Ecology and the environment are the buzz-words

Of course our society is a society of waste, trash (500 kgper year and per person) and pollution. However, effective initiatives are taken by everyone with the sorting of household waste, recycling, efforts to limit pollution, use of renewable energies…

 For many years, the field of paint has also undergone considerable transformations, mainly impelled by various legislations: suppression of lead-based driers, suppression of the use of formaldehyde as a conservative in cans, suppression of solvent-based paints for interior use (directive aiming at reducing emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds), generalization of the Ecolabel certification (reduction of the impact on the environment and of the dangerousness of the product). And that is not all! In the future, all chemical substances will be evaluated and the most dangerous ones will be forbidden. In the future, we will measure the impact of paint on the quality of the interior air that we breathe. In the future, we will display the impact of paint production on the environment: its « carbon print ».

 However, the main environmental concern is all about the long-term availability of resources. Considering the more or less distant risk of petroleum shortage, the chemical industry as a whole must reassess itself.

 Moreover, there is still no real legislation regarding this issue. What may become a serious matter is today too far a concern to be dealt with properly. The emergence and appearance on the market of natural paints is one of the concrete and volunteer initiatives that aim at using fewer fossil resources (petroleum) and more renewable resources (plants).

Our group is on the run !

We work in partnership with a resin manufacturer and other actors of the natural field, to develop paints, mainly made of components that come from “renewable origin raw materials”. For instance, the basic component of resin is sunflower oil. A full range of natural paints has been developed and marketed: basecoat, paints and associated tints. These products are of course certified Ecolabel and/or NF Environment, and the global performance of each product has been tried and tested.