Beyond Biobased

 
At the moment the whole supply chain for coatings is "doing something" with bio based materials. For the most part it's done as a defensive answer to social-cultural movements and involves matters like marketing and corporate image. Almost everybody is trying to build up a greener image through having some activity around bio based materials or having one or more products in development or available for sales. Some even only tell how green they are based on false assumptions or ignorance (i.e. "green-washing") The market share for these greener products is inevitably very small. The reasons are development costs and most common a higher price for the raw materials. Because of this most companies want extra functionality in the bio based materials from their raw material suppliers, not just a bio based drop-in. In many cases this proved to be a showstopper for the development and use of bio based materials. This way, not much progress will be made. It is our belief that, in order to have a wide deployment of bio based materials, this should authentically be anchored in every companies DNA.For every material used in a coating, one should not only consider performance and price, but also genuinely consider the total effect on the environment. And not only focus on properties like carbon footprint or bio based (i.e. "green-tunneling"), but consider the whole impact of a formulation on our ecosystem.