In July 2024, new framework legislation in the form of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) strengthened the mission of the EU to make the chemical sector greener and cleaner in the long term. The framework will seek to do the following:

• Make products more energy and resource-efficient
• Address the presence of substances that inhibit circularity
• Increase recycled content
• Set rules on carbon and environmental footprints
• Make products easier to re-manufacture and recycle
• Improve product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability
• Improve the availability of information on product sustainability

The paint and coatings industry and other raw material-intensive industries have already been prioritized as focus areas and this will add further pressure to – or incentivize – companies in the pursuit of greenness, because green and circular credentials should ideally be rewarded with major contracts in the long run.

However, the objectives and targets that paint companies are setting themselves are not always so easily met in terms of year-on-year consistent reductions. They’re also finding different ways to achieve them, even though the same topics prevail between the competitors: solar power, greener fuels (own installations and/or buying in clean energy), VOC emissions and re-examining waste streams and how they can be re-used.

Space precludes me from examining too many companies and offering too much detail, so I have chosen to highlight the best of three different companies from across Scandinavia, namely Hempel, Jotun and Teknos, and included a special but different mention of AkzoNobel at the end.

Hempel

Among Hempel’s objectives is the sourcing of 100% renewable electricity across all its operations and in 2023 it accelerated its installation of solar panels, while further eliminating the use of fossil fuels.

Last year Hempel placed special focus on solar energy for its decorative paint-making and EMEA production sites (with two solar installations implemented at its Wattyl operations in Australia). This year, it is applying the same treatment to all its non-production sites (warehouses, offices and retail operations), and for next year it has outlined plans that will target the greening of its company cars to replace them with EVs.

Collectively these steps will bring Hempel closer to achieving its ambitions of 90% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions in 2026 (relative to its figures for 2019).

Packaging is an especially important area for high-volume decorative paintmakers to focus on. In 2020 Hempel had laid down the target of achieving 50% recycled plastic use for its primary packaging by 2025, and by 2023 it had achieved 49% recycled content. As a result of this early achievement, the company soon extended its targets in this area to include primary and secondary packaging in its industrial coatings operations.

Finally, for Hempel, the company has delivered huge progress in the areas of waste management and circularity. Last year it reduced its production site waste-to-landfill figure by 69% relative to 2022 alone and its facilities in Sharjah, UAE, and at Farrow & Ball in the UK both reached 100% recycling of their waste; Hempel has now already accomplished a 95% reduction in its total waste to landfill tonnages. Complete eradication of this concept at Hempel is now due to proceed at the companies that it has recently acquired, and the objective is to achieve it by 2025.

Jotun

Scope 3 emissions for all companies are based around those in the entire value chain which inevitably thrusts the energetic treatment and processing of raw materials into the spotlight. For Jotun, across its different sectors of activity, this means a special focus on how titanium dioxide and epoxy resins are produced, since these are two of its largest inputs.

Considerable time is given by the company to evaluating the origins, processing and energy requirements that contribute to the upstream part of the Scope 3 emissions equation, a balancing act that many other companies must surely follow too.

Part of that equation at Jotun rests on raw material packaging and the company has implemented many different initiatives to reduce waste there. It has sought to optimize raw material packaging sizes and reuse packaging wherever possible, such as big bags and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs).

In Norway, Jotun’s factory has saved more than 280 tons of steel and 107 tons of plastic by recycling IBC containers. Similar initiatives have also been implemented at other Jotun factories.

Jotun’s latest annual report summarizes some of its best achievements over the last six years (2017-2023) as follows:
• 61% recycling or re-use of its waste
• 21% use of renewable electricity (drawn directly from solar or other generated power, or bought)
• 21% reduction of carbon footprint in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions
• 16% improvement in electricity efficiency

Many of Jotun’s current targets are set for 2030 and renewable energy is among those. The company is aiming to achieve 70% renewable energy across all its sites and in Europe, Jotun has made a major investment in this sphere in the UK and a smaller investment in Italy. Reflecting its broad geographical spread – especially in hot countries – Jotun has affected other major renewable energy investments in the Middle East (Dubai, Oman) and Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Vietnam).

Teknos

Teknos has pushed ambitiously in recent years to reinforce its environmental credentials and started it off with a screening exercise that examined the suitability of 20 new possible raw materials for its coatings, from which it has taken five forward for product development in accordance with bio-carbon content and the concept of circularity.

In its latest non-financial report for 2023, Teknos summarizes and highlights some of its achievements and progress to date. Last year, it started producing new 100% UV products, which incorporated 12-18% bio-based raw materials. Various other products were launched that contained bio-based and other recycled raw materials and many of these are being piloted by industry partners this year.

Recycled binders are now being used in interior ceiling paints and some Teknos powder coatings now feature increased bio-carbon content. They’re also being supplied in bags that have recycled fiber content.

The focus on packaging at Teknos is just as important as it is elsewhere and a large portion of the company’s packaging is based on tinplate and steel, which are more easily recycled. The company cooperates with local recycling and collection companies to ensure recycling, reuse and recovery is consistently upheld. Teknos has also introduced 60% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic for mono-material packaging use.

Throughout 2023/4, Teknos is collaborating in two consortium projects. One is aimed at the development of coating materials with more than 80% renewable polymer content, while the other targets bio-based and biodegradable materials, possibly with the prospect of there being bio-degradable antimicrobial coatings in the long run.

Finally, Teknos has already surpassed its 2025 target for eliminating substances of very high concern (SVHC) and the collective reduction of VOCs in its coatings is also impressive, this resulting from its persuading customers to try out its more compliant alternatives.

AkzoNobel Participating in Sustainability Consortium

Regarding various parts of the early bullet-point summary in this article, some of these second-tier challenges are already being advanced by industry cooperation and these were mentioned in my column in Ink World (April 2024).  Dutch and European #1AkzoNobel has joined the Netherlands-based SusInkCoat project, which aims to make inks and coatings more sustainable. This consortium-based collaboration is with Canon, Evonik, GFB, PTG and RUG Ventures, which between them have extensive knowledge of market demands, supply chains and production processes.

The SusInkCoat partners will cooperate with academic researchers at several Dutch universities in a bid to identify promising developments that can be commercialized, used for education purposes or for outreach to the public. The collaboration will target the development of new materials, processes and applications that will lead to a green revolution in the durability, functionality and recyclability of coatings, thin films and inks.