As well as highlighting this issue, our discussions revealed that many companies are still missing a trick. Few appreciate the huge opportunities within inks and coatings to better protect your product portfolio or workplace setting and help your organization paint a greener future.

The coating system you choose can either harm or protect the planet and its inhabitants. We speak about this in our guidebook, ‘The Evolution of Inks & Coatings’, when exploring the difference between oil-based and water-based paints. Directly applied, different coating systems can shield your customer’s products, toughening them up to better withstand the elements and trials of their intended use. They will help you to reduce energy usage and emissions, lowering your overall carbon footprint and cost.

Nico Frankhuizen, Manager of Product Management at Industrial Physics, and chairman of the National Standardization Board for Paint and Varnishes in the Netherlands, is a true expert in the world of inks and coatings. He’s understandably excited about the planet-protecting potential of the sector he loves.

He said: “While the opportunities are endless and businesses across all industries are catching on, many companies are still failing to recognize the vast sustainability potential that coating systems offer. Right now, they prefer a familiar comfort zone and aren’t thinking beyond the products and inspection processes they have become accustomed to. In doing so they are missing out on the latest coating options and the testing tech that would help them to hit their sustainability targets while saving significant time and money.”

A sustainability focused sector

Ahead of the game, the industry has been environmentally minded for over two decades and is well-prepped for the shift towards sustainability in customer demand. Particularly when compared to the likes of the automotive industry, where many companies will be hard-pressed to meet the incoming directives for electric cars, for example.

Nico continued: “Our industry regulations are well defined and strictly governed. For example, the standards bodies involved in inks and coatings have more associated documents than the aerospace, auto, or medical industries.

“Business leads have worked hard to make products comparable, with everything documented and traceable. So, it’s typically easier to trace whether each ingredient in a product comes from a sustainable source. Not just in terms of the environmental impact, but also from other standpoints too. For example, you can question – where does your titanium oxide come from? Can you be certain it’s not sourced from a mine using low-cost labor?”

Thanks to the likes of European standard EN 13300 the consumer can make direct, like-for-like comparisons on anything from coverage to cleanability and gloss. You can directly compare the big names with the local outfits - it creates a level playing field that you don’t see in many industries.

The standards will help you to determine how many coats you’ll need to get the finish you want, or how long your system will offer adequate protection for. So, you can make better informed decisions to reduce waste and limit solvent exposure.

We discuss the impact of standards in ‘2022 Global Outlook of Sustainable Packaging’ – access this here!

Is this because the industry is full of altruistic types? Quite possibly! But there’s also a necessity component to factor in: it’s not a sector known for moving at rapid speed - it can take 20 years to fine tune the recipe of a new coating system and test it properly. You could say that the industry moves more like an oil tanker than a speedboat! But while this may be true, it’s led to the need for a forward-thinking attitude for those working in the industry. There’s a need to ask questions like, ‘where do we want to be in the future? How clean will we want/need to be?' It’s this foresight that has enabled many companies to adapt to meet customer and regulatory demands ahead of time.

So, how can proper testing, selection, and application of the right inks and coatings reduce your environmental impact?

Basic coatings, without thick layers of polymers, will strengthen your cardboard packaging against the impact of moisture absorption. Looking to improve the energy rating of your premises and cut back on air conditioning costs? Then you could consider using solar reflective paints instead of heat-absorbing black tar systems.

Hardy coating systems protect offshore wind turbines in extreme coastal conditions for up to 25 years. Hydrophobic coatings, developed with sustainability in mind, create dirt-repellant cars that need fewer washes. While ‘self-cleaning’ painting systems applied to an airplane wing create less drag, optimizing fuel efficiency.

Did you catch the news about the Saharan sands raining down over much of Europe recently? This plays havoc on solar farms, covering solar panels and reducing their efficiency. But these days you can coat with treatments that remove much of the dirt at first rainfall, saving time and money in cleaning while maximizing the plant’s efficiency.

These are just a few examples and it’s not only the use of advanced, eco-friendly coating systems themselves that can help you to run a greener business. Better testing and analysis of your current practices can often improve your ecological credentials, as Nico explained:

“We have a customer in the business of coating aluminum profiles. The company was struggling to keep up with the workload and was running 20 hour shifts, seven days a week! They contacted us about a problem with the machinery they use to certify the energy used in curing their coatings.

”On investigation, Nico explained that the TQC Sheen CurveX system identified the client was wasting two thirds of their energy use on curing their profiles! They had no idea that their process had been overly excessive.

He added: “By slashing the cure index they still got the same results - perfectly hardened coatings and protected profiles. This cut the process down from hours to minutes, massively reducing workload pressures; instead of working 20 hours a day, the same results could be achieved in eight hours, halving labor costs. Staff members enjoyed their first weekend off in months and the CEO was absolutely delighted!”

Product stewardship is the act of minimizing the health, safety, environmental, and social impacts of a product and its packaging throughout all lifecycle stages, while also maximizing economic benefits.

You need to know if your current coatings portfolio solves your ecological burdens while maximizing environmental benefits. A sensible place to start is to scrutinize the ingredients and performance of the products you’re already using.

Are you still working with any hazardous toxic ingredients that could be replaced? Much progress has been made in reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paints and other coatings over the last two decades and there are many more waterborne solutions available. However, many companies still rely on toxic products despite the associated risks to human health and the environment, without proper exploration of the bio-based alternatives.

Product stewardship can help you to analyze sustainability through the entire value chain. Making sure you hit the internal and industry-wide regulatory standards while providing your customers with valuable product information to support their own sustainability efforts.

With the right test and inspection partner you can determine whether your coating systems offer the durability you need or prove how many coatings are necessary to achieve the desired level of protection. They will show you how regularly your coatings need to be reapplied and flag up whether a reformulation of your products could bring about further sustainability benefits.