Shaping the future of roofing resilience

By Jenny Yu.  

RICOWI’s investigations continue to influence roofing codes, standards and installation practices nationwide. 

The recent Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues Inc. (RICOWI) Spring 2026 Conference in Sacramento reinforced the organization’s growing role in advancing roofing resilience, technical research, and code development across the industry. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Jordan Loudon and Al Janni, leaders of RICOWI, about how the organization's ongoing work shapes real-world roofing performances today. 

During the conference, wildfire resilience emerged as a major focus as industry leaders, researchers, and code officials examined the growing risks facing structures in wildfire-prone regions. Presentations from organizations including the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, UL Solutions, and the International Code Council explored roofing system performance under extreme fire exposure and evolving building code requirements. 

Al explained that many roofing improvements seen today can be traced directly back to RICOWI storm investigations. “As a manufacturer, some of these investigations actually made changes within our installation guides for contractors,” Al explained. He pointed to roof edge failures discovered during past wind events as one example. Those findings helped drive the adoption of improved perimeter securement methods and standards such as ANSI/SPRI ES-1 for edge metal performance. 

“There have been some code changes done,” Al said. “Areas where events have gone through that we’ve investigated have seen less damage because of changes based on past RICOWI investigations.” 

In addition to technical research, the conference emphasized industry education and collaboration.  Jordan highlighted how RICOWI committee meetings provide opportunities for attendees to engage directly with roofing experts, researchers, and industry associations. “Anybody can sign up to attend the committee meetings,” Jordan said. “We encourage first-time attendees to come because it is a good gateway to RICOWI membership.” 

Al added that continued learning remains one of the organization’s greatest strengths. “At the conference, you definitely walk away with something,” Al expressed. “You just don’t know when you’re going to draw on that information.” 

Read the first article in this series or Listen to the podcast to learn more about RICOWI’s research initiatives and industry collaboration efforts.