In 2023, Lindéngruppen company Beckers had its sustainability index third-party validated and used it to assess its entire coil coatings portfolio. They also succeeded in creating the world’s first resins from plastic waste and the first ever UV/EB coil coating commercial paint for the construction industry.
The Beckers Sustainability Index (BSI) is the company’s classification tool that transparently maps and measures the sustainability impact of coating systems. Beckers have used the BSI to drive the development and commercialisation of more sustainable products since 2016. The BSI was relaunched and third-party verified in 2023 to further improve transparency and sustainability in the coating industry.
During the year, Ernst and Young completed a validation of both the BSI framework and BSI product performance results.1 Following Ernst and Young’s recommendations from the validation, Beckers further refined their BSI methodology.
With the assessment of the product portfolio completed in Q2 2023, Beckers now has transparency not just for each product category, but every single colour in each category. Customers can therefore map the entire portfolio of the products they buy from Beckers.
“Completing our BSI assessment for our entire coil coatings portfolio and having the methodology validated by Ernst & Young gives our customers greater product transparency,” says Nicklas Augustsson, Global Sustainability Director at Beckers. “They now have access to broad sustainability information, including carbon footprint data, which is extremely important for our customers. The BSI will help us to drive the development of even more products with positive impact going forward.”
During the year, Beckers also created the first resins in the world made from waste feedstocks through a pilot project with suppliers. Beckers is working with innovative suppliers and partners further upstream in the value chain to develop a supply chain for sustainable aromatic monomers made from waste feedstocks.
“Nobody has ever created a coil coating resin containing phthalic anhydride made from plastic waste and non-food biomass,” says Julien Marquiant, Resin Lab Manager at Beckers. “It really is a game-changer as the resins made from waste feedstocks will directly replace standard products based on petrochemicals without altering the end-product performance characteristics.”
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Beckers commercialised its UV/EB coil coating commercial paint in 2023 and customers began using the products during the year. A long-term partnership between a customer and Beckers has been crucial to overcoming challenges with scaling up the technology from laboratory to industrial production in a very short timeframe.
The first coils produced were processed to make sandwich panels that have already been installed on a pilot building. The new paint technology is expected to be used together with a high-speed galvanising process in the future.
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1 The validation was performed according to ISAE 3000 (International Standard on Assurance Engagements) and ISO 14021 (Type II Environmental Declaration).
