Evonik’s Coating Additives business line takes a holistic approach to the concept of sustainability. The use of safe materials and consistent viability of saving time, materials, and energy are the priorities - ensuring that the lifecycle of coated objects is extended and that resources are saved.
“As a specialty chemicals company, we are usually in a rather early stage of various value chains,” said - Tim-Frederic Sloot, Sustainability, Evonik. “We systematically examine the positive and negative effects of our business activities along the value chain and are founder and part of the supply chain initiative Together for Sustainability. Early identification of future opportunities and risks makes our business model more resilient and sharpens understanding of the long-term value that our activities create for society.”
With its “Evonik Impact Valuation 2021” the company discovered that every one-Euro value added by Evonik creates a total of 4,12€ value added for society globally (in Germany, EU, USA, Canada, Central & South America, Asia/Pacific, Middle-East and Africa).
“Besides the holistic view on the value chain, we also cover different dimensions of materials and emissions, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, or occurrence of waste,” said Sloot. “All in all, our approach is to become more sustainable along the total value chain as well as across the most relevant dimensions.”
Footprint vs. Handprint
Evonik’s sustainability approach differentiates the concepts of footprint versus handprint in the manufacture and use of its additives. Its holistic sustainability approach is based on two main pillars: minimize the footprint by using resources more efficiently and minimizing emissions, and develop products and technologies that also reduce the environmental impact of its customers and end users to maximize the handprint.
According to Sloot, the footprint of a product or service covers all negative environmental impacts to manufacture, ship and use the product. An example of a product’s footprint are greenhouse gas emissions, that occur in the production of the product, as well as in its use phase.
“The concept of a handprint is a rather new concept,” noted Sloot. “It expresses positive environmental impacts, achieved by replacing an established solution with a more sustainable solution. For example, when a product from Evonik Coating Additives enables the formulator to significantly reduce the VOC content in a coating – then the difference to the VOC content in the reference coating is the handprint of our additive. Many products from the Coating Additives business line offer significant advantages in downstream steps, such as formulation, application, and end-use. We use the concept of the handprint to show the positive impacts of our products in various steps of the value chain.”
Evonik Coating Additives offers a range of products and technologies that have been developed to meet customers’ goals in reducing their environmental impact.
“We serve a wide variety of customers across all major regions with a broad portfolio of products,” Sloot said. “We observed that our customer base has very different goals concerning their environmental impact. Some focus on product safety, others try to reduce their VOC or greenhouse gas emissions. To foster our sustainability approach, we defined seven handprint effects, that act as “umbrellas” for our activities.”
These seven effects are “Safe Use,” “Labels/Compliance, ”“VOC Reduction,” “Production Efficiency,” “Durability,” “Sustainable Feedstocks” and “Circular Solutions.”
“All new products and technologies pay in to at least one of these effects,” he added. “To give a few examples, we have developed spherical silica particles for increased durability of architectural paints. These products improve the wet scrub and burnish resistance of final paints. Another example is easy-to-disperse fumed silicas for rheology modification. With these new products, the use of an energy-intensive bead mill in the formulation of a coating is no longer necessary.”
COATINO® Campus
COATINO® Campus is Evonik’s digital knowledge platform for coating and ink technologies as well as its products. Customers are invited to use the platform as an interactive source with a wide variety of information. Some examples are training materials of new products but also more general information, such as coating or ink technologies, regulatory, or sustainability topics.
“Content is available in the form of learning journeys, webinars, or live events,” said Sloot. “We see COATINO® Campus as a cutting-edge extension of our face-to-face seminars. Especially in recent times, where face-to-face meetings were made difficult, we do see a high value in COATINO Campus to train and inform our customers.”
Evonik Coatings Additives has a number of biobased products for paint and coatings applications. The most recent launches of products with renewable components are defoamers: TEGO® Foamex 18 for architectural paints as well as TEGO® Foamex 8820 and 8850 for printing ink formulations. All products are based on renewable oil with a high, application-specific performance. They may be used in compliance with many regulations, such as EU ecolabel, Swiss Ordinance (Part A), FDA, and others.
Evonik Coating Additives also offers a number of regulatory services.
“Our regulatory services are designed to address our customers’ needs for information and to make this information readily available online,” said Gritt Bettcher, Regulatory Guidance. “Four different types of standard documents can be downloaded barrier-free: Safety Data Sheets, Regulatory Data Sheets, Food contact and EU Ecolabel Statements. Additionally, updated information letters regarding new or future regulatory challenges and their impact on our product portfolio are available on our website. Questions beyond our standard documents can be addressed to our regional Regulatory Guidance teams. In case of complex discussions, our Regulatory Representative is ready to meet up with our customers online or in person.
"Today, digitalization is one of the key drivers to make our regulatory data easily accessible to a broad audience. One example is the regulatory search function in the COATINO® product search, helping to select products based on a specific regulatory profile. More ideas for digital tools and services are currently in the implementation phase. Last but not least, we have developed an interactive E-Learning module, supporting non-regulatory people to gain a basic understanding on the regulations dominating the Coatings and Inks world and provide this on our COATINO® Campus platform."
All services are summarized on the company’s Regulatory Guidance website.
Life Cycle Assessments are utilized by Evonik to improve their sustainability approach.
“From our point of view, Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are an important tool to quantify the footprint of our products as well as quantify potential handprints,” said Sloot. “We use LCAs to identify potentials to reduce our footprint, for external communication with customers as well as the determination of handprints. For the calculation of a LCA, we collect information from our suppliers, from specific databases (if needed), and material and utility flow data from our plants. The calculation itself is done with dedicated software tools, following relevant standards such as ISO 14040 or ISO 14044.”
Evonik’s focus on sustainability is an ongoing effort.
“At Evonik, we will integrate sustainability more and more closely into our strategic management process,” said Sloot. “With our business, as well as innovation activities, we aim to serve the demand for sustainable solutions in all of our markets. Today, around a third of our sales are already generated with products and solutions that are key components for urgently needed technology and have sustainability benefits that are above or well above the market reference level. We call these our Next Generation Solutions. We intend to steadily increase their percentage of total sales in the coming years.”
For more information on Evonik Coating Additives' Sustainability Initiative click here.
“As a specialty chemicals company, we are usually in a rather early stage of various value chains,” said - Tim-Frederic Sloot, Sustainability, Evonik. “We systematically examine the positive and negative effects of our business activities along the value chain and are founder and part of the supply chain initiative Together for Sustainability. Early identification of future opportunities and risks makes our business model more resilient and sharpens understanding of the long-term value that our activities create for society.”
With its “Evonik Impact Valuation 2021” the company discovered that every one-Euro value added by Evonik creates a total of 4,12€ value added for society globally (in Germany, EU, USA, Canada, Central & South America, Asia/Pacific, Middle-East and Africa).
“Besides the holistic view on the value chain, we also cover different dimensions of materials and emissions, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, or occurrence of waste,” said Sloot. “All in all, our approach is to become more sustainable along the total value chain as well as across the most relevant dimensions.”
Footprint vs. Handprint
Evonik’s sustainability approach differentiates the concepts of footprint versus handprint in the manufacture and use of its additives. Its holistic sustainability approach is based on two main pillars: minimize the footprint by using resources more efficiently and minimizing emissions, and develop products and technologies that also reduce the environmental impact of its customers and end users to maximize the handprint.
According to Sloot, the footprint of a product or service covers all negative environmental impacts to manufacture, ship and use the product. An example of a product’s footprint are greenhouse gas emissions, that occur in the production of the product, as well as in its use phase.
“The concept of a handprint is a rather new concept,” noted Sloot. “It expresses positive environmental impacts, achieved by replacing an established solution with a more sustainable solution. For example, when a product from Evonik Coating Additives enables the formulator to significantly reduce the VOC content in a coating – then the difference to the VOC content in the reference coating is the handprint of our additive. Many products from the Coating Additives business line offer significant advantages in downstream steps, such as formulation, application, and end-use. We use the concept of the handprint to show the positive impacts of our products in various steps of the value chain.”
Evonik Coating Additives offers a range of products and technologies that have been developed to meet customers’ goals in reducing their environmental impact.
“We serve a wide variety of customers across all major regions with a broad portfolio of products,” Sloot said. “We observed that our customer base has very different goals concerning their environmental impact. Some focus on product safety, others try to reduce their VOC or greenhouse gas emissions. To foster our sustainability approach, we defined seven handprint effects, that act as “umbrellas” for our activities.”
These seven effects are “Safe Use,” “Labels/Compliance, ”“VOC Reduction,” “Production Efficiency,” “Durability,” “Sustainable Feedstocks” and “Circular Solutions.”
“All new products and technologies pay in to at least one of these effects,” he added. “To give a few examples, we have developed spherical silica particles for increased durability of architectural paints. These products improve the wet scrub and burnish resistance of final paints. Another example is easy-to-disperse fumed silicas for rheology modification. With these new products, the use of an energy-intensive bead mill in the formulation of a coating is no longer necessary.”
COATINO® Campus
COATINO® Campus is Evonik’s digital knowledge platform for coating and ink technologies as well as its products. Customers are invited to use the platform as an interactive source with a wide variety of information. Some examples are training materials of new products but also more general information, such as coating or ink technologies, regulatory, or sustainability topics.
“Content is available in the form of learning journeys, webinars, or live events,” said Sloot. “We see COATINO® Campus as a cutting-edge extension of our face-to-face seminars. Especially in recent times, where face-to-face meetings were made difficult, we do see a high value in COATINO Campus to train and inform our customers.”
Evonik Coatings Additives has a number of biobased products for paint and coatings applications. The most recent launches of products with renewable components are defoamers: TEGO® Foamex 18 for architectural paints as well as TEGO® Foamex 8820 and 8850 for printing ink formulations. All products are based on renewable oil with a high, application-specific performance. They may be used in compliance with many regulations, such as EU ecolabel, Swiss Ordinance (Part A), FDA, and others.
Evonik Coating Additives also offers a number of regulatory services.
“Our regulatory services are designed to address our customers’ needs for information and to make this information readily available online,” said Gritt Bettcher, Regulatory Guidance. “Four different types of standard documents can be downloaded barrier-free: Safety Data Sheets, Regulatory Data Sheets, Food contact and EU Ecolabel Statements. Additionally, updated information letters regarding new or future regulatory challenges and their impact on our product portfolio are available on our website. Questions beyond our standard documents can be addressed to our regional Regulatory Guidance teams. In case of complex discussions, our Regulatory Representative is ready to meet up with our customers online or in person.
"Today, digitalization is one of the key drivers to make our regulatory data easily accessible to a broad audience. One example is the regulatory search function in the COATINO® product search, helping to select products based on a specific regulatory profile. More ideas for digital tools and services are currently in the implementation phase. Last but not least, we have developed an interactive E-Learning module, supporting non-regulatory people to gain a basic understanding on the regulations dominating the Coatings and Inks world and provide this on our COATINO® Campus platform."
All services are summarized on the company’s Regulatory Guidance website.
Life Cycle Assessments are utilized by Evonik to improve their sustainability approach.
“From our point of view, Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are an important tool to quantify the footprint of our products as well as quantify potential handprints,” said Sloot. “We use LCAs to identify potentials to reduce our footprint, for external communication with customers as well as the determination of handprints. For the calculation of a LCA, we collect information from our suppliers, from specific databases (if needed), and material and utility flow data from our plants. The calculation itself is done with dedicated software tools, following relevant standards such as ISO 14040 or ISO 14044.”
Evonik’s focus on sustainability is an ongoing effort.
“At Evonik, we will integrate sustainability more and more closely into our strategic management process,” said Sloot. “With our business, as well as innovation activities, we aim to serve the demand for sustainable solutions in all of our markets. Today, around a third of our sales are already generated with products and solutions that are key components for urgently needed technology and have sustainability benefits that are above or well above the market reference level. We call these our Next Generation Solutions. We intend to steadily increase their percentage of total sales in the coming years.”
For more information on Evonik Coating Additives' Sustainability Initiative click here.
