GFX: Valspar if it matters, we're on it.
GFX: Innovation with a green focus
As one of the leading manufacturers of coating products in the world, Valspar is setting an example for the entire industry. Valspar is not new to green innovation. Research and development of non-depleteable, naturally replenishable and recycled materials is ongoing. And as such, will continue to yield extraordinary results.
GFX: Channing Beaudry Technical Manager Coil Coatings
Channing:
Sustainability and green is a way of life, and it's something that has to be incorporated into development. We do a much more holistically where we step back and say look this is part of our design. Green is built in, it's in the culture and so we're looking at what raw material sources are sustainable, what do we have available that's environmentally friendly and that's really what we use in our development projects from the very beginning.
GFX: Greg Hayes Director Industrial Applied Science
Greg:
And we are doing that with the development of the WeatherXL product line, the development of high solids materials to give a better total applied cost. Solar reflective coatings, high performance weatherable materials, chrome-free materials and alternatives to traditional chromate based primers.
Channing:
It really highlights what Valspar is trying to do with coatings. Metal is a great surface to coat, to build with.
GFX: Benefits of using metal
GFX: Cool Roofs
GFX: Soffits and fascias
GFX: Curtain walls
GFX: Storefronts
GFX: Wall panels
It has been for many, many years. What we're trying to do at Valspar is enhance that. To take some of the natural properties and performance of metal and really expand it. If a company comes up with the greatest environmentally friendly product available but nobody buys it it's really not helping the environment. So to truly be sustainable it's very critical that we develop products that end users will want to buy.
Greg:
There's no doubt that its share of the market has been growing over time because of improved durability, because of design flexibility, because of the advantage of solar reflectance, because of it's recyclability.
GFX: How we implement green innovation
Channing:
The nature of the coil coating process and one of the big advantages is the fact that it captures the VOCs coming off, unlike most painted materials that oftentimes go into the environment, they try to capture some percentage of them. In coil coating they're actually recaptured and used to fuel the ovens. So as a result it's inherently environmentally friendly from a VOC standpoint. So really it's a unique benefit of coil coating and using coil coating materials.
The recovery of VOCs also occurs during the extrusion coating process. Abatement systems capture up to 98 percent of VOC emissions from the liquid paint line.
GFX: Biorenewable and recycled resources
Sustainability is important. The only way for companies to stay ahead is to find different raw material sources. We're constantly looking at raw materials that can be reused, recycled, different sources, bio renewable raw materials. And the reason we're doing that is because we want a more stable supply.
Greg:
We've developed some materials using waste as building blocks. We were awarded a patent for the use of this material and that patent was granted on a global basis.
Channing:
You can get much more pure raw materials and you could in the past. And as a result, they're now reaction grade for us to use in our polymers, to use our paint coating systems.
GFX: Solar reflective roofing
Valspar is taking a role in understanding how our products can impact energy consumption.
Metal inherently is very good at releasing heat. It's very conductive. So when the noon sun comes up and the building starts to get hot. If you have a solar reflective roof, it will not get nearly as hot. And then as soon as the sun starts to go down it cools very quickly. Our job as a coatings company is to make sure that you have the unlimited options of color and still get as much of the effect as possible. And when you look at the total cost of ownership of a building, a big component of that is the energy cost.
GFX: When asphalt roofs are converted to prepainted metal roofs, energy costs drop 10-30%
And if you take and put a solar reflective coating on that will not allow the building to get as hot, clearly it takes much less energy to keep it to cool it down. It's a lot more energy efficient. It's better for the environment.
Greg:
Valspar has an employee that sits on the technical advisory council for the Cool Roof Rating Council. We're interacting on a regular basis with some of the thought leaders around the world in solar reflective science. The science that underpins the solar reflective performance of our products.
GFX: Testing green innovation
Channing:
One of the things that we can do is with our testing fence that Valspar owns in South Florida, we have over 100,000 panels on that test fence and that's critical to helping us develop real world products that will perform year in and year out and that will meet that high SR value that customers are demanding.
GFX: How will this industry evolve?
Greg:
And we're establishing ourselves even more strongly in the field of materials characterization, corrosion science, electrochemistry, surface science, so the myriad of industries that all impact the performance of our coatings. We don't want to just invent for the sake of inventing, we want to understand our customers in a very deep and abiding way and bring solutions to them to provide value.
GFX: Valspar eco-friendly solutions
- Universal high-solid backer
- Acropon
- Valgreen
- Fluropon SR
- Flurothane SR
- Flurospar SR
- Weather XL SR
- Chrome-free primer
Channing:
As the society has moved more towards a sustainable and green environment, it's allowed a lot of opportunities and as Valspar if we're not at the leading edge of that we're going to fall behind and we recognize that all the way to the top levels of the organization. So it's really a huge focus from R&D to be the leaders in this space.
V/O:
Metal roofing, siding, and moldings deliver strength, beauty and unlimited design for you. Metal will continue to grow in popularity and we will continue our efforts to create cost effective products that are better for the environment and your bottom line. Valspar. If it matters, we're on it.
