IRL chief praises Resene for sustainability

IRL chief praises Resene for sustainability win

IRL Chief Executive Shaun Coffey congratulates Resene on winning the top prize at the NZI National Sustainable Business Network Awards.

Resene, who won IRL’s $1m What’s Your Problem NZ (WYPNZ) prize last year, was named New Zealand's Sustainable Business of the Year at the awards in Auckland last night.

Last year Resene won up to $1 million in R&D services from IRL to develop waterborne paints based on sustainable ingredients, breaking the paint industry’s long term reliance on gas and oil for high performance paints.

Shaun Coffey praised Resene for achieving this national recognition and says he is confident their partnership with IRL will further benefit the country, the company and the paint industry as a whole. “IRL scientists and Resene technical staff have been hard at work and are making excellent progress towards their goal.”

The combined team have already succeeded in creating a novel binding ingredient using a polymer from a readily available and highly renewable feedstock produced in New Zealand, and there are plans to launch a new eco range of paints using the new ingredient in 2011.

Judges at last night’s awards said they were impressed with the Wellington-based paint manufacturer’s efforts to encourage sustainable innovation in the paint industry and said the company was making great headway in encouraging the adoption of sustainable practices industry-wide.

ENDS

© Scoop Media