Commenting on the highly successful event, AkzoNobel’s Commercial Director for Vehicle Refinishes EMEA, Ignacio Román Navarro, says: “We all have ambitious targets when it comes to addressing climate change, but it’s impossible for any of us to achieve them in isolation – collaboration is essential. So it’s been fantastic to see everyone come together, exchange ideas and make a real commitment to jointly explore what’s possible. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can take forward the challenges that came out of this program as we strive to collectively accelerate our sustainability journey.

“This event was a great starting point for us to work together and make a tangible impact on our goals. It’s something we simply have to do and, ideally, further along the road we’ll be able to transfer what we’re doing to other regions, so they can hold similar challenges that will make a real difference to achieving our ambitions.”

Adds Carlo van de Weijer, General Manager of Eindhoven AI Systems Institute, who was one of the event’s keynote speakers: “When confronted with big societal problems, such as reducing our carbon footprint, we must do more to innovate ourselves if we’re going to help solve these issues. It means the whole vehicle repair value chain has to put more effort into innovation. We should also remember that tomorrow’s major breakthroughs nearly always start with what first seemed like yesterday’s crazy idea.”

AkzoNobel has set science-based sustainability targets to halve its carbon emissions across the full value chain by 2030*. Achieving that will rely heavily on collaborating with partners and challenging each other to find innovative ways to overcome the issues everyone is facing. According to Navarro, that’s exactly what the exploration teams will endeavor to accomplish.

“We’re off to a really encouraging start,” he continues. “The next step is our Discovery Day in April next year, where the teams will showcase potential solutions and our partners will officially sign up to be part of the implementation phase. That’s when the hard work begins – when we start doing what needs to be done to collectively reduce our carbon footprint, based on the exploration areas we’ve defined.”

*Absolute reduction, compared with the 2018 baseline

About AkzoNobel   

We supply the sustainable and innovative paints and coatings that our customers, communities – and the environment – are increasingly relying on. Our world class portfolio of brands – including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon – is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and have set our sights on becoming the global industry leader. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering paints company that’s committed to science-based targets and is taking genuine action to address globally relevant challenges and protect future generations.

About Paint the Future

Launched in 2019, Paint the Future is AkzoNobel’s global collaborative innovation ecosystem. It’s a bold initiative to accelerate, test, launch and scale ideas and solutions for the paints and coatings industry. Paint the Future runs a variety of programs to accelerate innovation. Initially open to startups, it was quickly expanded to embrace customers, suppliers and other value chain partners. As the ecosystem continues to grow and build on the success of each program, it’s become the largest in the industry. All initiatives, and the implementation of the program and related projects generally, are compliant with competition laws at all times.