• Over 30 years executive
    experience in the building
    materials industry
  • Vice President (Ret.), Firestone
    Building Products Company,
    LLC
  • Undergraduate degrees in
    Architectural Design and
    Applied Psychology
  • MS and DBA in Management
    Science
  • Consultant to public agencies,
    trade associations and private
    equity investors
Founded by Dr. Jim Hoff...
Welcome to TEGNOS Research
The TEGNOS Mission:  
Increasing Knowledge:
  •  New building envelope technologies
  •  The impact of the building envelope on the environment
  •  The building envelope industry and its economic role

Building Awareness:
  •  Research about the building envelope
  •  Education for key industry stakeholders
  •  Advocacy  to government and standards organizations

Providing Expertise:
  •  Performance analysis of building products
  •  Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of building materials
  •  Total Quality Management (TQM) programs
  • Customer satisfaction / attitude research
TEGNOS Research was established to provide professional services to the building envelope industry, with an emphasis on research, education, and advocacy. Please browse our published research
materials and please contact us whenever your organization requires assistance  "Understanding of the Building Envelope."
What Does "TEGNOS" Mean?
Download Dr. Hoff's CV
Read the Latest Building Envelope Research News...
Announcing RoofPoint™
A New Measure for  Environmentally Innovative Roofing Systems
The Center For Environmental Innovation in Roofing has developed RoofPoint, a  consensus-based roofing guideline and rating system for evaluating
sustainable roofing systems. RoofPoint currently is available for public review and comment.
If you would like to learn more about  RoofPoint or participate in the public comment process, visit the RoofPoint Public Website

Ducker Reports on Sustainable Roofing Trends
Based on thousands of interviews with roofing stakeholders, Ducker Research discovered that sustainability and green design are driving important
roofing industry market trends. Energy efficiency appears to be the single most important element of green, with high-R roos and cool roofs leading
the way, followed by vegetated and integrated solar roofing systems. However, industry education and outreach will be critical for green roofing
systems to gain meaningful market penetration.

Cool Roofs and Global Warming Reduction
In a wide-ranging discussion in May, 2009 at a three-day Nobel laureate Symposium in London, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu suggested that
painting roofs and roads white in urban environments may offset the global warming effects of all the cars in the world for 11 years. What's the
science behind this assertion? Secretary Chu's remarks are based in part on a study conducted  by Dr. Hashem Akbari of Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory titled, "Global Cooling: Increasing Urban Albedos to Offset CO2."

Achieving Sustainability Through Durability, Adaptability and Deconstructability
Sustainable buildings (and roofs) must not only be designed to reduce the environmental impacts of construction and use. They must also be
designed with the durability and adaptability to provide a long and useful service life of at least 50 years or more. In addition, they must be designed
to be disassembled in a way that facilitates recycling and reuse. Dirk Kestner and Mark Webster, both Professional Engineers and LEED APs at
Simpson Gumpertz & Hager have recently published an excellent overview of the key concepts of Design For Durability (DfDr), Design for
Adaptability (DfA) and Design for Deconstruction (DfD).

Moisture: The Hidden Risk of Green Buildings (And Roofs)
"Yesterday’s seal of approval for new products was 'It was developed by NASA'. Today the seal of approval is: 'it’s LEED certified.' Just as 'NASA-
developed' was no guarantee of success, neither is LEED-certified any assurance of no problems, especially those problems related to moisture
accumulation." If you think this quote was made by a disgruntled roofing researcher, you'd be wrong! The quotation comes from a new monograph
published by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).  It would appear that leaders in the architectural community are
becoming concerned about the hidden risk of moisture in sustainable construction.
© Copyright  2010 TEGNOS Research, Inc.
"TEGNOS" and "Understanding the Building Envelope" are trademarks of TEGNOS Research, Inc.
Disclaimer: The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by TEGNOS Research, Inc. ("TEGNOS") of linked web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. TEGNOS Center does not
exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. All links are provided with the intent of meeting the mission of TEGNOS to advance research knowledge of the building envelope.  Please let us know
about existing external links which you believe are inappropriate and about specific additional external links which you believe ought to be included. With respect to documents available from this server, neither TEGNOS nor any of
its employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any
information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference from this Web page or from any of the information services, product, service or information does not
constitute an endorsement or recommendation by TEGNOS or any of its employees.