water channels and provision of water-efficient sanitation facilities are among these initiatives.

All in all, Water Management is a step in the right direction; a truly commendable and desirable effort on the part of Saint-Gobain Glass India.