The Paint and Printing Ink Industry follows the path of sustainability with the launch of a Charter for Sustainable Development

A first copy of the Sustainability Charterwas handed over by Jan van der Meulen, Managing Director CEPE to the new CEPE President, Pekka Rantamäki (Teknos) at CEPE's General Assembly 2012

This Charter encompasses the principles on people, planet and prosperity that the paint, ink and artists colours industry will respect when it concerns Sustainable Development. Pekka Rantamäki declared: "Paints and printing inks make up only a small part of the ultimate article on which they are applied. But that is not a reason for not taking our responsibility and playing our part.”

With this Charter, CEPE members agree to adopt Life Cycle Thinking. The considerations on the impacts on scarce resources and use of energy will get a more prominent role in their industry.

The Charter recognizes that the paint and ink industry is not new to environmental thinking and therefore makes reference to earlier industry programmes that have resulted in great reductions of VOCs and carcinogenic raw materials in our products and processes. It also lays out the future direction of sustainable development in the coatings and inks industry. The challenges ahead will be:

· Higher resource efficiencies for use of raw materials, of energy and of materials for product packaging.

· Increased use of bio-renewable raw materials;

· Paints with increased functionality that contribute to energy (carbon) savings or the removal of air-pollutants or bacteria.

· Paints with higher life expectancy.

· Printing Inks with improved de-inkability characteristics that enable optimum recyclability of printed graphic paper