George Bandy Jr.’s grandmother was the first environmentalist he ever met. She never threw anything away and was always recycling. Her practices profoundly influenced Bandy throughout his childhood in Opelika, Alabama.
“Even as a kid at our grandparents’ home, George was always fascinated by how everything connected—the farm, the trees, the way nature, and systems could work together,” says Bandy's cousin, Mike Pattrick, a State Farm agent based in Chicago. “Long before sustainability had a name, he saw the value in balance and of taking care of what takes care of us. It wasn’t just an interest for him, it was a way of thinking that shaped everything he did.”
Grandma would be proud of her grandson’s career choices. After decades of working in various sustainability roles, he joined Andersen Windows & Doors as its first chief sustainability officer in August. He is now settling into a custom-built role after a career that saw him deploy to Iraq and later serve as Amazon’s head of worldwide circular economy.
“In the first year or so, we've really focused on zero waste, energy efficiency, and renewable energy,” Bandy says. “And we're also going to be looking at some parts of the market brand and understanding how we can have an impact with our consumers and customers in a different way.”
Sustainable commitment
Andersen – founded in 1903 – has long taken sustainability seriously. It makes electricity from the sawdust generated at its main manufacturing facility in Bayport, Minnesota. It has solar hubs set up across the country. It signed a national “Pollinator’s Pledge” to ensure the land around its headquarters remained a friendly bee habitat.
But committing to a chief sustainability officer role was a first for the company, says chairman and CEO Chris Galvin.
“We are steadfast in our commitment to meet the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations,” he says. “We know our success relies heavily on the health and resiliency of the communities where we live and work; protecting people and our planet is more important than ever. With George at the helm, this new leadership position will accelerate our sustainability journey as we work daily to make decisions that help our customers achieve their sustainability aspirations, elevate our industry, and ultimately help make the world a better place.”
A commitment from leadership may have encouraged him to take the job, but the company’s on-the-floor processes sealed the deal. What sold him was a board with all the materials they were recycling in the window-making process. A young woman on the plant floor explained it when Bandy asked.
“They were beginning to create a zero-waste platform inside the plant,” Bandy says. “Now she works for me, and I tell her she's the reason that I'm here because she explained it so eloquently as to how they were beginning to implement this process. The people here all are committed to the environment, the community, and to looking at sustainability from a very holistic standpoint.”
Getting to work
Bandy has spent his first eight months at the company gathering data, getting it accurate, and becoming a source of information on sustainability. He also wants to ensure the company has certifications that allow it to be a preferred choice for people developing structures that need good indoor air quality, lower emissions, triple pane glass, and other features.
“We must authenticate and separate Andersen from others in the industry, and that's one of the skills that I hope to be able to leverage across the enterprise,” he says. “It's great to do the work inside of the organization, but it's also a necessity that we bring that information forward so that our partners, our collaborators, the builders, architects, and developers understand why Andersen is different when it relates to sustainability.
As home builders adapt to home buyers' new energy efficiency expectations, Bandy says there is an excellent opportunity to drive sustainability by selecting high-performance building materials, designing for energy efficiency, and considering life cycle impacts.
“Incorporating smart design choices such as passive solar principles, better insulation, or windows facing in the appropriate direction to maximize sunlight during the day, those things significantly reduce homes environmental impact,” he says. “Choosing products with third-party certifications for sustainability also makes a huge difference.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that windows are nice design features.
“People want to be connected to the outdoors. I'm big on biophilic design. I think that the connectivity to nature does more than provide sunlight and warmth,” Bandy says. “It also gives people a different energy level and makes them feel connected to nature more intimately. I tell people that the most innovative ideas never occur in a cubicle, desk, or corner. They usually occur in some form or fashion outside connected to nature, walking on a trail, in a desert, or having an experience in a different location. So, I want to bring that into homes and provide more innovative spirits inside people's homes.”
What’s Next
Bandy’s plan to enhance the sustainable measures Andersen has already woven into its business includes increasing renewable energy, lowering costs, and minimizing the environmental impact at its manufacturing facilities. Layering all these efforts will take time, but Bandy is excited about the future.
“I learned a long time ago that you got to start crawling first, and we've started doing that by getting the data right and then will stand up, and we'll start doing a little walking as we mature into a more formalized sustainability role and then hopefully in a few years, we'll get a little jog together," he says. "Eventually, we’ll start sprinting a little bit, so I'm excited about the opportunity, excited about the people we'll be able to impact along the way, and excited about the growth that we'll be able to see as a result of creating a stronger presence in the sustainability community for a company that’s so deserving.”
