SPFA Re-Vamping National Industry Excellence Awards

SPRAY FOAM MAGAZINE – Awards season has officially returned. Contractors are now working on preparing and submitting their nominations for the 18th Annual SPFA National Industry Excellence Awards – the spray foam industry’s most prestigious accolades. These awards annually highlight some of the industry’s latest and greatest projects, as well as the contractors for best-in-class installation of spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation, roofing, concrete lifting, and specialty applications, as well as for elastomeric coatings applications.

This year, the SPFA wants all entrants to be aware of a handful of important changes to the awards program. All are aimed at making them more engaging, representative of the total contractor base, and, of course, exciting.

First, the SPFA is introducing a new award specifically for smaller contractors. The owner operators have always been the backbone of our industry and this new award celebrates that. Any small contractor, determined by having five or less employees (note administrative staff, such as accountants, are not included in the employee count), will automatically be entered to win this new small contractor award when they submit a project nomination in one of the main seven categories. The project that receives the most total votes from the panel of judges and the SPFA membership will win the prize. The results of this award will not influence the project’s chances for winning in whatever category it has been submitted in. Thus, any award entry from a small contractor can potentially win two awards.

In addition to the new small contractor award, the other seven award categories have changed a bit. This year’s official categories include: 1 – Building Enclosure Less Than 40,000 Board Feet (formerly Residential Enclosure), 2 – Building Enclosure More Than 40,000 Board Feet (formerly Commercial Enclosure), 3 – Elastomeric Roof Coatings, 4 – Roof Foam Less Than 40,000 Square Feet, 5 – Roof Foam More Than 40,000 Square Foot, 6 – Specialty Application, and 7 – Concrete Lifting. The Concrete Lifting award is fairly new and was introduced last year.

All contractors, no matter what size, are encouraged to enter this year’s awards. Nominations open in early October and will be due no later than November 27. SPFA-member companies will be able to vote for their one favorite project in each award category between December 1 and 15. Each member company’s voting representative is the individual authorized to cast their company’s votes. Instructions on how to view projects and cast votes are coming soon from the SPFA.

Voting criteria has changed slightly and generally speaking, judges will be evaluating nominations based on the following:

Coordination and Logistics: What are your best practices? What challenges did you face?

Training, Safety, and Risk Management:

How do you ensure jobsite safety and mitigate risk? PCP certification, Master Installer status, etc.

Value/Return on Investment: What cost savings will the building owner see? How will spray foam outperform other products?  

Why Spray Foam: What made spray foam the right choice for this project? How did it enhance the project over other products? (Tell us what factors influenced the decision to use spray foam, e.g. Did environmental sustainability play a role in your decision?)

All contractors submitting awards will also be asked to include their company URL and social media channel links. The SPFA promotes winning projects during the year and give contractors extra marketing exposure.

The SPFA will officially recognize all winners on Tuesday, March 5 at 12:00pm during the program’s official awards ceremony held at SprayFoam 2024 Convention & Expo at the Westgate Resort Ballroom in Las Vegas.

We look forward to learning about everyone’s incredible projects!  

About the Author Rick Duncan Ph.D., P.E is the Executive Director of the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA), the industry’s leading organization representing contractors, material and equipment manufacturers, distributors and industry consultants. Visit www.sprayfoam.org.

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