Creating Value from Eco-premium solutions
The AkzoNobel Eco-premium solutions concept was born in 2007 when we were looking for ways of translating the eco-innovation challenge into an operational target for our company.
Conceptually, the eco-innovation challenge is well described by the well known and widely accepted definition of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development: “The delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity to a level at least in line with the Earth’s estimated carrying capacity”.
This single phrase represents an enormous challenge for AkzoNobel and the international Business Community at large. To help tackling this challenge the Eco-premium solutions concept has been created. Eco-premium solutions help to create value for our business and for our customers: they provide top line growth opportunities because of their improved performance in areas such as raw material use, manufacturing processes and product innovation. The first-ever inventory of our Eco-premium portfolio made in 2007 revealed that we had a turn-over from Eco-premium solutions of 18 %. We have a target to increase the share of turnover from eco-premium solutions to at least 30 percent by 2015. Our 2008 performance regarding Eco-premium solutions can be found here .
Examples of Eco-premium solutions can be found in the AkzoNobel 2008 Report:
Decorative Paints:
- No compromise : creating an environmentally sustainable paint product for the professional market.
- Pure and simple : launching VOC-free and odorless indoor paints in the US and Canada
- Clearing the air : huge success for a formaldehyde absorbing indoor paint in the Chinese market
Performance Coatings
- Fertile ground : developing a wood adhesive from non-toxic, renewable resources
- Let us spray : energy efficient two-in-one baking of powder coatings for automotive OEM
- Prevention and cure : increasing productivity and lowering VOC emissions with a new high-performance anti-corrosion coating
- Trigger Happy : an innovative and energy-saving combination of a UV LED spraygun and a UV clearcoat for car repair shops.
- A thirst for innovation : launching an ultra-flexible lacquer for lightweight and fully recyclable steel cans
Specialty Chemicals
- Clean and green : a readily biodegradable and renewable-raw-material-based chelating agent for the detergent industry
- A need for speed : increasing productivity and reducing raw material and energy costs in the paper industry by innovative retention technology
- Easy rider : saving fuel and improving working conditions in the paving business by a new asphalt additive
- Going solar : providing ultra-pure key chemicals for a new breed for solar cell