The coatings industry worldwide has been addressing the three pillars of sustainability for some years, and considerable progress has been made. Some of this improvement has been driven by legislation and some designed to address specific customer needs. There have also been examples of voluntary initiatives by companies with a strong environmental ethos.
Over the last two years, companies supplying the industry and coatings companies themselves have been recognized by independent third parties. AkzoNobel has been ranked as the leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the Superchemical sector in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Dow Chemical has received the U.S. Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award for the development of precomposition polymer technologies that can partially replace TiO?, and Becker Industries1 received the Sustainable Innovation Award from the British Coatings Federation for its work on high solar reflectivity and emissivity coatings for use in the construction industry.