Rohm and Haas Company (NYSE: ROH) announced it would allocating $150 million – roughly half of its 2007 R&D budget – for sustainability efforts, including new product development, energy efficiency and process improvements. Many of the new products are intended to help transform traditional industrial applications to more sustainable, water-based acrylic technology, including home building insulation, road/highway marking paints, and industrial paints and coatings.
Rohm and Haas introduced acrylic emulsion technology – which emit low amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for interior house paints over 50 years ago. About 85% of the paints sold in the US are based on acrylic technology today.
“We see great potential to use our deep understanding of coatings technology to convert industrial applications to safer, water-based products,” says Luis Fernandez, Vice President and Group Director responsible for Rohm and Haas’s $2 billion Paint and Coatings Materials business. “We estimate that, today, only about 20 percent of the industrial market has shifted to the more environmentally advanced acrylic technology. We have the products, and the technical knowledge, to be the catalyst that will accelerate the shift.”