July 23, 2025 - CLF-LA July Webinar: How It's Made: Facades

Join CLF-LA for the first installment of our How It's Made webinar series: facades! Learn how building materials and products are manufactured, the main sources of embodied carbon in the manufacturing process, and what is being done to reduce embodied carbon.

In this webinar, we are joined by four speakers who will walk us through the manufacturing processes for:

1) Glass - Kris La-Borde, Regional Technical Advisor at Guardian Glass

2) Mineral Wool Insulation - Alejandra Nieto, Sustainability Manager at ROCKWOOL, and Todd Kimmel, US Senior Manager of Sustainable Solutions for ROCKWOOL North America and Co-Founder & Chairperson of the Rainscreen Association in North America (RAiNA)

3) Curtainwall Systems - Andrea Zani, Former R&D Innovation Manager and Sustainability Lead at Permasteelisa Group

There will be Q&A at the end. See speaker bios below.

REGISTER here!

When:

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

12:00pm - 1:00pm (PT)

Location:

Online via Zoom

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Speaker Bios:

Kris La-Borde is the Regional Technical Advisor at Guardian Glass. He has more than 16 years of experience in engineering across the globe with the past 12 years specific to the façade and building enclosure industry. He previously was a façade engineer for Thornton Tomasetti in Los Angeles and London, spending eight years focusing on North American façades and enclosures. Prior to that, La-Borde spent four years with Swiss façade contractor Yuanda where he engineered façade systems and specialized in curtain wall for commercial developments across mainland Europe and the UK.

Alejandra Nieto is the Sustainability Manager at ROCKWOOL. Her role is defining and implementing sustainability strategy and initiatives, ensuring the development of high performance stone wool insulation products with the lowest embodied footprint. Her role includes managing the sustainability profile of ROCKWOOL products through certifications and listings, keeping to date with policy and regulatory work on the topic of life cycle assessment and decarbonization, and working with industry leaders to drive the use of low carbon sustainable products. Her background also includes building science and building materials expertise, focusing on low carbon and energy efficiency design. She is an active member in multiple ASHRAE technical committees including her role as Chair for TC 4.4 Building Materials and Building Envelope Performance, teaches part-time at George Brown College in Ontario, and currently sits on the California Building Standards Commission Green Building (GREEN) Code Advisory Committee. She is also a Certified Passive House Consultant.

Todd Kimmel is the US Senior Manager of Sustainable Solutions for ROCKWOOL North America and Co-Founder & Chairperson of the Rainscreen Association in North America (RAiNA). Todd has over 20 years of leadership experience working on building enclosures and façade systems. This includes the construction management and oversight of large-scale commercial building enclosures, working as the product and technical manager at Trespa North America, steering strategic business development as the NYC Architectural Manager for ROCKWOOL and serving as a technical consultant for Dorken Systems. Todd was part of the working group to develop the AAMA 509 testing standard for drained and back ventilated rainscreen. He is a Construction Documents Technician (CDT), a Certified Passive House Designer (CPHD - Passive House Institute) and currently sits on the board of directors for New York Passive House (NYPH).  He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from New York University with a focus on sustainability in the built environment.

Andrea Zani is the former R&D Innovation Manager and Sustainability Lead at Permasteelisa Group, where he is responsible for managing and leading the development and delivery of innovative, low-carbon and high-performance façades. He is actively involved in shaping and driving Permasteelisa Group’s decarbonization strategies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. Andrea holds a Masters degree and PhD in Building Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is a member and co-chair of the Society of Façade Engineering North America Hub, is active in Façade Tectonics Institute (FTI) advocacy and is a member of its Embodied Carbon Working Group. He also collaborates with LBNL Window Group, CBE Berkeley, EURAC Research and other research centers on several research activities.