ICI Paints AkzoNobel throws down sustainability gauntlet to industry

ICI Paints AkzoNobel is urging the construction and manufacturing industry to keep sustainability as their number one priority, even as the recession continues to tighten its grip on the globe, as part of its Step Towards Greener environmental campaign.

Every single company in the UK, particularly those involved in construction and industry, is feeling the adverse effects of the global credit crisis, but it is imperative that this is not used as a reason for letting the continued development and implementation of sustainable products and practices fall by the way side. As well as investing huge sums of public funding in Building Schools for the Future, the Government has, quite rightly, set ambitious carbon reduction and energy efficiency targets, as sustainability has never been more important.

We will eventually work ourselves out of the recession, but environmental issues such as alarmingly detrimental carbon emissions and the rapidity with which we are running out of landfill - will remain long after the recession becomes a mere memory.

The worlds leading decorative coatings company, ICI Paints AkzoNobel has invested in developing its robust 360/company-wide sustainability programme, which encompasses everything from its business and manufacturing operations, revolutionary product development and waste management and recycling systems, to its green fleet plan with the Energy Savings Trust, social impact policy and community initiatives.

Furthermore, to counter the lack of genuine knowledge about what constitutes a legitimately sustainable product, and the subsequent proliferation of unsupported claims about sustainability credentials, ICI Paints AkzoNobel is working with a leading independent sustainability organisation to ensure its practices under the Step Towards Greener programme have a real, tangible and positive impact on the environment.

Whats needed is an education exercise for businesses and consumers alike, increasing knowledge about, and the demand for truly and credibly sustainable products and business practices. As we set out on this journey, we are hoping to lead by example, catalysing businesses in industry into action.

ICI Paints AkzoNobel now has a triple bottom line environmental, social and economic which we believe is crucial to the successful operation in todays climate. Our vision for us as a paint manufacturer is to reduce the ecological footprint of the whole-life decorating process, and to contribute to more sustainable home, work and leisure environments without compromising on performance.

ICI Paints AkzoNobel is:

• - Reducing the ecological footprint of its products while maintaining performance levels - evident in the Dulux Trade Ecosure and the active Dulux Trade Diamond and Light & Space ranges. ICI Paints AkzoNobel has also been instrumental in setting the VOC2010 legislation, and is reformulating all its solvent based products to dramatically reduce their VOC content, well ahead of the 2010 deadline
• - Designing products, packaging and service solutions to reduce waste evident in the Environmental Wash System, the groundbreaking Paint Solidifier (launching March 09) and Community Re>Paint
• - Creating sustainability partnerships evident in its relationship with Forum for the Future, and in the work undertaken for Westfield Shopping Centre, Marks and Spencer, and Sainsburys
• - Ensuring a sustainable supply of raw materials
• - Embedding sustainability fully across all commercial functions and processes evident in the development of the Environmental Impact Analyser with Forum for the Future to quantify the reduction in carbon achieved in its paint ranges from cradle to factory gate. All while remaining a competitive, profitable organisation.

The organisation acknowledges that it is at the beginning of a journey, but a journey that will have no end. ICI Paints AkzoNobel is number two in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Chemical Sector.

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  For further information download "Sustainability in Action - Sustainability Policy & Report, May 2007" (PDF, 1.33MB)