Europe
These center around aspects like energy consumption, carbon footprints, waste
reduction and disposal and emissions
of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
and other pollutants threatening human
health as well as the environment.
In most cases this means introducing
innovations and new products which go
beyond what is demanded by regulations, even eco-label systems and, significantly, what the vast majority of other
coatings companies are doing in the sustainability area.
Most of the major European-based coatings companies – such as
AkzoNobel, Jotun, Hempel, Tikkurila.
BASF Coatings and a growing number
of small- and medium-sized ones – now
have concepts of sustainability well embedded into their strategies.
A major pace-setter among the top
group has been AkzoNobel, which is both
a coatings and speciality chemicals manufacturer. It has just been ranked number
one in the global materials sector for the
third successive year on the influential
Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).
Its objective is to ensure that in as
many areas a possible the sustainability
levels it achieves are higher than those of
its competitors.
“Our sustainability strategic targets
are that 20 percent of revenue by 2020
will come from products that are more
sustainable for our customers than the
products of our customers,” Conrad
Keijzer, AkzoNobel’s executive board
member responsible for the company’s
performance coatings operation, told a
recent press briefing in London. “Also we
have a target of a 25-30 percent more ef-
ficient resource and energy use across the
entire value chain by 2020 – measured by
carbon footprint reduction.”
An important part of the company’s
sustainability activities is its eco-premium
products and services scheme, for which
it has a target share of 20 percent of rev-
enue by 2020 against 18 percent last year.
The criteria for judging what quali-
fies as having an ‘eco-premium’ include
toxicity, energy efficiency, use of natural
resources, emissions and waste and land-
use footprint. It has to be significantly
better than other products or services on
the market in at least one criteria and not
significantly worse in any of them, ac-
cording to the company.
As a result, when competitors im-
prove their products, AkzoNobel has to
ensure that it can upgrade its own ex-
isting eco-premium products to remain
ahead of its rivals.
The eco-status of coatings is increas-
ingly being assessed on the basis of the
level of compliance among raw material
and other suppliers with standards on
the environment and human safety and
well-being.
AkzoNobel has a policy under which
all suppliers considered be ‘critical’ are
subject to audits aimed at raising their
capabilities and performances in sustain-
ability areas.
Hempel runs a system under which
suppliers are audited by questionnaire,
which is followed up by on-site visits of
those who scored poorly.
Jotun works with suppliers to ensure
they comply with the United Nations
Global Compact on environmentally sus-
tainable and socially responsible policies.
Its audit program had covered 430 sup-
pliers by the end of last year.
The construction sector, including
commercial, industrial and infrastructure
projects, has been targeted by coatings
companies which consider themselves
to have sustainability advantages. This
is mainly because the greening of the
construction industry by schemes like
Leadership in Energy & Environmental
Design (LEED).
Coatings companies have, for exam-
ple, been reducing the VOC content of
their products below those demanded by
regulation or even eco-label projects.
Hempel has recently introduced an-
ti-corrosion coatings for storage tanks
which contains only 22 grams of VOCs
per liter compared with a level of 320
grams per liter in comparable products.
There have been a number of initia-
tives to provide low-emission interior
coatings which safeguard indoor air
quality (IAQ) from pollutants – an area
which has not yet been covered by a spe-
cific European Union regulation. Some of
these products have a low level of form-
aldehyde regarded as a possible threat
to air quality. AkzoNobel has launched
a coating for interior walls and ceilings
with a bamboo charcoal ingredient which
can purify air containing formaldehydes,
benzenes and other low-level VOCs.
Marine coatings is a market with in-
tense sustainability competition among
its three European-based leaders – Jotun,
AkzoNobel and Hempel. They have all
recently introduced a range of anti-foul-
ing paints which help ship owners cut
their energy consumption and achieve
the shipping industry’s voluntary CO2
reduction targets.
The coatings producers have been
making various claims about the energy
efficiency and CO2-decreasing capa-
bilities of their products. These are often
challenged by their competitors and users
of other coatings, mainly because a uni-
form method for measuring their energy
efficiency has not yet been drawn up.
Jotun has been working with
Norway’s Bellona Foundation, an envi-
ronmental NGO, on the creation by the
Geneva-based International Organisation
for Standardisation (ISO) for gauging
variations in the energy efficiencies of
ship’s hulls and propellers.
Now all three of the leading marine
coatings producers, together with ship
owners and academic specialists, have
become members of the working group
drawing up the standard.
“The aim with the standard is to make
available to the industry an open and
transparent methodology for measuring
changes in ship-specific hull and propeller
performance,” said Geir Axel Oftedahl,
Jotun’s business development director,
hull performance solutions and a member
of the working group, “The aim is not to
prescribe what is an acceptable level of
performance,” he stressed.
A draft standard is scheduled to be
agreed by the working group committee
in March next year, after which a final
version should be published by the end
of 2016. To come into operation it will
have to be approved first by the ISO
member countries.
Standards are a necessity if sustainability is to be moved forward. But they
are also needed to increase competition
among sustainability coatings. CW
