This article presents a look at the main future challenges and involving the paints and coatings industry.
By: M.Sc. Ph.D. Julián A. Restrepo R.*
"This is the first era that has paid a lot of attention to the future, which is ironic, as we may not have any." Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) English science fiction writer.
Without trying to add nuances of drama, I would like to share some news (actually not very selected, basically I took them from the first ones that have come out in the search engine, since there is actually a lot of news about it ...):
October 9, 2018: "New scientific alert on global warming. Exceeding 1.5°C will mean a point of no return for which we are not prepared. The world's largest panel of scientists on climate change (IPCC) points to the urgency of keeping global warming below 1.5°C relative to the pre-industrial revolution temperature. Crossing that limit, accepted in the Paris Agreement, will mean a point of no return for which we are not prepared" [1].
October 8, 2018: "The UN launches a global disaster alert from 2030. Experts call for profound changes in all aspects of society to avoid disastrous levels of global warming by 2030" [2].
January 21, 2017: "Global Alert: Climate change could trigger an ocean collapse. Scientists at Yale University suggested that one of the largest ocean circulation systems on the planet is not stable and would be weakened by atmospheric carbon dioxide, to such an extent that, within about 300 years, it would come to an end. What can be the consequences?" [3].
In a context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), I try to make the reader belonging to the world of coatings reflect on the importance of our industry for the advancement of society and in general the important role it can play if it can offer solutions to the future challenges of our society, and we know that these solutions are not only limited to environmental issues. Therefore, the interest of this paper is to make a brief summary of some of the main problems or better, challenges, that the paints and coatings industry must take into account in the coming decades (in fact, this applies to the whole of our industry and our production system).
A look at the main challenges ahead
From an environmental point of view, we can list the 10 most pressing environmental problems:
1. Overpopulation
2. Climate Change Mitigation
3. Biodiversity loss
4. Increasing Phosphorus and Nitrogen Cycles
5. Water availability
6. Ocean Acidification
7. Pollution
8. Ozone depletion
9. Overfishing
10. Deforestation
From the point of view of environmental pollution, we can list the 10 main problems associated with pollution:
1. Air Pollution
2. Water Pollution
3. Soil Pollution
4. Heavy Metal Contamination
5. The presence of PAHs (Hazardous Air Pollutants)
6. The presence of POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants)
7. The presence of AOX (halogenated organic compounds)
8. The use of fossil fuels
9. The use of CFCs (chloro-fluorocarbons), HCFCs (hydrochloro-fluorocarbons) and COHs (halogenated organic compounds)
10. The use of toxic and dangerous substances (and others reported in the so-called "dirty list")
The 10 challenges for the World Economy [4]:
1. Demographic Growth
2. Technological advances
3. Stagnation in some economies
4. Global warming (concept of "Climate War")
5. Reducing inequality in societies
6. Poverty reduction and how to create more opportunities
7. Population ageing
8. Labor Globalization
9. How to overcome the persistent lack of demand
10. Tax increases to curb Climate Change
The 10 challenges for cities and urban areas:
1. Transport and urban mobility
2. Urban Safety
3. Waste management
4. Energy Consumption
5. Social sustainability
6. Open Government
7. Citizen attention
8. Streamlining procedures
9. E-administration
10. Inter-administrative collaboration
The 10 Challenges for companies:
1. Talent Management
2. Innovation Management
3. Knowledge management (patenting and protection of intellectual property)
4. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
5. The Carbon Footprint
6. The Water Footprint
7. The Incorporation of ecodesign
8. Sustainability (economic and environmental)
9. Globalization and new markets
10. The New Professionals: The Case of Millennials
In the case of point 10 of the last list, we must say that, currently, there are four generations, depending on the age [5]:
- Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964.
- Generation X: born between 1965 and 1979.
- Generation Y or Millennials: born between 1980 and 1999.
- Generation Z or Centennials: born after 2000.
The main differences between these generations can be summarized in Figure 1, below:
Figure 1: Main differences between current generations [5]
And from this list, the case of Millennials becomes particularly important for various sociologists, this based on the fact that one of their characteristics is that they are entrepreneurs who seek to open their own companies or work from home, since they do not feel comfortable with office hours [5]. They are short-lived at work, because of the expectations that are made of him. In other words, today's companies have a great challenge to generate enough motivation for this type of employees, highly competent and innovative, but who do not feel much empathy with keeping a job for, perhaps, more than 2 years.
What is the role of the Paints and Coatings industry?
For most of the above challenges my answer would be that it can be as linked to the paints and coatings industry as you want or, in other words, how protagonist our industry wants to be for future societies. Currently, I consider that "many painting industries have stagnated" in developments in the same direction and commonly seek competitiveness through price and not differentiation, and it is in this last aspect where the concept of innovation becomes important: If the current paint industry continues to offer products to meet the same needs and continues to seek to reduce costs primarily, it will inevitably stagnate and, for its part, will not have the possibility of offering solutions to many of the future challenges posed that, surely, many other industries are willing to solve or at least offer alternatives.
I do not want to generalize with this statement, since there are companies that are very innovative and really are very adaptive to changes in society and future challenges, but the truth is that these examples are very few and many of the companies, at least in our Latin American market, are still reactive to the changes of their competitors to generate their own products (in other words, it is still important to try to have the product that our competitor generates as a novelty).
Also, I do not want to think that our industry will not be able to find new market niches and the "art of painting becomes an activity for troglodytes". For example, I think of the fact that perhaps, many Millennials do not feel the same need to paint their home as their parents, and less if they realize the different activities that can involve changing the color of a wall. Let's see it as many of today's young people are "more minimalist" and more concerned about other issues than changing the color of their home, if this does not represent an exciting activity or that generates new sensations.
On the other hand, I am very concerned about the fact that I consider a coating to be a solution, technologically speaking, very efficient for various needs, but many technicians still do not realize all this potential: a coating is a thin film, strongly adhered to the substrate, which can provide anticorrosive effects, increase the brightness or reduce it, protect and beautify the substrate, among many other applications, and that offers, in most cases, an excellent cost-benefit alternative. Perhaps being more progressive and ambitious, we could achieve solutions from the point of view of coatings for electronic applications, for IoT (Internet of Things), for Smart Cities (Smart Cities), Industry 4.0, AI applications (Artificial Intelligence), Quantum Computing (in silico), use technologies such as Blockchain, BigData, Robotics and consider concepts such as the Circular Economy, Sustainability and Carbon Footprint Reduction.
Finally, my interest is to leave the reader the concern to try to reflect and look for alternatives to the uses and applications of coatings, for which I suggest [6]:
- Do a megatrend analysis
- Consider the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials
- Contribute to the creation of more appropriate and healthy legislation
- Search for alternatives to current legislation and policies: LEED, Smart Cities, mobility and alternative energies
- Give special and novel attributes to their products (such as the Coca-Cola case, see Figure 2), to exploit them commercially
- Make better use of social networks
Figure 2: Disruptive campaign of the main benefits of Coca-Cola [7]
References
[1] https://www.tendencias21.net/Nueva-alerta-cientifica-sobre-el-calentamiento-global_a44793.html
[2] https://expansion.mx/mundo/2018/10/08/la-onu-lanza-alerta-mundial-por-desastres-a-partir-de-2030
[3] https://www.infobae.com/salud/ciencia/2017/01/21/alerta-global-el-cambio-climatico-podria-desencadenar-un-colapso-oceanico/
[4] https://www.semana.com/economia/articulo/lo-que-le-espera-en-el-futuro-la-economia-mundial/404977-3
[5] http://begonagonzalez.com/generacionxyz/
[6] STAR Technical Conference: "The Future of Coating Design". Technical conference organized by STAR (Association of Andean Technicians in Coatings). Medellín (Colombia), March 7, 2018
[7] http://plantsalud.com/beneficios-de-la-coca-cola/
* M.Sc. Ph.D. Julián A. Restrepo R. Advisor and Technical Consultant in Coatings. President STAR (Association of Andean Technicians in Coatings). [email protected] - Medellin, Colombia
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