Color Wonder

Six years. It’s a blip in the history of a company founded in 1866.

But the time Sherwin-Williams spent developing its water-based oil paint formula marks a big leap in the Cleveland paint-maker’s effort to become more sustainable.

Three of Sherwin-Williams’ lines, ProMar 200, ProClassic and ProIndustrial, use the new technology, which replaces petroleum-based oils and petrochemicals with soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles.

It was no easy task to be sure. Getting the right ratio of resin to water was the most difficult part of the six-year process, admits Duke Rao, director of polymers for

Sherwin-Williams.

“We had to come up with just the right amounts of resin and water for the blending and manufacturing process,” he says.

The result is paints that have no harmful alkyds, fewer volatile organic compounds, and clean up with soap and water. It also earned Sherwin-Williams the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in June.

Here’s a glimpse behind the glossy finish.

Durability. Recycled plastic bottles and soybean oil serve as the raw materials for the resin, the glue that bonds the pigmentation and solvent, in the new formula. It produces a paint with a longer shelf life that wears better on your walls. “The resin is the core technology of the paint formula,” says Steve Revnew, Sherwin-Williams vice president of product development. ”It’s part of the green chemistry.” The plastic material provides a harder paint surface, while soybean oil’s properties include flexibility and gloss. By replacing the petroleum-based oils with soybean oil, the new formula is absent the harmful alkyds usually responsible for adhesion of pigmentation and solvent.

Low VOCs. Water replaces traditional paint solvents. Usually, the role of solvents is to provide a harder finish when paint is applied to a surface and to create flexibility and gloss. Because the new green elements of soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles provide those characteristics, no quality is sacrificed. Taking out typical solvents such as mineral spirits and xylene reduces the VOCs, meaning less odor and reduced health risk for contractors and homeowners exposed to fresh paint. “There is better air quality, indoors and outdoors,” Revnew says.

Cleaner formula. The new backbone of the resin allows for smooth application when blended with water. And because the formula contains water instead of the strong solvents traditionally used in oil-based paints, new coatings can be cleaned up with soap and water. “We’ve reduced exposure to harmful mineral solvents in paint thinner, another benefit that has motivated a lot of customers to switch to the new technology from oil-based paint,” Revnew explains.