Being a green or eco-friendly business is generally accepted and even expected by most consumers.
Many businesses now, will jump on the bandwagon to not miss the opportunity to join the “trend”
Reality is, being environmentally responsible is not a trend. It is a clear everyday choice that the public makes especially when buying products and services. Using low and zero VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints is a good choice but the bar has been already raised. Consumers expect more from painters.
The following ten tips can help a painting contractor become a green contractor:

Don’t buy too much

When ordering paint, measure the surfaces carefully and order just enough, as per manufacturer’s recommendations coverage rate.  They are usually reliable depending on the surfaces being painted. The same applies when buying sundries such as masking tape, sandpaper etc.

Return what is not used

If the colour is a “stock” factory pre-mixed colour,  you can usually return it to the store for a refund. The thinking is, that leftover paint  would be used somewhere else, but that might be months down the road and paint cans have a tendency to collect and multiply. Sometimes paint can freeze in the winter.

Zero VOC

Zero or low VOC paints now, are as durable as any paints and not much more expensive. Use them almost for any surface and your customers will appreciate the convenience and low odour. If possible, suggest products that use waterbourne colourants as there are some manufacturers that offer this choice. If universal colourants are used, suggest lighter colours to your customers as light colours use less colourants.

Easy on the plastic

Customer property needs to be protected and sometimes plastic covers are necessary. Use thinner lighter grade plastic and even then, re-use any clean plastic for another job. Buying small packages of plastic instead of large boxes or rolls maybe slightly more expensive but less will be used as a result.

Driving

The price of fuel is getting more expensive and the cost is becoming a huge problem for small service businesses. Carpooling to the job site will reduce some of this cost and help the environment. Bringing lunch to work, or getting lunch on the way to work, will save time and fuel. Driving vehicles through drive through restaurants is also a poor environmental choice.

How big is your truck

It used to be acceptable to drive around in a mostly empty large van or truck. With the cost of gas and the environmental impact created, that is now becoming unacceptable. Most contractors can get by ok daily with minivans or smaller trucks. The larger vehicles can be used on the first or last day of the job, or when large equipment is needed.

Jobsite garbage

Food garbage, empty paint cans and recyclable bottles and cans can be kept separate, sorted daily and at the end of the job and disposed off appropriately as per municipal and city regulations. Using  less plastic drop cloths, packaging and recycling at the jobsite will reduce the amount of garbage created.

Mind the water

Purchase roller covers and brushes that are easier to wash will save time and use less water. If the same colour is being used the following day, washing the tools daily may not be necessary.  Collecting as much of the washing water as possible in a bucket and re-using it for the next “first wash” is a good idea.

Painting will create waste and will always have some environmental impact. Using common sense and making some responsible choices is usually all it takes to lessen this impact.

Painters love their coffee. The coffee break is a Divine Right not to be messed with.
A great number of Canadians get their coffee from drivethroughs. In fact in Canada about half of restaurant business is conducted by drivethrough sales.
The impact to the environment is signiffigant. A large number of the vehicles using drive throughs are trucks, vans and all kinds of construction vehicles, including painter’s trucks.

Ecopainting, as part of our “Walk the Talk” campaign has been discussing this issue and decided to form the following policy:

“No Drive through vehicle”
Company vehicles will not be allowed to use Drive Throughs. “No Drive through vehicle” bumper stickers will be created. Employees of Ecopainting will be encouraged to also support the campaign with their own vehicles and promote it with their friends and relatives to raise awareness in our immediate community.
 

A little background information
When a vehicle is operating, the burning of gasoline results in a variety of gases being expelled into the air. One of these gases is carbon dioxide, CO2, which is the main gas we talk about when we discuss greenhouse gases, and is the main factor in climate change. The more CO2 we produce, the more CO2 joins the other gases in the atmosphere creating a trap for heat. This is the “greenhouse effect”, and is responsible for climate change. Every litre of gas that is used produces roughly 2.3 kg of CO2, and since driving in general is hard to avoid, there are other things we can make sure we do or do not do to cut down on how much gas we use.

Idling is something to reduce

Idling is sometimes unavoidable, like when traffic is at a standstill, but Canadian research suggests that the average Canadian idles on average 5 to 10 minutes/ day, and even what we consider the minimal amount of time spent idling in drive-through lines can add up when its multiplied by the vast number of people who use drive-throughs on a daily basis. Apart from CO2, vehicles also produce Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide (CO), and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX). All of these emissions contribute to smog and air pollution, and the only way to reduce the amounts of these being expelled into the air is by reducing the amount you drive. The concern with the use of drive-through restaurants predominantly lies with the amount of CO2 being expelled by idling cars.

Its a common retort to say that stopping and then re-starting your vehicle releases just as many emissions as idling for a while. Its true that while various studies have been completed on this particular subject and have found that there is very little difference in the amount of VOCs, CO and NOX released into the air whether a car is stopped and restarted, or idled for a small amount of time. However, the same study states that the amount of fuel burned, and therefore the amount of CO2 released during the same time-period much greater when idling as opposed to stopping and then re-starting your car. These findings have been confirmed repeatedly in other studies, and we can say definitively that its better for both saving fuel, and therefore money, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to turn off your motor rather than idle.

Three minutes a day

In fact, Natural Resources Canada states that if Canadian motorists could cut just 3 minutes of idling out of their day, it would save 630 million litres of fuel, and 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be saved from entering the atmosphere. Yearly, this would be about the same as taking 320,000 cars off of the road.

How long does it usually take to get a cup of coffee from a drive-through?

To request a “No Drive Through vehicle” bumper sticker, please call 416 733-7767, or e-mail us at contact@ecopainting.ca. They should be ready by mid September.

It is predictable, year after year. School is out for the summer and most of the regular and annual maintenance is scheduled to be completed during the summer months. One of the biggest tasks is painting of all walls and surfaces. Schools are by design, crowded spaces of very “active” learning. As a result surfaces are taking a beating daily from very “enthusiastic” students.
Traditionally alkyd (oil based) paint was used because of its performance characteristics. Especially in areas like hallways, washrooms, gymnasiums, trim etc.

Coating System
Ecopainting was contracted to paint a school in the Riverdale area of Toronto. True to our environmentally friendly mandate, we suggested that we change the coatings of the areas we paint to waterbourne paints. Super adherent primers were used to ensure that the performance of the paint is not compromised.
When it was time to paint the gymnasium of the school, a more thoughtful approach was used. The cement block walls were previously painted in alkyd enamel. A complete conversion primer and two finish coats of acrylic paint would have worked but the cost would be prohibitive, as these were large surfaces to paint.

Waterbourne Alkyd?
We decided to use two finish coats of the new Advance Waterborne Interior Alkyd from Benjamin Moore.
After performing an adhesion test to the existing coating, we were confident that the paint would perform as well or better than most traditional alkyd paints.
Advance is a new type of alkyd paint. It has all the advantages of the old oil paints but without the smell and the difficult clean up. At the same time it is really a green alternative. Most alkyd paints have a VOC count of about 300-450 or more per littre. Advance has a VOC content of less than 50 grams per littre. That is very low and it stays low in any colour as it can use the new Benjamin Moore waterbourne colourant system. In addition to that, clean-up is done with water and soap which eliminates the use of solvents.

Results
The results were amazing, the painters gave the paint a great passing grade and the paint was easy to work with.
It also looks really good in the Pearl Enamel finish we decided to use.
When the school gets painted next time, waterbourne coatings will be used in most areas.
This is great for the school community and of course the environment.

Environmental Policy.
As a painting company, EcoPainting realizes the serious and negative effects that products used in painting can have on the environment. It is therefore our mandate to conduct our company in a manner that reflects our concern for the environment, and utilize the products and resources available to maintain a low-impact, environmentally friendly and sustainable business.

Current Procedures:

Paint and Paint-related Products:

- The use of low or zero VOC paints where possible

- Frequent review of safety data sheets re: materials being used

- If solvent-based primers are deemed necessary, a low-odour product is used

- Calculated purchasing of required amount of paint, resulting in little extra paint

- Any extra paint is labelled for future-touch ups, use in future projects, or donated

- Use of low-impact cleaners

- Use of good quality paints, eliminating the need for multiple coats and for frequent re-painting.

Waste Management:

-Reuse of plastic and paper drop- sheets where at all possible

-Awareness of water usage when washing tools

-Awareness and restriction of personal garbage produced (water bottles, etc)

-Coordinated transportation of workers to areas, ie. Carpooling

Ongoing Growth:

Environmental Initiatives:

- Green Purchasing, and similar conscious effort to use and encourage the use of environmentally sound products, technology, services and systems, or minimize negative environmental impacts.

- Investigating green training and certifications to educate and influence painters.

Communication and Education:

-Frequent updates to our Facebook page, Twitter and our Blog to encourage dialogue and conversation on environmentally sensitive issues within our community

-Building discussion within the company to promote low-impact procedures

Future Intent:

- Implement ongoing environmental awareness training program for all staff

This will ensure that every staff member has been educated regarding their environmental impact within the company, and trained to minimize their impact

- Frequent environmental audits

- Set targets to improve carbon footprint/ environmental impact

- Yearly campaign to raise awareness for local Green organizations
- Assessment of efficiency and it’s effect on waste production

- Re-evaluation of company vehicles and their environmental soundness

We hope that by implementing and upholding these procedures, we can reduce the environmental footprint left by Ecopainting, while creating standards that other companies will hope to emulate.

The economy of the last 2 years has had an affect on the daily operations of many companies including ours. Everything became a survival game (not an excuse) and we became complacent. As a result our “Eco” mandate was put in the back-burner for too long.
We are again starting the discussion with our painters, our customers and the community. Our intent is to initiate action and turn our small painting company into a true environmentally responsible company.

Rachel, one of our Painters, has the important job of starting and leading the discussion, with the short term goal being the creation of Ecopainting’s Environmental Policy Manual

The following “COMPANY INTROSPECTIVE” was prepared by Rachel

A) PROBLEM: Waste, in various forms

Excess Paint

- Too much paint was ordered
- Leftover paint
- Leftover paint cans or pails 

Solutions

- Ensure that if the paint is pre-mixed and can be returned, the outsides of the cans are kept clean and returned in the same condition as they were bought.

- Whoever is ordering paint, make sure and take the time to order the correct amount.
- Leave small amounts of extra paint with homeowner/business owner for touch ups. Include directions on safe disposal of paint cans when emptied. (Create and distribute short pamphlet?)
Disposal

When a paint can is empty of paint, it should be either: Washed out and used as a cut bucket, or the remaining paint should be allowed to harden, peeled out and discarded as solid waste, and the metal can may then be recycled. The same system applies to paint can lids.

Plastic
The use of plastic should be limited as much as possible, and if it is decided as necessary, then hopefully at the end of the job the painter will use his/her judgement to decide if the plastic is suitable to be re-used. Clear-plastic Garbage bags to contain re-usable?

Rosin Paper drop-sheets
Can we only purchase Paper that is recycled? And again, note if it can be re-used at a future job-site.

Waste-Water (washing of tools)
Awarenes of the amount of water used when washing tools. Can we use spinners?
Using some of the new type of brushes and rollers that are easier to wash, will minimize wash time?
These should be promoted and/or purchased

Garbage in General
Personal garbage, and recyclable items such as water bottles, should be kept to to a minimum.

Can we be provided with recycling bins, to sort garbage? Reusable water bottles? Etc.

B) PROBLEM: Potential Environment Impact of Products

I think we cover this all the time, we are aware that its important to use low VOC paints etc,

and that recycled and less harmful paints are available for use. There is some thought that less harmful paints are less durable, and sometimes people demand stuff to be painted in oil, thinking that’s what is necessary to ensure a long paint life-cycle. We can always suggest the low-impact options first and foremost, prep surfaces more for adhesion or attempt to wash stains off surfaces to eliminate the need to coat them with solvent-based products.
Can we refuse to accept jobs that don’t meet our low-zero VOC mandate? If not can we make sure they only take up a certain (small) % of our business?

C) PROBLEM: Transportation
- Excessive number of vehicles being driven by Managers and Painters to each job site.
- Jobs are being assigned that are not local to each painter when local jobs are available.
- Company Vehicles are not environmentally friendly

- Managers are driving huge vehicles filled with stuff and ladders unnecessarily Need of shop to store equipment

- Estimator/ Operations manager should not be driving huge trucks filled with stuff either, unless picking up of dropping off equipment. Smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles can be used instead.
- Lack of Efficiency at job-sites, returning to job-site to fix a mistake, redo a task, etc

and driving work vans are driven around unnecessarily.

Solution/Suggestions

- Can incentives be created to reward painters who carpool? Use the TTC? Bike?
- Painters should be assigned jobs that are close to their homes to cut down on driving time, when possible.
- Can estimators quote jobs that are on the TTC routes/ local to painters at a slightly lower cost then those that are not, and vice versa?

- Ideally, all the tools, ladders, paint could be kept in a fairly centrally located shop, so the managers can access what they need, and only when they need it, so they don’t have to drive around a tool shed all day long.

- Purchase locally made products, such as uniforms, office supplies etc.

D) PROBLEM: Office/ Managerial Procedures

Remember: These things start from the top and trickle down.

- Create recycling procedures for office/job waste
- Implement a system to deal with waste-water: such as Glidden’s “wash system”
- Paperless office?
- Re-think job manager’s meetings: Can they be held over Skype? Other methods?
- Work orders – paperless? But are they really that big a deal?
- Eco Signage
- How to encourage carpooling
- Show leadership, and also take ideas from other companies
- Community oriented
- Create awareness, dialogue and discussion
- Ensure Green Purchasing