“Sustainability in the coatings industry spans many aspects. Improving process efficiency, conserving energy and resources, the use of renewable raw materials, finding alternative ingredients to ultimately create safer products with effective performance but less of an environmental impact,” commented Martin John, Global Vice President Segment Coatings & Adhesives, Clariant.

“We see navigating these challenges as a collaborative journey for the value chain, and we’re working with customers across the segments, from functional coatings for food packaging to printing inks to industrial and architectural coatings, to connect needs to protect durability or advance specific functionality more closely to greater sustainability.”

Clariant supports a shift to using lower-fossil carbon materials and adding green carbon into the carbon footprint of product formulations without compromising processing results or finished product performance. Within its VITA range of fully segregated, carbon emission reducing, 100 per cent bio-based products, Clariant offers a number of Polyglycols (PEGs) and ethylene oxide derivatives relevant for use as surfactants and intermediates in paint and coatings production, which contribute to the removal of fossil carbon from the value chain.

Making their ECS debut at the 2023 in-person event, VITA products are 100 per cent based on plant-based carbon via bioethanol. These new ingredients are chemically equivalent to their fossil-based analogs and therefore offer the same performance and efficiency to formulators and brand owners. As a result, they offer support for raising the renewable content of end products. Plus, because only bio-based feedstocks are used, the ingredients have significantly lower carbon footprints than their fossil-based counterparts, saving up to 85 per cent of CO₂ emissions, and can help brands to lower Scope 3 carbon footprint.

“Following close on the heels of ClariCoat, I’m excited to announce that at ECS 2023 the team will reveal another new web-based package benefitting the coatings, sector,” comments Sebastian Prock, Head of global Marketing Industrial Applications. “It’s another example of our support to ease ingredient selection, this time with a focus on specific regulatory needs.”