The power of a global community

By Emma Peterson. 

Dirk Bollwerk talks about connecting roofers around the world and advancing the global industry. 

In a new episode of Roofing Road Trips®, host Heidi J. Ellsworth is joined by Dirk Bollwerk to learn about the International Federation of the Roofing Trade (IFD) and the vital work it does for the global roofing industry and trade. Dirk is both the president of IFD and the German Roofing Association. He spoke a bit about what he does in these roles, sharing, “A lot of our work is political, to act as a representative for roofers in spaces like government. We also take care about education and technical guidelines.” 

The main difference between Dirk’s work with the two associations is scale. Where the German Roofing Association acts as an umbrella for 16 different, smaller German organizations, the IFD is an umbrella for the global roofing community. Dirk shared some history of the IFD’s origins:  

The IFD was founded in the early 1950s. The founding members were Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. Today, we have three different types of members. The first is full members. Full member you can become when you are a roofing association. For example, the National Roofing Contractors Association of the United States. The second is manufacturers, for whom IFD makes guidelines for. And the last is science or supporting members.  

At its core, IFD’s mission is all about building and nurturing connections, both on the job and off. Dirk explained, “We want to build a global community of roofers. Why? First, we want to bond roofers all over the world through friendship. Second, we want best practices and techniques to be shared.” By building these bonds and creating this shared knowledge of best techniques, IFD is not only helping their members succeed but also uplifting the international roofing industry.  

Listen to the podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about Dirk and the International Federation of the Roofing Trade.