Westlake Royal Building Products VP of marketing Steve Booz talks with Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman about exterior products built for energy efficiency and resilience, including insulated siding that helps reach R-5 continuous insulation under new northern climate zone codes. He also discusses the concrete roof tile planned for the Las Vegas VISION House and cool roof systems that can cut roof-related energy use by up to 22%.
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Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutman, CEO of Green Builder Media, and I'm here today with Steve Boo's VP of marketing for Westlake Royal Building Products. The housing industry is experiencing rapid transformation. What changes are you seeing and what are you most excited about?
00:00:17:17 - 00:00:41:16
Steve Booz: The things that I think are impacting us the most are really around energy, energy efficiency and the like. So in the northern climate zones, you've got the the new codes coming on board for having insulation on the outside of the studs to be able to bring forward you no more enclosed house that's going to perform a lot better.
00:00:41:20 - 00:00:50:27
Steve Booz: And that's got us as an exterior company pretty excited, so that we can develop and promote products that will help fulfill those efforts.
00:00:50:29 - 00:00:59:21
Sara Gutterman: Are you seeing increased demand from your buyers for sustainability features, benefits and upgrades? And feel free to provide some specific examples.
00:00:59:28 - 00:01:37:09
Steve Booz: Yeah, it's certainly been been a difficult area to have. Homeowners want to pay for sustainability upgrades. When asked, everybody's sure, I'd like energy savings. Sure, I'd like better insulation, sure I'd like solar. But when you ask them to pay for it, it becomes a little bit different situation in scenario. But we are starting to see, particularly in areas like Las Vegas where people are looking at products that will help the energy efficiency of their homes in particular.
00:01:37:10 - 00:02:00:27
Sara Gutterman: Are you seeing that as well in terms of homeowners understanding that even if they have to spend a little bit more upfront on energy efficiency products, their overall cost of homeownership goes down through decreased utility bills, and the value of home ownership, including resale value, goes up. Are you starting to see that play out?
00:02:00:29 - 00:02:42:26
Steve Booz: We are. It becomes a paper and pencil exercise at some point to get people past the math. But as the average homeowner has stayed in their house longer over the last 20 years than they had the 20 years before that, and and as they are valuing their home because they're probably in it more with people still working from home, at least portion of the time, they're willing to spend a little bit more money on some of those things that might have a little bit longer payback to them than they may have been willing to to do in the past, you know, to, for example, our our insulated siding products that that will help us get
00:02:42:26 - 00:02:59:13
Steve Booz: to that R-5 on the outside of the home, for example, is is a sometimes a paper and pencil exercise that may not pay off for the first 2 or 3 years, but certainly in the longer term horizon that the homeowners will start to recoup that investment.
00:02:59:16 - 00:03:23:08
Sara Gutterman: Let's talk about resiliency. You have roofing and siding and other kinds of products that can very much impact the resiliency of a home. We're seeing in our cognition smart data. That resiliency is really increasing in awareness and is becoming top of mind to homeowners and home buyers, particularly because they are being impacted by extreme weather and climate events.
00:03:23:10 - 00:03:33:25
Sara Gutterman: Are you seeing resiliency increase in terms of the the purchase intent and just seeing that as a purchase driver?
00:03:33:28 - 00:03:58:26
Steve Booz: You know, certainly in the areas where it also fits the product category. And by that I mean take a product like our concrete roof tile that we'll be using for the vision home in Las Vegas. You know, it really meets a lot of those requirements. But but it also meets the architecture of the area, which is which is a nice benefit to to be able to have, but to offer a roofing product that actually absorbs some of that energy from the sun.
00:03:58:26 - 00:04:39:10
Steve Booz: And in a harsh climate like Las Vegas, combined with a cool roof system, you know, really all works together really well to be able to to provide that message to the homeowner to to increase that, that, that, that idea of resiliency, that it's sometimes a little bit hard for them to put their hands around a grasp. Right. You know, and to put it in, no pun intended, concrete form, you know, but but something they can, they can see the results of and and touch and feel it makes a lot of difference to be able to, to bring it home to them.
00:04:39:12 - 00:04:46:27
Sara Gutterman: Do you have any of the stats just on the top of your head, in terms of how much energy roof systems save on average?
00:04:46:29 - 00:05:06:00
Steve Booz: Yeah, we have information that shows that you'll save up to 22% energy efficiency from roof system, of which our tile is a part of that, along with elevated patterns and underlayment and such. To be able to to all work together to keep that heat out from from going into the house.
00:05:06:01 - 00:05:16:20
Sara Gutterman: Now, we've been talking in general just about market transformation. So can you talk a little bit about how Westlake is participating in transformative change during this pivotal time and housing sector?
00:05:16:26 - 00:05:48:13
Steve Booz: Yeah, you know, we we're always looking to be able to combine our focus on innovation with a practical nature of of developing products and putting products out into the marketplace that are the benefit. And particularly, you know, with, with a green or a sustainable message attached to them becomes all the better. And so you look at products like our roof system, which was very specifically developed to work in these hotter climate areas.
00:05:48:13 - 00:05:54:14
Steve Booz: And, and it's something that we, we continue to to roll out and push into the marketplace.