According to a pre-conference survey among attendees of the American Coatings Conference, waterborne technology is seen as the most important future technology in the coatings industry. 44% of respondents voted for this technology, while approximately 30% considered functional/smart coatings as the most important.

Other questions centered around sustainability. 63% of those surveyed think that sustainability is important, and nearly 15% think it is indispensible. And when asked if they are in favor of the development of an industry-agreed-upon methodology for measuring sustainability, 70% answered “yes”.

When asked what technology would see the most innovation in the next three years, roughly 60% feel that binders/resins will, and 25% expect additives to experience the most innovation.

And when asked what drives R&D activities, almost 83% of those surveyed answered “market demand” and 9% said “care and responsibility for society”.