The AGA has many projects to look forward to in 2015. The 'I Galvanize Because...' advertising campaign has been the AGA's most successful to date. This campaign will continue for another year and will feature projects including the Cliffwalk at Capilano in Vancouver, British Columbia, Jesup Bridge in Iowa, and the El Andaluz mixed-use building in Santa Barbara, California. The ads will be featured in Construction Canada, Civil Engineering, and Architect magazines, websites, and e-newsletters throughout the year.

We will also be rolling out the 2015 Specifier Survey in order to understand architects, engineers, and other specifiers' experience with and perception of hot-dip galvanized steel which will help us develop our marketing strategies for the next 3-5 years. Those who fully complete the survey are entered into a monthly drawing to win a $100 Visa Gift Card. All participants throughout the year will have the opportunity to win the Grand Prize, a cash prize to be determined based on the amount of respondents. To encourage further participation, every tweet, retweet, or post sharing the URL www.galvanizeit.org/survey and using the hash tag #AGASurvey will result in an additional entry in the monthly drawing. The AGA is also providing Starbucks cards to those who refer five or more specifiers if they also complete the survey.

Due to the increasing success of using videos as marketing materials, the AGA Marketing team will be creating short YouTube videos of various galvanized projects. The first projects to be featured in the videos will be those entered into this year's Excellence in Hot-Dip Galvanizing Awards Lifetime Achievement category, and will continue onto other projects that are able to be used. If any member has a project they think would be a great candidate for this initiative, please contact Laura Hanson.

Throughout 2014, the AGA has been working on an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The AGA has kept the hot-dip galvanizing industry “ahead of the curve” on sustainability, and pursuing a new EPD study continues that momentum. The AGA is working with PE International, a world renowned LCA and EPD consultant, to produce the new study. The AGA collected data for the study by partnering with the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) for fabricated steel data, IZA for zinc data, and galvanizing data from some AGA members. The EPD is being conducted to comply with the new LEED v4 standards, which was originally scheduled to go in effect June 2015, but now has been delayed to October 2016. The AGA hopes to have the study fully complete before mid-year in order to have time to educate members on the changes before the LEED requirements are changed.

Lastly, the AGA will continue to pursue opportunities in the bridge market into 2015. This includes continuing our involvement with the Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA), among other opportunities. The SSSBA is currently working on an initiative to get in front of more students, which closely aligns with the AGA’s own Galvanize Your Campus program.  As Melissa Lindsley is serving as the SSSBA’s University Education Subcommittee Chairperson, there should be some good synergies between the two programs that will benefit both AGA and SSSBA.