The latest generation of ecological paints offer a high quality decorative finish

The purpose of paint is not simply to provide a decorative effect. Perhaps more importantly, paint also acts a protective layer for the building fabric, which helps to maintain the overall integrity and health of the building structure.

As such, high performance paint must be resistant to mould and bacteria, durable against weathering and ultraviolet light, and offer adequate levels of fire resistance. It must also be easy to apply, with good flow and levelling properties, deliver the desired opacity and pigment, and provide good durability to reduce the frequency of cyclical painting.

Many conventional paints are able to provide good levels of performance in most or even all of these areas, however they are not designed to take into consideration the health of the building fabric, its occupants and the natural environment. As such, these conventional paints often use potentially harmful ingredients and formulations.

Challenging Perceptions
Innovators of ecological paint have been working to develop alternatives to harmful conventional paint formulations using environmentally sound materials, which deliver the same level of performance in terms of finish, application and durability, while also improving the health of buildings and minimising damage to the environment and human health.

This has been a challenging process, as the toxic or harmful ingredients in conventional paint can be essential to its performance when it comes to opacity, durability and flow and levelling properties.

In the past, some so-called ecological paints simply omitted some or all of these harmful ingredients from the formulation in a bid to create an environmentally sound paint. However, this typically resulted in more paint being required to achieve a high quality finish, which negated the environmental benefits of removing the toxic components in the first place and incurred additional labour and material costs.

Unfortunately, these poorly designed and formulated products perpetuated the incorrect perception that the performance of ecological paints is not comparable to conventional alternatives, which is, of course, not the case at all.

New Generation
Significant technological advancements have enabled a new generation of ecological paint formulations to be produced, which provide a practical, cost-effective, environmentally sound and healthy alternative to conventional paint.

The formulation of this new generation of ecological paint is carefully balanced to minimise the amount of environmentally harmful ingredients used, without adversely affecting the performance of the paint itself.

As a result, in addition to providing a decorative coating with a high quality, durable finish and excellent opacity, this latest generation of ecological paint systems delivers significant benefits to the environment and the overall health of the building fabric and, most importantly, its occupants.

For example, by minimising toxic ingredients, modern ecological paint formulations considerably reduce the negative impact that these materials have on the environment, which is mostly caused during their manufacture.

Many of these harmful ingredients have very high embodied energy, so, by reducing them or replacing them with more environmentally sound materials, it is possible to achieve a reduction in embodied energy of approximately 30- 35%, compared to conventional alternatives.

Also, high performance, modern ecological paints use very little, if any of the organic solvents that cause VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), which means they do not emit the same unpleasant odour as solvent-based paint or bring about the serious health problems that these harmful emissions can cause.

Breathable Paint
Breathability is essential when it comes to maintaining the health of the building fabric. As such, paints for both internal and external walls must be resistant to water as a liquid, but open to water as a vapour, allowing trapped water to escape from the building structure.

Conventional paint that is not vapour permeable can trap moisture inside the fabric of a building and cause mould and damp, which can lead to health problems for residents, such as asthma or bronchial illnesses. Moulds can also cause building fabric damage and decay, particularly in older buildings, which rely on the breathability of the fabric to maintain building health.

Unlike conventional paint, ecological paint is very breathable. However, as each building structure is different, the optimum vapour permeability of ecological paint can vary from project toproject. As such, this important issue should be carefully considered during the specification process to ensure its breathability performance is maximised.

With such exceptional breathability performance and precision formulations,the latest generation of ecological paints and coatings are not simply an environmentally sound option. These high performance systems have been specially developed to provide a practical alternative to conventional paint and are proven to deliver a high quality decorative finish, be easy to apply effectively and offer good durability, while significantly improving the performance of buildings, as well as their environmental credentials.

Neil May is managing director at NBT (Natural Building Technologies).

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