Sustainable Industries Firehouse Chat: Kevin Surace

The world of building materials has suffered from a terrible lack of innovation, according to Kevin Surace, CEO of building products firm Serious Materials.

The dual-pane window was invented in 1865, he says; drywall was born around the same time. “That is absolutely ridiculous that we’re still using products developed in the 1800s,” Surace told an audience at Sustainable Industries’ Firehouse Chat series at West Coast Green.

Part of the problem is that there has not been enough money directed to research and development, except for in the technology sector. But that’s starting to change in the last few years, he says, as venture capitalists direct dollars into greentech.

Big, established companies have looked at R&D as overhead, he says. It takes new companies looking to make changes for other reasons, such as to reduce emissions or save energy, that are willing to innovate and invest in research and development.

While the recession has pummeled much of the building industry, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Serious Materials saw its business increase substantially in the past year, Surace says. And last month the company closed a $60 million Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to $120 million.

“We have to make a profit or we won’t be here,” Surace says. Eventually, he says, every company will have to become focused on sustainability in order to survive.

Through its building materials—like windows and drywall, including EcoRock, which uses the company says uses 80 percent less energy to manufacture than standard drywall—Serious Materials aims to save a billion tons of carbon emissions every year.

As for what will drive the shift necessary to effect real change, Surace says it’s all about awareness. Using the example of mandated trans fat labels on food, which led some manufacturers to eliminate trans fats from their products, he says carbon labeling will be key: market forces will drive emission reduction once the public has the information about products’ carbon footprint.

“We’re going to change the world from [the one] we knew to one that’s fundamentally different with labels and knowledge,” he says.