It’s not uncommon for coatings manufacturers to tout their low-VOC products. Lessening or eliminating odors and volatile organic compounds was among the first approaches that paint manufacturers took to make their products green. Now, it’s almost standard in the industry, and Steve Revnew, director of marketing for Sherwin-Williams, calls low-VOC designations the “first barrier to entry” in the green coatings market.
In the last few years, some companies have taken steps beyond low-VOC to further green their coatings products. Sherwin-Williams introduced its GreenSure http://www.greensure.com label in 2005 as an internal designation to help consumers identify which of the maker’s brands meet environmental standards. “When we initiated the program, we wanted to look at premium products that were both low-VOC and high-performance,” Revnew explains. “In the last year, we’ve upgraded the standards of what GreenSure means.” Now, brands such as Duration Home, Harmony, ProGreen, and Builder’s Solution, must also meet criteria for hide, washability, and scrubability in order to retain their GreenSure labels.
Getting Wise
Several smaller, regional paint manufacturers, including McCormick Paints and California Paints, have certified their brands through the Coatings Research Group’s (CRGI) GreenWise program. Currently, the program is only open to CRGI members, but brands must go through rigorous testing to earn the GreenWise label.
“What we’ve done is set standards for each type of paint, as it relates to sustainability,” says executive director Jackie Savoca. Manufacturers can submit batch samples for testing in any of five coatings categories: interior topcoat, exterior topcoat, interior and exterior primers, interior ceiling paint, and anti-corrosive coatings. Each category has a specific set of criteria, such as low-VOC, washability, and contrast ratio, that must be met, and manufacturers must submit a batch product at each gloss level in order to have the entire line certified. “Every product must be tested,” Savoca says. “If they change formulation, they must be re-tested, and after two years, they will have to be re-tested as well.”
At first blush, it may seem that manufacturers certifying their own products or associations certifiying their own members might detract from the credibility of respective labels. However, both Sherwin-Williams and CRGI have taken steps to ensure that their testing procedures are accurate and transparent. Testing for the GreenSure label follows ASTM standards, and the company gives full disclosure on the criteria, Revnew says. For GreenWise, Savoca says CRGI’s testing labs practice ISO testing procedures, and are certified by the Laboratory Accreditation Bureau. “The ISO standards show that we follow specific testing methods, accurately and precisely report data, and conduct proper record-keeping and annual inspections,” Savoca says. “There’s also a clause in the standards about ethics and conflict of interest, so we’re always certain that we’re doing things by the book.”