Paint the town green? Resene’s got it covered
Home » Good Guide » Renovation » Renovation » Resene’s got it coveredInsulating your home has never been easier
Resene’s paints helped put the finishing touch to Peregian Beach home in Queensland (top), Wharf (below) and Yealand’s Estate (bottom)
Resene introduced waterborne paint to New Zealand in the 1950s and removed the lead from its decorative paints in the late 1960s. It joined the Environmental Choice programme in 1996 and in 2004 set up Resene PaintWise, collecting unwanted paint and paint packaging from consumers for reuse, recycling and safe disposal. Resene gives free paint to Keep New Zealand Beautiful and other community groups to cover graffiti, and its latest Resene Zylone Sheen paint variant is VOC free.
For Resene, all this is just an extension of what the company has been up to since 1946. The company exists to make paints that meet and exceed the exacting standards of professionals, and sensible professionals are the first to appreciate the benefits of reducing the health risks involved in their work.
As paint ingredients have become identified as causing concerns for health, Resene has immediately put into place research to identify safer paint ingredients.
The history of paint is as fascinating as it was dangerous. Less than a century ago, going for a vibrant vermilion paint, (orangey red to most of us) in your bedroom, would mean slapping pigments made from a mercury compound all over your walls. This kind of long-term, low-level exposure has been associated with fatigue, irritability, loss of memory, vivid dreams, and depression—not really what you want in a night’s sleep!
Paint manufacturing has certainly come a long way since then, with toxic substances such as mercury, arsenic and more recently, lead, no longer acceptable as ingredients in paint. Recently attention has focused on the effect of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions on our environment. It is estimated by the Paint Quality Institute that ten percent of the ozone depleting substances in the urban United States are a direct result of VOC emissions from surface coatings, including many standard household paints.
Solventborne paints release significantly more VOCs per litre than waterborne paints. But trim, joinery and wet areas were traditionally no-go zones for waterborne paints. They had a tendency to soften under prolonged exposure to moisture and for the paint to stick to itself when two painted surfaces came into contact. Resene’s introduction of waterborne enamels in 1996 changed all that. Within five years they were outselling their solventborne equivalents, and new paints are still being added to this range.
Now Resene has gone one better, with low odour Resene Zylone Sheen VOC Free paint, as well as pioneering non-VOC tinters enabling a full spectrum of colours without these emissions. Today, less than eight perecnt of the decorative paint sold by Resene is solventborne. Meanwhile the average per litre VOC levels of decorative paint sales sold by Resene, have dropped by over 90 percent in the last two decades.
The PaintWise scheme is backed by Resene’s managing director Nick Nightingale
“Just as our customers call New Zealand home, so do we,” says Nick Nightingale, Resene managing director. “It’s central to our way of operating that we continuously strive to reduce the adverse effects of paint on the environment. Choose to specify and use Environmental Choice NZ products wherever you can and help us keep the environment green. Look for the EC logo on our product data sheets and paint containers—it is confirmation that the product meets the requirements of the Environmental Choice NZ programme.”
These days Resene can offer an environmental choice for almost every painting situation, without the need to sacrifice quality and product performance. The quality of the tinters and tones allows the same spectrum of colours to be supplied for both interior and exterior use, with most colours requiring only two topcoats to cover. The quality of the paint is also an environmental credential, since there’s no point applying an inferior product, even if it is environmentally friendly, if it doesn’t last.
“Just as our customers call New Zealand home, so do we. It’s central to our way of operating that we continuously strive to reduce the adverse effects of paint on the environment”
– Resene managing director, Nick Nightingale
Resene’s Cool Colour technology, for example, improves the durability and performance of the paint by enabling it to reflect heat that would normally be absorbed. This increases the paint’s life span, and reduces the need for air cooling in the building in the summer months.
All Resene products are manufactured under a quality system certified as complying with ISO 9001. Most Resene Environmental Choice NZ products are approved by the Australian Paint Approvals Scheme (APAS) and a selection of Resene products also have Good Environmental Choice Australia approval.
Resene has been awarded a Trailblazer—Large & Corporate Business Award at the Sustainable Business Network—National Awards, a Green Gold Award and the Resene PaintWise service has won a Business Environmental Leadership Award in the ARC Environmental Awards, an Award for Excellence in the Environmental Packaging Awards and a Green Ribbon award.
Like I said, they have the credentials.
Oh, and remember, when you are done with paint, don’t leave it out where it could get spilled. Resene’s PaintWise programme collects unwanted paint and packaging. The waterborne paints are given to community groups to repaint their premises, while the metal cans and solvents are recycled.
