LONDON - IRL has announced the availability of a short study that analyzes the attitudes and approaches of the Western European decorative coatings sector to the continued greening of its products.

 

A few selected findings from The Greening of the Decorative Paint Sector in Western Europe include: 26 percent of decorative paint companies have an interest in renewable additives for use in their formulations; 36 percent of decorative paint companies would consider the use of alternative packaging materials for their products; 56 percent of decorative paint companies are already involved in environmental education or initiatives to help their customers reduce their environmental impact; a further 56 percent of those not engaged in such initiatives plan to embark upon them in the future; and efficiency of formulation – producing better coatings with fewer raw materials – remains the preferred approach by the industry, with efficacy (that is, longer coating lifetimes) being of least priority.

 

Terry Knowles, Business Manager at IRL and architect of the whole study said, “In the last 18 months, we have witnessed ever-greater moves within the decorative paint market towards new levels of ‘greenness’. Over the last few years, there have been many environmental concepts come to the fore, such as carbon footprint reduction, energy reduction and sustainability. We wanted to explore the relative significance of these approaches to the sector and also to find out how decorative paint makers see the changing significance of the environment over the next five years, not only in terms of VOC reduction, but also in terms of recycling and consumer education. During the course of the research, we also touched upon consumer attitudes to greenness, and it is still the DIY consumers who are the most progressive in their concern for the environment. It is quite clear that professional users in most economies continue to see the environment as something near the very bottom of the agenda.”

 

The study is now available from IRL. Visit www.informationresearch.co.uk for more information.