New Peru factory, GAF, hosts introduction day for nonprofit groups

Leaders from the GAF facility in Peru introduced themselves to the community Thursday by hosting a luncheon and a presentation at Peru City Hall.

The plant is located north of Interstate 80 and west of Plank Road on the OmniTRAX rail line. The 450,000-square-foot facility will manufacture GAF’s EnergyGuard line of polyisocyanurate (polyiso) insulation products, making it GAF’s fifth polyisocyanurate (polyiso) insulation manufacturing plant.

Polyiso is an insulation solution used in roofs and walls, according to a news release from GAF. It is considered to be sustainable and is used in green building projects.

GAF Plant Manager Gary Ashley said the plant is in its testing mode now, but he expects the company will start shipping product end of April or the early part of May.

“When we are at full capabilities, we will be a 24-hour a day seven-day operation,” Ashley said. “We won’t start off that way. We’ll start as a single shift.”

Ashley said the plant has 50 employees and will peak at 70 to 75 and at full capacity, the plant expects to ship about 70 trucks a day, excluding weekends.

Andy Hilton, chief communication officer for GAF provided background on the company but emphasized the importance of “community matters,” GAF’s program and commitment to help build more resilient communities.

“Community matters was an attempt by GAF to take what used to be a disparate, unfocused approach to giving back and try to organize around a unified mission,” he said. “So, we can maximize the impact that we’re able to have in our communities.”

Community matters focuses on three targeted goals building resilient families, resilient workforces, and resilient shelters.

Hilton said GAF believes community begins at home, so the company offers employee initiatives to become involved, such as a company match program. For employees who wish to donate to an organization of their choice, GAF will match that donation up to $2,500 per employee per year and 16 hours of paid time off for employees who wish to volunteer in their communities.

Hilton provided national examples of GAF’s partnership programs, such as teaming up with Captain America, Anthony Mackie, to help rebuild homes in New Orleans.

“We partnered with several nonprofit organizations in the gulf region, rebuilding together and Habitat for Humanity to take on the challenge if eliminating the blue tarps that still remain on the homes of the Seventh Ward following Hurricane Katrina.”

Hilton said the company finished the project last year, completing 500 roofs, 300 in the Seventh Ward.

“We removed those blue tarps,” he said. “And we replaced them with a really good resilient GAF-fortified roofing system. The goal being that these homes are not only dry today, but they’ll be dry after the next storm.”

Hilton said another way GAF has become involved is by training members of communities in the “roofing trade.”

“We are really looking to tap into those overlooked labor pools,” Hilton said. “And we’ve found transitioning veterans, the formally incarcerated, at-risk youth and under-employed adults.”

Hilton said to work on a roof a person must be at least 18 years old, so the company will be working with colleges and is open to working with local shelters. Last year GAF trained 1,000 individuals and 800 of them are employed full-time.

Brenden Fasken, chief operating officer for Maitri Path to Wellness, said GAF has started in Peru.

Fasken said he heard about GAF coming to the community and he reached out, thinking it couldn’t hurt to ask and was surprised by the company’s willingness to help.

“He’s said we’re going to give you all the roofing materials for the building,” he said. “It just blew my mind because it was such an expensive project.”

Hilton said nonprofits do all the important work in the community and GAF was happy to help in some small way.