PPG Industries recently held its first “Colorful Communities” activ- ity in China at the Tianjin TEDA
Art Center. As part of the company’s
new global community-engagement
initiative, nearly 70 volunteers from
PPG’s Tianjin plant helped decorate
interior walls and paint bright murals
in the soon-to-open Color Classroom
of the art center. PPG also donated the
MASTER’S MARK paint to the center
before the activity.
“As a responsible corporate citizen,
PPG is committed to supporting the
communities where it has a presence,”
said Cathy Yan, PPG general manager,
corporate and government affairs, Asia
Pacific. “By partnering with community
organizations such as the Tianjin TEDA
Art Center, PPG hopes to beautify and re-
vitalize community assets with our prod-
ucts and our people.”
On the morning of Sept. 12, PPG em-
ployees and their families, led by pro-
fessional artists, volunteered to paint
decorative pictures on the walls of the art
center’s Color Classroom using Master’s
Mark interior paints by PPG. The chil-
dren from the team also created a 5-me-
ter-long picture entitled “Colorful TEDA”
and presented it to the Tianjin TEDA Art
Center as a gift, and volunteers assisted in
painting a mural to decorate the lobby of
the art center.
“We all had a fruitful day,” said Kevin
Ni, PPG operations director for industrial
coatings in Asia Pacific. “I would like to
thank our employees and their families
for volunteering to participate in this
community-engagement activity. We look
forward to continuing to partner with
organizations in neighboring communi-
ties to create brighter and more colorful
environments.”
In addition to PPG’s global commu-
nity-engagement efforts, the Colorful
Communities program aims to en-
hance, protect and beautify the neigh-
borhoods where PPG operates by
donating coatings products, accompa-
nied by employee volunteerism, in sup-
port of community-renewal projects.
The Tianjin TEDA Art Center, set to
open at the end of September, will be an
important place for TEDA culture and
art communication as well as an arts
training base for children in the community. PPG has completed four other
Colorful Communities projects to date:
one in the United States, two in Europe
and one in South Korea. The company expects to complete more than
14 Colorful Communities projects this
year in North America, South America,
Europe and Asia.
The Colorful Communities program
is PPG’s signature initiative for its community engagement efforts. In 2014,
PPG and the PPG Industries Foundation
donated more than $5.7 million to
hundreds of community organizations
across 24 countries around the world.
These investments focused on: education programs that teach young people
skills needed to succeed in studies and
careers related to science, technology,
engineering and math, such as jobs in
advanced manufacturing; revitalization
programs for buildings and community
spaces; and organizations important to
employees through grant and matching-funds programs.
AkzoNobe Unveils Plans
to Build Pilot Plant for
Coating Resins at its UK
Performance Coatings Site
AkzoNobel plans to invest more than
€1.3 million to build a pilot plant
for coating resins at its Performance
Coatings site located in Felling, UK. The
state-of-the-art facility - which will create
three new jobs and safeguard a further 28
positions at the site - will provide resin
samples for product testing and the possibility to scale up to commercial manufacture. Start-up is expected in the first
quarter of 2016.
“In-house resin development is a key
part of our coatings R&D effort,” explained Adam Bell, head of the Scale-Up
Team for the pilot plant. “This facility will
improve our delivery of large-scale resin
for testing, while streamlining the scale-
up process from the laboratory through
to factory manufacturing.” Added Gareth
Crapper, manager of Performance
Coatings’ Technology Centre at Felling:
“Coatings technology and product in-
novation is at the core of our business
strategy, and this new facility will play an
important part in that. It also underlines
our commitment to the Felling site, which
has received more than € 30 million of in-
vestment during the past five years.”
The new facility was part-funded by
PPG Extends Colorful
Communities Program To China
