Toronto, Ontario -- Two European coatings giants are teaming up to cut down their carbon emissions.
On Thursday, AkzoNobel announced it is purchasing raw materials with significantly reduced carbon footprint from BASF for its decorative paints om production in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The agreement involves the company using BASF’s biomass balanced = ingredients which don’t require any new formulations or changes to existing paint manufacturing processes. The end result of this approach is an AkzoNobel paint with exactly the same quality and performance, but with a carbon footprint at least five percent lower.
BASF replaces the fossil-based feedstock in the ingredients it supplies to AkzoNobel with renewable resources such as bionaphtha and biomethane via a mass balance approach.
“Integrating BASF’s BMB ingredients into our higher volume consumer products will help us achieve a significant overall impact in terms of carbon footprint reduction,” says Wijnand Bruinsma, AkzoNobel’s director of sustainability. “Our partnership means the carbon footprint of any paint we produce using the BMB approach will be cut by at least five percent to begin with, compared with the same formula produced using 100 percent fossil-based material.”
In the U.K., AkzoNobel is preparing to launch its upgraded Dulux Easycare range, which uses the reduced CO2 ingredients before the middle of the year. It’s the first time the company has used certified mass balanced products for an acrylic binder.
“We’re proud to support AkzoNobel accelerate its sustainability agenda," said Dr. Jörg Niebergall, senior vice-president of Dispersions Europe at BASF. "Through our broad portfolio of sustainable and low carbon products, we’re enabling the company to offer its customers products with a lower carbon footprint. We also provide data, tools and expertise, empowering AkzoNobel to make informed decisions. The collaboration demonstrates the strong commitment of both companies to a more sustainable future.”
“We can’t drive the reduction of Scope 3 carbon emissions by ourselves, that’s why collaboration is so important,” adds Bruinsma. “Partnerships like this play a key role in making change happen quicker and teaming up with BASF will help us create a scalable approach to more sustainable solutions.”
Scope 3 emissions refer to indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur throughout a company’s value chain but are not produced by the company itself or from the electricity it purchases. For companies like AkzoNobel or BASF, Scope 3 emissions often represent the largest portion of their carbon footprint, making them critical to address in climate action plans.
