Leading manufacturer Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings is supporting a new initiative to raise the level of fire safety standards worldwide.
The International Fire Safety Standards (IFSS) Coalition – led by a range of professional bodies worldwide – aims to develop a set of common high-level standards to address fire safety in buildings.
Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings endorses the aim to set and reinforce the minimum requirements professionals should follow to ensure building safety in the event of a fire.
Bob Glendenning, global fire engineering manager for Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, said: “We wholeheartedly support this initiative to improve the standards for fire safety across the board from design through the fire engineering process. With our own developments in technology and science, we are continually looking at ways of improving product specification to meet the most exacting of standards.”
The IFSS Coalition says that as the property market has become increasingly international with investments extending across national borders, the sector still lacks a consistent set of high level global standards that informs the design, construction, and management of buildings to address the risks associated with fire safety.
Once the standards are developed, the IFSS Coalition will work with professionals around the world to deliver them locally. The standards will be owned by the IFSS Coalition and not by any one organisation.
The IFSS Coalition will create a Standards Setting Committee that will draw on a group of international technical fire experts to develop the details and ensure they are fit for purpose across global markets.
Members of the IFSS Coalition include the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), Local Authority Building Control (LABC), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), the Singapore Institute of Building (SIBL), the Australian Property Institute (API), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and The World Bank.
Sherwin-Williams has supplied its diverse range of fire protection coatings to a number of landmark construction and engineering projects including London’s The Shard, Azerbaijan’s Flame Towers, and the Leadenhall Building, known as The Cheesegrater.
