37th Annual Waterborne Symposium
This annual event in New Orleans focused on “Advances in Sustainable Coatings Technology”
BY KERRY PIANOFORTE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Polymers and High Performance Materials
hosted the 37th Annual Waterborne
Symposium February 10-12 at the Astor
Crowne Plaza in New Orleans, LA. This
year’s event attracted more than 170
people and featured 25 papers by leading experts in a variety of disciplines
related to the latest innovations in
waterborne coatings technology.
The three-day event kicked off with
the Plenary Lecture, “Going Green
Beyond Waterborne Coatings,” which
was presented by Diana Strongosky,
vice president of research and develop-
ment, paints and coatings division at
The Sherwin-Williams Company. “In
recent years, going green has become a
buzzword,” said Strongosky. “It is
interesting that thought leaders from
different industries are on the same
page—from movies to the Olympics—
when it come to sustainability. There
are three main drivers for developing
green coatings: compliance, necessity
as a result of high raw material prices
and market demand.”
Market demand presents a huge
opportunity for sustainable coatings,
with the U.S. Green Council predicting
that one million homes will be LEED
certified in 2010. According to Sherwin-
Williams’ research, 75% of U.S. con-
sumers are willing to pay for socially
responsible products, but cautions not
just any products will do, they need to be
value added.
BEST PAPER AWARDS CEREMONY
Robson Storey, USM professor and Symposium chair, presented The Shelby F.
Thames Best Paper Award to Edwin Chan of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Polymers Division for, “Harnessing Surface Wrinkling to
Measure the Viscoelastic Properties of Polymer Films and Coatings.” John
Maddox of Eastman Chemical Company presented the first place award for the
graduate student poster to Ryan Hensarling for his poster, “‘Clicking’ Polymer
Brushes Using Thiol-Yne Chemistry: Indoors and Out.”
tive technologies and processes.”
According to Strongosky, it is not suffi-
cient for companies to simply develop
green products, they must implement
sustainability in all aspects of the com-
pany, from recycling waste to reducing
its carbon footprint. “EcoVision is
Sherwin-Williams’ sustainability pro-
gram, whereby, the company is commit-
ted to being a recognized leader in the
development of sustainable processes,
products and activities that are prof-
itable, preserve natural resources and
contribute to social improvement,” said
Strongosky. “The five areas of focus for
this program are conservation, innova-
tion, accountability, respect and respon-
sibility. This philosophy refers to the
phrase John Elkington first described in
1994 as the triple bottom line. This
means a win-win-win business strategy
for sustainable development for corpora-
tions, where sustainable products and
systems use environmentally responsi-
ble materials that result in socially
responsible products and process that
are economically viable. We need to have
partnerships with suppliers and collabo-
rate with universities and work together
as an industry to link our knowledge.”
Sherwin-Williams predicts future
trends and technologies related to sus-
tainability that could improve per-
formance of current latex coatings
may include smart coatings, nanotech-
nology and renewable raw materials.
“Sustainability and green provide not
only challenges, but opportunities for
innovation,” Strongosky concluded.
The Keynote Lecture, “Painting TPO: 25
Years and Still Sticking,” was given by
Philip Yaneff, a coatings consultant who
previously worked for DuPont Coatings
for Plastics. “Since the early 1980s, TPO
has become the number one material
choice for automotive bumpers around the
