Tag Archives: green

What Is Sustainability?

By John Anspach, Induron VP of Operations

I recently read an article in a coatings publication and came across the term “sustainability.”  It’s quickly become a buzzword in industry – and even in personal – life.  But just what does it mean?

One definition of sustainability, written about 25 years ago, is, “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”  Today, it has been defined as, “providing the best for people and the environment, both now and in the indefinite future.

So how can a small business contribute to sustainability without drastically affecting how it does business?  One way is to look closely at how you package your products.

For example, many of our products are packaged in metal drums.  Years ago, Induron chose to utilize reconditioned drums instead of new ones for our packaging. The number of reconditioned, rather than new, drums we purchased last year resulted in 115 tons of greenhouse gas (CHG) emissions NOT being released to the atmosphere.  That’s more significant than most might imagine – energy “avoidance” through re-use!

This simple example demonstrates that it may not require large sacrifices to your particular process or program to contribute to “sustainability.”  Just think about your current process, recognizing opportunities that could incorporate the re-use of a raw material or package in that process.  Go Green!

The Green Initiative: Coming to Industrial Coatings

By Davies Hood, Induron Executive Vice President

Induron Coatings is happy to see the GREEN Initiative making its way from architectural paint into the industrial coatings realm. As this article from Paint Square describes, infrastructure projects from water lines to bridges to wastewater treatment plants are going to have a new green measuring stick, thanks to Paul Zofnass, a Harvard alumnus and longtime strategic and financial advisor to CEOs in the engineering/consulting industry.

Induron’s line of 100% solids (VOC & HAP free), ceramic epoxies are some of the greenest products on the market. It also helps that they are among the most user-friendly plural component products available today.

This green movement will be good for our nation and the coatings market too, if lifetime costs analysis are part of the equation. A product might be “green,” but if it’s no good and you end up having to paint a structure more often, where is the value, much less the green advantage? For the green Initiative to be considered a success in infrastructure projects, the products used have to be not only green (low VOC, HAP free, sustainable materials, etc.), but they have to be high quality as well.

At Induron, we welcome the green Initiative to the Industrial Coatings market, because we have user-friendly, ceramic epoxies that have stood the test of time and add value to infrastructure projects.