Leading News
EPA Delays Energy Star 2025 Unit Shipment Data Reporting
The Window & Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) released an update regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) reporting requirements for Energy Star Unit Shipment Data for calendar year 2025. While Energy Star Partners typically are required to complete an annual survey early in the year, with submissions due by March 1, the 2025 data collection process is currently delayed, officials explained.
According to WDMA officials, at press time EPA had advised that it wasn’t yet prepared to field the CY2025 unit shipment data survey. Reporting forms are not available yet, nor has the EPA communicated formal reporting instructions or timelines directly to Energy Star partners.
While the March 1 submission deadline had not been formally extended, EPA officials acknowledged the need to provide sufficient time for partners to complete the required reporting once the survey materials are released. The agency has indicated it will notify stakeholders as soon as additional details or adjustments to the reporting process become available, officials said.
“EPA understands the importance of this data collection and the need to give Energy Star partners adequate time to comply once the reporting materials are available,” said Craig Drumheller, vice president of technical activities for WDMA. “Until EPA provides formal guidance, companies should know that no immediate action is required, and WDMA will continue working closely with EPA to ensure the process moves forward smoothly.”
WDMA officials said their organization and the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) will continue their long-standing collaboration to collect, anonymously aggregate and then submit unit shipment data on behalf of member companies to satisfy reporting requirements. Partners are encouraged to continue tracking relevant shipment data to ensure readiness once reporting instructions are finalized.
Legal
Family Files Negligence Lawsuit Against Crown Windows
A closed court case involving the death of a three-year-old child has come back with a new angle and Crown Window, a Missouri-based supplier and installer of windows, finds itself back in the hot-seat. The family of the late Tidus Bass are alleging that the company sold and distributed Crystal Series 2300 Horizontal Sliding Windows without fall protection features or warnings regarding the risk of falls. At the same time, the windows “were equipped with cam-action sweep locks as their only securing mechanism—a component prone to failure,” they allege.
According to the original case documents, in July 2024, three-year-old Tidus Bass “and his brother A.B. awoke early in their bedroom, which had no air conditioning.” As [DWM] reported at the time, Tidus’ parents said he “was able to easily open the window of his bedroom … because it lacked adequate locking mechanisms and other safety features to prevent him from doing so,” falling nine stories.
In the immediate aftermath of Tidus’ death, his parents were indicted by a Jackson County grand jury, each for “first-degree child endangerment resulting in death.” Both ultimately pleaded guilty and received five years’ probation, each, but the couple pointed to their living situation as factors in their son’s death. In a case filing from April 2025, Tidus’ parents sought to hold the property management company responsible for what they alleged to be the deteriorating state of the apartments, and the window manufacturer (Crystal) and window installation company (Crown) for defective product and improper installation, respectively.
Just a few months later, at the end of June 2025, the family’s attorneys filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal without Prejudice, closing the lawsuit.
That seemed to be the end of it, until, in late January 2026, the couple filed a lawsuit solely against Crown Diversified Industries Corp., D/B/A Crown Window Corp., claiming that the bedroom window, which was installed by Crown Window Corp. in 2015, “lacked basic fall-protection safety features that would have prevented a child from falling from such a height” and that “these safety measures were well known in the window industry and simple to implement.”
They further argue that “Crown Window sold and distributed the Crystal Series 2300 Horizontal Sliding Windows without fall protection features or warnings regarding the risk of falls, and were equipped with cam-action sweep locks as their only securing mechanism,” a component that is prone to failure, the case alleges. The couple alleges that the company installed multiple windows in the apartment building, all lacking safety or fall-protection devices and that the company “knew or should have known that the absence of required fall-protection devices on the windows at Independence Towers … violated Section 1015.8 of the 2015 International Building Code.” Crown Window Corp. “failed to warn property owners, property managers, tenants and occupants that the Independence Towers Windows lacked … required fall-protection devices and posed a serious risk of falls, severe injury, and death, particularly to children,” the couple alleges.
They are alleging negligence and negligence per se, as well as a product liability claim. Unlike a prior suit, the latest case doesn’t name Crystal Windows and Doors, nor any of the building owners or managers. They are asking for a jury trial.
Industry Violations
Oregon Door and Window Company Fined Nearly $30K for Safety Violations
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) found that Avalon International Aluminum, a maker of metal door and window framing located in Tualatin, Oregon, “intentionally kept a faulty system in place” for storing raw materials, leaving employees vulnerable to struck-by and crushing hazards.
Responding to a complaint against the company, Oregon OSHA opened an inspection of Avalon International Aluminum, including interviews with employer representatives and employees, conversations with a manufacturer of the storage racks Avalon International used in its facility, walk-throughs of the company’s warehouses, measurements and photo documentation. According to OSHA’s report, the company willfully violated a safety rule by refusing to follow the installation and maintenance requirements set by the manufacturer of its industrial storage racks. An estimated 40 baseplates for storage racks were unanchored to the concrete floor. Another estimated four baseplates were damaged, while an estimated three baseplates were installed upside down.
As a result, the company left hundreds of pounds of raw materials sitting atop unanchored cantilever storage racks rising as high as 18 feet. These unanchored racks, some of which were improperly assembled, created “potential bodily harm” for employees, who reached the raw materials by hand and forklift, the report said.
Oregon OSHA cited the company for two violations: one “willful,” involving the storage racks, and the other “serious,” for failing to guard a belt sander at a nip point where hands and fingers could get mangled or cut off. The violations amounted to a total penalty of $28,478. During the inspection, the company corrected the belt sander violation. The company remains under an order by Oregon OSHA to correct the willful violation.
Avalon International Aluminum filed an appeal of its citation.
EPA Publishes Proposed Settlement with Woodgrain Millwork Inc.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a proposed administrative penalty settlement with Woodgrain Millwork Inc. for violations of the Clean Water Act. In its notice, EPA officials allege that the company failed to comply with 2015 and 2021 Industrial Stormwater General Permit/Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) at its Nampa, Idaho, facility, which cover discharges of pollutants into nearby Indian Creek. The alleged violation isn’t the company’s first. About 15 years ago, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) hit Woodgrain with fines of $6,820 for a similar situation. Should the company accept a currently proposed agreement, it will pay a civil penalty of $125,000.
Layoffs
Nearly 800 Employees to Lose Jobs at The Home Depot
The Home Depot filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alerting the state of Georgia that 797 employees will lose their jobs before the end of March. The notification indicates that layoffs will be permanent, representing a reduction in force at its 2455 Paces Ferry Rd. SE location in Atlanta. At the same time, the number of employees affected far outstrips the number listed for that location, which is shown as 146. Reporting by local news outlets corroborates with the WARN notification, reporting that “about 150 corporate employees” will be affected and the rest will be “remote roles.”
Employees reportedly were informed via a company-wide memo the same day the WARN report was filed, with additional notice that corporate employees who retain their jobs will be returning to the office five days per week.
The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. The first two stores opened on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. The company now has 2,300 stores across North America, employing around 475,000 people.
Expansions
84 Lumber Expands Footprint With New Texas Door Shop, California Store
84 Lumber has expanded its national footprint with the opening of a new door shop in Central Texas and a new retail store in Southern California.
The company’s new 85,000-square-foot door shop represents what officials describe as a significant expansion of manufacturing and service capabilities in Central Texas. Designed to support single-family and multifamily construction across the greater Austin metro and surrounding counties, the shop offers a full line of Masonite interior doors and Therma-Tru exterior doors.
Meanwhile, in California, the company announced the opening of a new 26,500-square-foot store in La Mirada, including a 42,900-square-foot lumber yard. The location employs 13 associates. Company officials described the location as part of a strategic expansion across California and the West, also serving as a resource for rebuilding and recovery efforts in the Palisades and surrounding communities affected by wildfires.
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