The Sherwin-Williams Company (Cleveland, OH) has won a 2011 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for its development of water-based acrylic alkyd technology.
The award recognizes Sherwin-Williams innovative new paint formulation, utilizing soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles (PET) in the substantial reduction of volatile organic compounds. In 2010, Sherwin-Williams manufactured enough of these new paints to eliminate over 800,000 pounds of VOCs.
Chris Connor, Chairman and CEO of The Sherwin-Williams Company said, "We are pleased that the White House and EPA have recognized our very talented R&D team that's committed to innovation and sustainability. Incorporating simple ingredients like soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles into a first of its kind powerful paint formula, provides a winning transformational combination for our customers and the environment."
But ironically, the $7 billion company is not a member of the United Nations “Global Compact on Sustainability,” and is a part of the “Global Reporting Initiative,” the largest sustainability reporting system.
But the company has stated that it’s environmental goal is “zero waste” and a large reduction in energy use.
To listen to the EPA podcast of the award, hosted by Dr. Richard Engler of EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, please click below.
For the 16th year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized pioneering chemical technologies developed by leading researchers and industrial innovators who are making significant contributions to pollution prevention in the United States. These prestigious awards recognize the design of safer and more sustainable chemicals, processes, and products that will protect Americans, particularly children, from exposure to harmful chemicals.
The awards will be made this evening, June 20, at the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. This year’s awards are significant because 2011 has been named the International Year of Chemistry and marks the 20th anniversary of EPA’s efforts in what would become the creation of green chemistry.
“EPA congratulates this year’s winners for designing and developing innovative green chemistry technologies that will result in safer chemicals for use in products, homes, schools, and workplaces that also have significant environmental and economic benefits,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are bestowed in five categories. The 2011 award winners are:
Academic: Bruce H. Lipshutz, PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
Small business: BioAmber, Inc., Plymouth, Minn.
Greener synthetic pathways: Genomatica, San Diego, Calif.
Designing greener chemicals: The Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, Ohio
By recognizing groundbreaking scientific solutions to real-world environmental problems, EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Program has significantly reduced the hazards associated with designing, manufacturing and using chemicals. The program promotes research and development of less-hazardous alternatives to existing technologies that reduce or eliminate waste, particularly hazardous waste, in industrial production.
An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute selected the 2011 winners from among scores of nominated technologies. During the program’s life, EPA has received more than 1,400 nominations and presented awards to 82 winners. Winning technologies alone are responsible for reducing the use or generation of more than 199 million pounds of hazardous chemicals, saving 21 billion gallons of water, and eliminating 57 million pounds of carbon dioxide releases to the air. These benefits are in addition to significant energy and cost savings by the winners and their customers.
The 2024 Parts Cleaning Conference, co-located with the International Manufacturing Technology Show, includes presentations by several speakers who are new to the conference and topics that have not been covered in past editions of this event.
According to Custom Fabricating and Supplies, a cleanroom is ideal for converting, die cutting, laminating, slitting, packaging and assembly of medical-grade products.
Starting on Thursday August 8, 2024, PF will begin “gating” its premium content, asking all new website users to provide some information about themselves — name, title, employer, email address — before they are provided free access to the content.
We are doing this because the ways PF’s audience finds and accesses our content is changing. Google’s search algorithms, increasingly, make it difficult to connect PF’s content with the people who might make use of it. On top of that, generative AI like ChatGPT is serving up PF content to internet users without attributing that content to PF.
As a result, it has become increasingly important for PF evolve its audience development strategy and learn as much as possible about who is accessing our content, what content they are accessing and how they are accessing it.
With this audience development strategy, we hope to do two things:
First, we will be better able to deliver directly to our audience the editorial content that aligns with the surface finishing materials, processes and technologies that interest them.
Second, we will be better able to connect the materials, equipment and services our advertisers supply with the audience that is most interested in them.
PF plays a distinctive role and has earned a place of esteem within the focused and specialized industry it serves. Large developments in the media landscape are forcing us to change the way we communicate with our audience. We are confident that our audience values the role PF plays in their professional lives and will join us in this effort to stay connected to them.
We thank you for your continued interest in and support of PF and welcome any questions you might have about the brand’s new content gating strategy.