Mr. Yaşar Şenal, Chairman of ÇATIDER (Association of Roofing Industrialists and Businessmen)

We talked about roofing industry with Mr. Yaşar Şenal, Chairman of ÇATIDER (Association of  Roofing Industrialists and Businessmen). Şenal explained how roof systems can play an  active role in the fight against global warming.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your educational background and your professional resume?

I was born in 1976 in Ankara. I completed my bachelor’s degree from ITU Faculty of Architecture. Between 1998 and 2005, I had worked as the Construction Supervisor, Marketing Manager and Sales Manager in the leading companies of the roof and facade sectors.

In 2005, I’ve started to work as Technical Consultant at RHEINZINK, one of the leading companies of the German metal industry. As of 2009, I work as Turkey’s General Directorate of RHEINZINK and as Regional Directorate covering 18 countries in Central Asia, Near and Middle East.

Between 2010 and 2018, I served as a member of the Audit Committee, Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Roofing Industrialists and Businessmen (ÇATIDER).

In 2019, I was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of ÇATIDER. I am also a member of the Board of Directors of the Façade Industrialists and Businessmen – CEPHEDER. I speak English and German.

The Association of Roofing Industrialists and Businessmen (ÇATIDER) is a very active association. Can you give us information about the activities and trainings organized by ÇATIDER?

As the largest organization of the roof sector, we carry out very important works for the development of the sector and increasing our trained workforce. I would like to summarize these works.

The first of which was in 2004, up to date nine National Roof & Facade Symposiums were organized, and a total of 230 papers have been presented so far.

In collaboration with the Chamber of Architects of Turkey, Continuous Professional Development Centre (SMGM) and The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers (TMMOB), “Roofing Systems” training has been given to 1150 architects across Turkey through 29 architect chambers.

Three different occupational standards such as Roofing Profession Standards; Tile Type Roofing, Panel Roofing and Covering Roofing, have been prepared with İNTES (Turkish Employers Association of Construction Industry) and published in the Official Gazette and entered into force.

In 2004, Theoretical and Applied Trainings and Seminars on Roof Systems ’activity was started at ITU (Istanbul Technical University). To date, 168 trainings have been organized in 51 schools and 7166 students have been reached, as well as nearly 150 academics and teachers.

With the support of the European Union “New Opportunities Grant Plan” fund and sponsorship of the sector companies, 452 people, including 30 disabled people, were provided with roofing training between 16.05.2005 and 18.02.2006.

In 2017, ‘Construction School (Yapı Okulu)’ distance education system project was put into service. More than 1000 master workers have been enrolled in the elearning project for masters who offer free training, are prepared to step into the profession of roofing and want to improve their profession.

Within the scope of “Establishment and Development of Roof and Roofing Training System IQVET Project”, under the framework of “In-Service Training Course Activity Program”, participation certificates were given to 115 teachers from various vocational high schools from Ankara and Istanbul.

Protecting the environment and our natural resources is extremely important, in this context, which role can roof systems play? Could you please evaluate the green roof and passive house concepts?

With the 20-20-20 plan, the European Union aims to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent, increase renewable energy use by 20 percent and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent until 2020.

In the EU, which has taken serious steps to reduce the emission of climate change and greenhouse gases, all buildings have to be built on a almost zero-energy basis after 2020. In these buildings, both energy consumption should be minimized, and the needed energy must be provided from renewable energy sources.

In short term, Turkey also needs to decrease the level of energy consumption below 80 kWh per year per square meter in buildings. Having these values can only be achieved by attaching importance to roof and roof systems.

Environmentally friendly designs are becoming more and more important on the agenda of the construction and roofing industry. Both worldwide and in Turkey ‘Green Roof’ applications increase, and this application is a very good example of the harmony of nature-city.

As a result of rapid urbanization, soil and green vegetation that absorbed rainwater in cities decreased. Evacuation of all rainwater instantly may result floods. Green roofs can delay rainwater’s access to drainage system up to an hour, thus reducing the risk of flooding.

Global warming also leads to heat islands in cities. The microclimates created by the heat islands in the cities cause large temperature differences between areas, degraded soil, weather conditions and waste of water resources.

By planting roofs, a large part of the energy collected during the day can be kept in the soil and plants, thus preventing their reflections during sunset hours. The difference in heat islands compared to rural areas can be reduced.

As a result, green (vegetated) roofs contribute to the solution of many problems, from oxygen production to the reduction of heat islands and energy efficiency.

Demand for passive homes, which do not need an active heating system and provide up to 90 percent costeffective heating and cooling opportunities with a small amount of energy, is increasing day by day worldwide. Today there are over 50,000 passive houses in the world and the best examples are in Austria and Germany.

In our country, for heating, 10 times more energy is consumed than in Germany, where has a much colder climate. Uninsulated buildings consume 20 times more energy than passive houses just to heat.

On the other hand, the passive house is not only limited to saving heat; shows a holistic approach considering factors such as ecology, indoor air quality, acoustical and visual comfort, fire safety.

Cost increase projected in Turkey to build passive houses is around 20 percent to 40 percent. For a cost effective ‘Passive House’ construction it is extremely important to work with a team of experts in the design process.

Nowadays, its energy identity is expected to be at least C in the energy class for an existing building. You can see how much energy your building consumes on a monthly and yearly basis (kw / h-m2 / year). The energy identity of your building indicates the amount of greenhouse gas (CO2/kg-m2) that your building produces in a year. Thus, you can see how polluting your building is. As required by the Energy Efficiency Law, the energy identity certificate for buildings must be obtained by January 2020 for existing buildings, and for the new buildings, it should be obtained with the Application for License.

Now, it’s time to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. Especially renewed and sheathed as passive house status, it is possible to save more than 90 percent energy by making thermal insulation on the exterior, foundation walls and roofs of old buildings.

We know that, as ÇATIDER you attach great importance to occupational health and safety. Can you give us information about your work in this context? Could you please comment on what should be done to prevent work accidents?

The Occupational Health and Safety Law, which entered into force in 2012, introduced a comprehensive regulation on occupational accidents. In addition, training activities to prevent accidents through OHS experts at the construction sites have also been activated.

However, unfortunately, the absence of a significant reduction in occupational accidents and the continuation of accidents resulting in death and serious injury shows that the laws and regulations applied and the measures taken at the construction site are not sufficient.

In this respect, covering all parties in industry, we believe that it is necessary to implement awareness raising practices, with more comprehensive theoretical and practical trainings beyond the legal measures implemented.

Persons working on roofs must have training and should have certificates on working at height and occupational safety. This enables roofers to adapt to new technologies and develop their professional knowledge and experience.

It should be ensured that occupational health and safety trainings are extended to the occupation and the level of awareness about this issue is increased not only to employers and employees serving the industry, but also to all parties and their families.

The priority incidents in the construction industry are “falling from a height”. Material falls and material splashes are other common accidents. Since the roof of a building is the part where the risk of falling from height is the highest in terms of location, the most intensive sensitivity needs to be shown to the roof applications.

For this reason, employers have a big duty on occupational health and safety. The new Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Law No. 6331 concerns all employers, even if they have only one employee, imposes many obligations on the employer and foresees severe criminal sanctions.

Including construction and insulation industries, with the legal regulations on 40 professions, it is forced that who do not have qualification certificate and also workers working in dangerous and very dangerous jobs, must have a certificate.