Stahl

Our commitment to sustainable materials

As Stahl, we reduce our environmental footprint, that of our customers and the entire supply chain by developing and introducing low impact products. With 11 R&D centers around the world, our product research aims to provide performance solutions that do this by employing renewable and bio-based raw materials in our own products and by designing products that do not contain identified restricted substances.

Developing low impact products

Globally, 50% of our central R&D resources go to projects that improve the environmental footprint of our products and those of our clients. In developing and introducing low impact products, an important goal is to phase out restricted substances. We have our own Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), and also comply with the industry wide ZDHC MRSL. The Stahl MRSL list itemizes substances that we refuse to use in future products and is a combination of substances found on other recognized industry MRSLs, and those we feel are also undesirable. This has implications for our suppliers, and we inform them regularly about our policy and new additions to our MRSL.

Stahl’s compliant portfolios

The policy of promoting natural and renewable raw materials drove research into water-based polyurethane significantly in 2018. This enabled us to develop new bio-based polyurethane materials for use in our Performance Coatings, Leather Chemicals and Polymers businesses. Our R&D focus also led to expansions of our ZHDC MRSL- compliant Stahl EVO® and Stahl Neo® portfolios.

Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an important element of innovation at Stahl. LCA is a methodology that measures the environmental impact of any product during its entire life. There are nine impact categories within the LCA methodology and LCA provides quantitative data in a format that supports comparisons. We have established methodology to identify products and processes in which it is possible to calculate their impact on the environment. We believe that LCA will be an important value-added service for our customers in the future.

Partnerships for sustainable materials

Together with our customers and partners, we co-developsustainable solutions for new material technologies. For new materials made from new sources like food waste, biotech materials and renewable sources, we find the chemical product that enhances their performance as required by our customer. We test performance, including durability and UV resistance, for instance, in our test labs and centers of excellence.

GRI standard: Materials

GRI looks at the type and amount of materials an organization uses to indicate its dependence on natural resources, and the impacts on its availability.