With 414 million litres being sold in the UK every year, paint is an extremely visible, high volume product, causing damage to the environment in a complex way.

But up until now the professional decorator and the specifier (the person doing the purchasing) have had very limited sustainable choices in paint. Whilst so called natural solutions from companies like Tierrafino and Earthborn may suit the home DIY enthusiast, issues such as price, coverage, availability and habit have hindered their uptake amongst the pros.

In May 2008, the market leader in the commercial sector Dulux Trade will launch Ecosure. Branded as a step towards greener, this new professional paint range was developed with the Innovations team at Forum for the Future and represents a genuine improvement in environmental performance for a product aimed at the conservative trade market.

There are numerous elements of the paint lifecycle that damage the environment and there is still much work to be done, especially around issues such as end-of-life and packaging. However with Ecosure, Dulux Trade and Forum for the Future have achieved two important goals – namely the reduction of embedded carbon and also VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

To achieve these environmental improvements, Forum for the Future developed a tool called the Impact Analyser. This allowed Dulux Trade to compare the performance of the new products with their top selling Standard Trade formulations from cradle to gate – i.e. from the point of extraction up until when the paint was sitting in cans and ready to be distributed from the factory.

This new thinking is being incorporated into other aspects of the industry and together with their partners Carillion and Dulux, Forum for the Future are looking at other improvements to the paint lifecycle in areas including distribution, brush washing systems and packaging.

Whilst Forum for the Future and Dulux Trade are keen to point out that Ecosure is only a first step, it sets an encouraging precedent.

Let’s hope that the paint has a decent chance to prove itself where it counts - on site.