Bio-based coatings: “Moving from niche to scale”

How can collaboration create the greatest impact to accelerate adoption of bio-based coatings?

Julie Haevermans: The market is clearly moving beyond a “green premium niche approach.” To achieve scale, solutions must deliver performance, sustainability, and affordability—together. This is where collaboration becomes critical, enabling:

• Education across the value chain, with step-by-step progress
• Transparency and shared metrics, such as Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
• Co-innovation, aligning technical performance with economic expectations

By working alongside with upstream leaders like Godavari Biorefineries and partnering with innovators such as Catalyxx, Arkema accelerates the development of high-performance bio-based resins for paints, coatings, and construction materials. With growing green building standards, as well as brand leader and architect engagement, demand is increasing. The development of bio-butanol-based resins opens new pathways to combine performance with circularity and lower carbon footprint.

How do regional priorities shape the adoption of bio-based coatings?

Haevermans: Adoption dynamics are region specific and understanding them is key to scaling effectively. Some of the differences we’ve seen include:

• In Europe, the transition is strongly driven by carbon reduction, raw materials representing ~50% to 80% of a coatings formulator’s Scope 3 emissions.
• In the US and in Asia, there is more emphasis on health, safety, and bio-content

At a global level, benefits such as low VOC, non-toxicity, and renewable based origin are key decision drivers for the markets. Finally, all regional drivers will converge over time. This is why it is essential to advance on all fronts simultaneously.

What are the main barriers and how can the industry overcome them?

Haevermans: The transition is progressing step by step, with the industry successfully managing dual supply chains—bio-based and fossil-based—as it builds momentum. However, bio-based materials can still carry a cost gap of ~10–30% depending on the technology and scale. The key challenge today remains affordability at scale. This is where industry leaders play a decisive role, collaborating across ecosystems to: invest in more efficient technologies and to drive innovation, from formulation expertise to smarter material integration, continuously improving the performance-to-cost balance.

How is the role of bio-based materials evolving in today’s global context?

Richard Jenkins: Bio-based materials are not new, traditional technologies such as alkyd resins have long incorporated renewable content. What is changing today is the intentional and accelerated shift away from fossil-based feedstocks. Bio-based paints and coatings already represent a market of over $13 billion globally, growing at around 10% annually. While still a minority within the overall coatings industry, they are among the fastest-expanding segments, clearly moving from niche to scale.

The annual rate of publications on the topic of bio-based coatings has increased 16x since 2010, to approximately 1,000 per year today. This momentum has been further reinforced by recent disruptions in fossil-based feedstocks—both in terms of price volatility and supply uncertainty—which have highlighted the strategic value of alternative, more resilient raw material sources

What are the main supply chain challenges—and opportunities?

Jenkins: The key challenge is to scale efficiently while navigating uncertainty and volatility. These factors have made long-term investments more complex. At the same time, these dynamics are acting as a catalyst. They are accelerating the development of more regional, diversified, and resilient value chains—an area where bio-based materials can help reinforce both diversification and resilience. Stepping back, I would describe the industry as being in a phase of experimentation, exploring the most effective pathways to scale. By definition, not every initiative will succeed, but this process is essential to identifying the path forward.

How do you see the balance between bio-based and fossil feedstocks evolving?

Jenkins: Over the next five to ten years, we anticipate a progressive scaling of bio-based feedstocks across applications, supported by continued innovation. The pace will vary by region. Europe is largely regulation-driven, with strong policy frameworks accelerating adoption. The United States is more market-driven, with strong customer demand for performance, wellbeing, and sustainability benefits. India and emerging markets combine policy support with scale advantages, enabling rapid development of competitive bio-based value chains. The transition will take time, but the direction is clear. Success will depend on the industry’s ability to collaborate, scale solutions, and deliver competitive performance at the right cost.

Reading tip

This interview is part of a two piece series. We also spoke to Samgeeta Srivastava, Executive Director at Godavari Biorefineries, about bio-based feedstocks.

 

 

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