Environmentally Friendly Paints and Coatings – Making the World a Greener Place

By Cynthia Challener

Demand for safer, healthier products has been growing in many indus­tries, with the most marked gains observed in the food, dietary supplements, and personal care markets. In recent years the trend has expanded beyond these traditional sectors and has become a noticeable factor in the building construction and maintenance industry as well. The result has been a grow­ing demand for “green” products and materials, including paints and coat­ings.

While regulatory requirements have been a force behind initial research and development efforts targeted at reducing unwanted emissions and elimi­nating hazardous chemicals from paint and coating formulations, this in­creasing demand for more environmentally friendly products has become a significant driver for innovation today.

“The green building movement has moved beyond the fad stage and be­come an established trend,” says Michael D. Brown, vice president of The ChemQuest Group, a management consulting firm located in Cincinnati, OH. Green building encompasses energy efficiency, renewable resources, re­duced emissions, and even considers the manufacturing process for produc­ing building materials.

“Companies are no longer simply responding to up­coming environmental regulation requirements,” he adds. “Both raw material suppliers and final formulators are developing products to meet a growing ‘green’ market need as well as to meet mandated limits.”