Pilkington has launched EverGreen™, a body-tinted solar control glass that combines high daylight transmittance with enhanced thermal performance. The product is available in 6 mm thickness and offers a soft green tint designed for both commercial and residential facades. Unlike conventional tinted float glasses, EverGreen™ achieves higher selectivity—meaning it admits more visible light relative to the amount of solar energy transmitted—while maintaining effective solar control properties.

The product's core value proposition lies in its ability to reduce cooling loads without sacrificing natural illumination. Pilkington states that EverGreen™ delivers "high daylight transmittance compared with other tinted glass, reducing the need for artificial lighting" while simultaneously offering "improved solar control performance compared to traditional tinted float glass, preventing heat entering the building and therefore reducing the need for air-conditioning." This dual function addresses a persistent challenge in facade engineering: balancing thermal comfort with visual transparency.

What Are the Key Technical Characteristics?

EverGreen™ is a monolithic float glass with a green body tint. Its solar control performance and colour density vary with thickness, allowing specifiers to select properties appropriate to each application. The product exhibits low internal and external reflection and low UV transmittance, characteristics that contribute to occupant comfort and protect interior finishes from photodegradation.

  • High selectivity: elevated daylight transmittance relative to solar energy transmittance
  • Thickness-dependent performance: solar control and colour density scale with glass thickness
  • Low UV transmittance to reduce fading of interior materials
  • Compatible with standard processing: toughening, laminating, bending, and enamelling
  • Can be integrated into insulating glass units or used in monolithic form

For projects requiring enhanced thermal insulation, Pilkington recommends combining EverGreen™ in an insulating glass unit with a low-emissivity coating. This configuration delivers additional U-value improvement, complementing the solar control properties of the tinted substrate. Where safety glass is mandatory, EverGreen™ can be specified as toughened (ESG) or laminated (VSG) glass using standard fabrication techniques.

How Does EverGreen™ Compare to Conventional Tinted Glass?

Traditional tinted float glasses—grey, bronze, or green variants—achieve solar control primarily through absorption. However, this absorption often comes at the cost of reduced daylight transmittance, leading to darker interiors and increased reliance on artificial lighting. EverGreen™ addresses this trade-off by optimising the spectral selectivity of the glass: it absorbs a greater proportion of infrared radiation (which contributes to heat gain) while transmitting a higher fraction of the visible spectrum.

This selectivity metric is increasingly important in building design. The g-value—the total solar energy transmittance—must be balanced against light transmittance to minimise both cooling and lighting energy consumption. High-selectivity glasses like EverGreen™ enable architects to meet stringent energy codes without compromising occupant comfort or daylighting strategies. The product's low external reflection also reduces glare for neighbouring buildings and streetscapes, a consideration in dense urban environments.

What Are the Target Applications and Climatic Contexts?

Pilkington positions EverGreen™ for use in both hot and cold climates. In cooling-dominated regions, the glass absorbs much of the sun's heat and UV rays, reducing air-conditioning loads. In mixed or heating-dominated climates, the product's ability to admit daylight while controlling solar gain supports passive solar strategies when combined with appropriate low-emissivity coatings in a double- or triple-glazed unit.

The product is suited to any application—commercial or domestic—where an uncoated solar control glass in a soft green colour is specified. Reference projects listed by Pilkington include Ephraim Island on Australia's Gold Coast, the Faculty of Health Sciences at Finis Terrae University in Santiago, Chile, the Sheraton Miramar Hotel in Viña del Mar, Chile, and HOMS Hospital in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. These projects span diverse climatic zones, from subtropical coastal areas to arid highlands, underscoring the product's versatility.

How Does This Fit into the Broader Market for Energy-Efficient Glazing?

The introduction of EverGreen™ reflects ongoing industry efforts to improve the energy performance of building envelopes without relying exclusively on coated glass systems. While low-emissivity and solar-control coatings dominate high-performance facade glazing, body-tinted glasses retain advantages in certain contexts: they are inherently durable (no coating to delaminate), cost-effective for large-area applications, and compatible with a wide range of processing techniques.

For specifiers, the availability of a high-selectivity tinted glass expands the palette of solutions for meeting energy codes such as the Gebäudeenergiegesetz (GEG) or equivalent standards in international markets. The product's ability to be laminated, toughened, bent, and enamelled using standard techniques simplifies supply-chain integration and reduces lead times relative to custom-coated solutions.

EverGreen™ also aligns with broader trends in circular construction. Body-tinted glasses are fully recyclable as cullet in float production, and their long service life—when properly detailed and maintained—supports the durability objectives central to sustainable building design. By reducing operational energy consumption (cooling and lighting), the product contributes to lower whole-life carbon footprints, a metric that is increasingly scrutinised under frameworks such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and DGNB certification.

Availability and Processing

Pilkington EverGreen™ is currently available in 6 mm thickness. The manufacturer has not disclosed plans for additional thicknesses, though the product literature notes that solar control performance and colour density "vary with each thickness," suggesting that future extensions of the range are technically feasible. Fabricators can process EverGreen™ using standard float glass techniques, including thermal toughening, PVB lamination, hot bending, and ceramic enamel fritting.

Sample orders can be requested via Pilkington's online form, allowing architects and facade consultants to evaluate the product's aesthetic and performance characteristics in physical mock-ups. For projects requiring detailed optical and thermal modelling, specifiers should consult Pilkington's technical datasheets, which provide measured values for light transmittance, solar transmittance, and reflectance across the product range.

The launch of EverGreen™ expands Pilkington's portfolio of solar control solutions and offers a green-tinted alternative to existing body-tinted float glasses. Its high selectivity, low UV transmittance, and compatibility with standard processing make it a practical option for energy-efficient facade design in diverse climatic and architectural contexts.