CIB International Roofing Committee Celebrates 30th Anniversary

By Walt Rossiter

2013 was a year for celebrating 30th anniversaries in the building envelope consulting arena. Topping the list, as RCItems readers well know, was RCI, Inc., which observed 30 years of growth and maturation highlighted in commemorative ceremonies during March’s annual convention and trade show. Less well known but still noteworthy, the CIB International Roofing Committee on Roofing Materials and Systems attained its 30th anniversary in April.

This committee, which was founded as a joint committee with RILEM, had its first meeting in Gaithersburg, MD, at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now NIST) in the spring of 1983. CIB (the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) and RILEM (the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures) are international organizations dedicated to the promotion of sound building practices through activities such as technical information exchange, sponsorship of symposia, delivery of practicable recommendations, and development of research publications.

The impetus for the founding of the roofing committee was the late 1970s and early 80s worldwide arrival of the elastomeric, thermoplastic, and polymer-modified bitumen membrane systems without the existence of consensus standards to guide users in their proper selection and use. The committee’s first publication, titled “Elastomeric, Thermoplastic, and Modified Bitumen Roofing,” provided recommendations for needed standards for these membrane materials. In North America, in responsive consideration of this report, ASTM Committee D08 on Roofing and Waterproofing developed three standards based on the CIB/RILEM recommendations. A fourth ASTM standard is the direct result of subsequent recommendations published in a CIB/RILEM 1993 roofing report.
The committee membership consists of roofing experts and specialists assembled from around the world. When together, the members discuss currently important issues that are topical in the region of the world that they represent. They also work toward the development of recommendations that lead toward improved roofing performance. At present, the membership consists of 32 individuals from 18 countries. Due to constraints associated with international travel, many members are active only as correspondents, but such participation helps to ensure a widespread diversity of international opinion.

Since its inaugural meeting, the members have usually gathered once a year at an international venue that is generally selected to coincide with an international building envelope conference of interest. For example, the committee’s most recent meeting was held in November, 2013, in Minneapolis in conjunction with the RCI Building Envelope Symposium.

Figure 1 is a photo of those attending the inaugural meeting in 1983. Unfortunately, due to the passage of time and loss of some committee records, not everyone in the photo is identified today. Presumably many RCItems readers can identify some well-known and respected roofing technologists of the past. Of those in the photo, only Peter Flüeler and I remain active in the committee. Many should know Peter since he has spoken at RCI annual meetings. Also of note is that RCI active member Doug Fishburn from Canada was in attendance at the first meeting.

Over the years, the committee has issued six major reports. Perhaps the most renowned is CIB Report 271, “Towards Sustainable Roofing,” published in 2001. This report was the result of the committee’s mid-90s prescience, realizing back then that the issue of sustainable construction was a subject of ever-increasing interest and importance worldwide. Consistent with this recognition, the members undertook a state-of-the-art review of sustainable roofing, its meaning, and implications from a global point of view. Recommendations were made in the form of “tenets of sustainable roofing,” which were the basic principles by which roofing practitioners might design, install, and maintain roofs judged to be sustainable. This effort was spearheaded by RCI international member Keith Roberts (UK) and RCI member and past-president Tom Hutchinson. To achieve widespread dissemination, the tenets were translated into a number of languages including French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanishall versions were included in the final report. The committee also translated the tenets into Chinese, but due to printing limitations associated with the characters, the Chinese version of the tenets could not be published in the report.

Keith Roberts recently became the chair of the committee, and directed the last meeting in Minneapolis. Eleven members representing seven countries attended. Figure 2 shows a photo of the attendees. An ancillary benefit of the meeting’s coinciding with the Building Envelope Symposium was that current RCI President, Tom Gernetzke, and RCI Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, Jim Birdsong, were able to stop in to meet and welcome those attending and exchange international pleasantries and best wishes.

A key agenda item was the development of new subjects and activities that the members should undertake in the upcoming years. After considerable discussion, those present decided that, among other items, a re-examination of the Tenets of Sustainable Roofing was in order. In the 2001 report, the members acknowledged that the tenets would change over time: “The tenets are not fixed and irrevocable. It is expected that as our understanding develops of how roofs perform and how they affect the global environment, then the tenets would also evolve.” The review will be timely. I’ll report on its results and the updated tenets after they are published.

For further information, please contact Keith Roberts at [email protected] or me at [email protected].