Innovating with purpose

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how Elevate develops products designed to address some of the biggest issues in roofing – labor and weather.  

Uncertainty has been the buzzword of the year when describing the state of the roofing industry. But even through this year’s tariff changes and policy shifts, two of the most pressing issues for the roofing industry are not new  – the labor shortage and the rise of extreme weather. In this Read Listen Watch®(RLW), Frank Palmer and Emma Nealy from Elevate talk to Heidi J. Ellsworth about these issues and how Elevate innovates viable solutions.  

Elevate has made it a priority to create products and solutions based on what their contractors need most. Emma, the director of sales enablement for Amrize (Elevate’s parent company), explained, “Visiting our customers and other organizations really allows us to be able to understand what our contractors, what our distributors, what architects are seeing out in the market so that we can plan accordingly.” 

The conclusion they’ve drawn this year? A lot of the uncertainty they’re seeing is tied to longstanding issues in the industry. Frank, the senior VP of Elevate Roofing Systems and a 30-plus year roofing veteran, explained, “One of the big things is the labor shortage. This affects all industries. In particular, it seems to affect the trades more because we're a hands-on business and you need people to install our products. And then this year we’ve also seen the immigration challenges that go along with it.” The other big factor affecting the industry is the continuing rise of extreme weather, creating a demand for high performance products.  

In response to these issues, Elevate has stayed steadfast in their mission to meet customer expectations head on, anticipating their needs during these times of uncertainty. Frank elaborated, “We're trying to solve problems. Because weather dictates our business, we want to create products that can repel the elements  longer periods of time and be more resilient.” Looking at the labor issues, those same products that are designed to be more durable are also engineered to be easier to install, meaning it takes even less labor. Emma added, “When we design a new product, we try to prioritize what's going to be the most impactful for our customers, for the market, for future trends that we're seeing. From there, we make sure that it's tested, that it’s long-lasting and that it's going to be compatible with the systems that our contractors are already installing.” 

Listen to the episode or Watch the recording to learn more about how Elevate innovates products aimed to solve contractor issues.