What’s the Future of “Green” for the Polyurethane Industry?

Once the domain of a few specialty manufacturers in niche markets, green products have found their way into the inventories of major manufacturers and big box retailers.  As a result, major producers have been knocking on suppliers’ doors, asking for more materials that are considered ‘earth-friendly’.

Today consumers are driving the demand for products that have ever-increasing levels of renewable content – believing green is good, but “more green” is even better.  Not only are they looking for more green content in the products they use, they are also expecting these items to perform as well as – and preferably better than – products made with traditional petroleum-based content.

In a recent consumer study to support the marketing of natural-oil polyols (NOPs) created by Dow via RENUVA™ Renewable Resource Technology, consumers in North America and Europe revealed several important insights into their current and future eco-friendly buying behaviors:

• 68% said they expected to do more over the next 3 years to make their home more environmentally friendly.
• While they expect to purchase more “green” products in the categories of household cleaning and personal care, 18-20% were most interested in buying environmentally friendly furniture and mattresses.

“As consumers become more educated about green products and marketers begin offering products with higher-and-higher levels of renewable content, companies like Dow will be given the opportunity to demonstrate how technology can impact real environmental innovation,” said Umberto Torresan, Dow Polyurethane’s global marketing manager for RENUVA™.

The Challenge – Defining “Green”

In order to better define the term “green” for our customers and consumers, Dow is working with industry leaders to create a universal metric to measure the true renewable content in finished polyurethane products.  Ultimately, this information will help enable consumers to make more informed choices when it comes to selecting green end-use polyurethane products. 

“The issue is that the industry doesn’t know or have a clear agreement on what ‘green’ means and there are no government regulations as to what is considered green,” continued Torresan.  “For example, if you buy a can of spray foam insulation or a mattress, you don’t know what percentage of the product is actually green. Today, marketers can call their product green even if they have only one or two percent renewable content, because of the lack of definition of what constitutes a green or renewable material.”

Setting an Industry-Wide Metric for Determining a Products’ “Greenness”

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In his technical paper presentation for the 2008 Center for Polyurethanes Industry Conference in San Antonio, Texas, Research and Development leader for Dow Polyurethanes, Juan Carlos Medina, advocated a two-part solution: adopting a newly defined method for testing renewable content in end-use products, and reemphasizing the connection between final product performance properties and renewable content.

“We are trying to educate the industry on the importance of measuring the level of renewable content in end-use products and to use that information as a competitive advantage in the marketplace,” Medina added.  “By enlisting the help of independent laboratories to measure the renewable content in the final foam product and making that information available to consumers, manufacturers and retailers can help create more demand for products that are even more environmentally friendly.”

The First Step in Bringing Clarity to What is and is not “Green”

Defining “green” in common terms will benefit all players in the polyurethane value chain – from formulators and producers to manufacturers of end products, and ultimately the consumer.

“Using a standard measurement will help make it simpler for producers and manufacturers to determine what level of renewable content is possible in their product, verify the content level in the final product, and then be able to promote the ‘greenness’ of the product to their customers with confidence,” added Torresan.

Dow is proposing to the polyurethane industry -- formulators, manufacturers, retailers and regulatory bodies -- the use of their new testing method as the standard process to determine bio-based content in finished urethane products. Furthermore, Dow is stressing the importance of requesting and providing performance properties of the finished product, along with the bio-based content, when evaluating or making “green” claims for foams manufactured with NOPs.

“Dow has experimental data that demonstrates for the first time that the method is capable of accurately and precisely determining bio-based content in polyurethane products made from NOPs,” continued Medina. “Using technology to provide consumers with a choice when it comes to green products is our focus at Dow.”

Using up to 60% fewer fossil fuel resources than conventional methods, RENUVA™ Technology can be used to create environmentally-friendly products with high levels of renewable content for applications such as coatings, adhesives, sealants, furniture, bedding, footwear, and transportation. To learn more about RENUVA™, visit www.dowrenuva.com.