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The most common number associated with sustainability is zero. In the coatings industry, many of us have worked on achieving targets for Zero VOC, Zero Waste, Net Zero Emissions. This use of the number zero to represent our sustainability targets is a reflection of our industry’s sustainability paradigm that traces its roots to the principles of green chemistry laid out back in 1998. We think of sustainability in terms of “doing no harm” to health and the environment in the products we make and how we make them, with zero harm being the ultimate target.
This approach to sustainability is not unique to the coatings industry – indeed companies in just about every industry have adopted Net Zero targets. While it is just as important for coatings companies to achieve such Net Zero goals as it is for companies in other sectors for the world to achieve its climate goals, there are unique characteristics of the coatings industry that can allow us to concurrently broaden our sustainability thinking in terms of going beyond zero – to not just be net neutral but actually be a net positive. Paint technology has developed products that go beyond doing no harm to actually making a positive impact on the environment. And the more we can involve our customers in using such products, the more we can multiply that positive impact.
Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines, Inc., the largest paint manufacturer in the Philippines, has adopted this expanded notion of sustainability. In addition to implementing programs to make green paints in a green way, the company is using coating products to help address two critical environmental challenges in the Philippines – air pollution and climate change.
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