Sustainability in the Paints and Coatings Industry – Far More than just a ‘Good Idea’

By George R. Pilcher

I would like to begin this article with a study in “perspective,” an exercise that man alone, is capable of undertaking. Working forward from the distant past:

• 240 years ago-The beginning of the Fossil Fuel Age; natural gas first used to light houses and streets
• 130-140 years ago-Coal burned to produce heat for homes; oil followed almost immediately
• 100 years from now-The currently anticipated depletion of proven oil and natural gas reserves
• 150 years from now-The currently anticipated depletion of proven coal reserves
• 180 years from now-End of the “Fossil Fuel Age” (Lasted -420 years)

Human civilizations have actively occupied the planet Earth for the past 6,000 years, and for 5,760 of those years, man depended upon wood and peat as sources of material to be burned for both heat and light. Only for the past 240 years have fossil fuels (e.g., coal; crude oil and its various derivatives; natural gas; and bitumen) played a significant role in civilized societies, and-in this short timespan-they have only played major, “front and center” roles in the genera­tion of power for less than a century-and-a-half. Based upon the best currently available estimates, fossil fuels will be depleted within this same timeframe: the coming century-and-a-half. Roughly 400 years out of a total of 6,000 years of civilization.