Jotun paints and coatings enable green building certification

The world’s leading green building rating systems – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) – are point-based certifications. A building must achieve at least 40 points to be certified under LEED.

Green certifications are also rigorous and focus on various environmental aspects such as energy consumption, heat island effect and toxic materials.

Jotun’s Green Building Solutions makes it far easier to earn green building points because the products have been documented to meet certification requirements. Jotun’s paints and coatings for green buildings have documented low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) compared with conventional products. Products include architectural decorative paints, powder coatings, intumescent coatings for cellulosic fire protection, protective coatings, anti-carbonation coatings for concrete and floor coatings.

A variety of Jotun’s products offer enhanced heat-reflective properties compared with conventional exterior paints and coatings, thus significantly reducing indoor and surface temperatures. By helping to lower urban air temperature, the heat-reflective products improve the comfort of a city’s inhabitants and reduce a building’s cooling needs, consequently driving down its energy consumption.

Jotun’s Green Building Solutions also includes the Green Building Guide –an educational and helpful online tool that guides specifiers to products contributing to green building rating points under LEED and BREEAM. Among other things, it provides guide specifications for paints and coatings for green buildings and for different corrosivity environments according to ISO 12944. Jotun also offers more than 100 Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), a key contributing element for green building certifications.

Paints and coatings are one of the most inexpensive means of earning green building rating points. These products account for only about 2 per cent of building costs, but they can contribute up to 27 per cent of the points needed for a building to be LEED v4 Certified. Jotun’s products can help to attain up to 11 points under the LEED v4 categories Indoor Environment Quality, Sustainable Sites, and Material and Resources.

From an economic perspective, too, green buildings are more attractive as they yield lower operating and maintenance costs, higher occupancy rates and rents, higher resale value and improved health and well-being.

Buildings globally are responsible for enormous energy use, resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As the demand for sustainable buildings rises, green construction is becoming increasingly profitable and desirable in the international construction sector. More than 99 000 projects across 165 countries and territories are participating in the LEED system.

The market for green building is estimated to double every three years. According to World Green Building Trends 2018 SmartMarket Report, 47 per cent of respondents believe that the majority of their projects (more than 60 per cent) will be green by 2021.

Australia, Norway and the United Arab Emirates are leading the way with more than 64 per cent of respondents expecting the majority of their projects to be green by 2021. This clearly demonstrates increasing global commitment to building green.