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

The study, The Greening of the Decorative Paint Sector in Western Europe, found that 26 percent of decorative paint companies have an interest in renewable additives for use in their formulations. Thirty-six percent of decorative paint companies would consider the use of alternative packaging materials for their products, and 56 percent of decorative paint companies are already involved in environmental education or initiatives to help their customers reduce their environmental impact. Fifty-six 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 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.”