The best low VOC, non toxic and natural formulas for a healthier environment
Giving your own walls a fresh new look? It’s more important than ever before to consider sustainable decorating options – and a good place to start is environmentally friendly paint brands. Low VOCs, natural and organic formulas and recycled packaging are all things to look out for when selecting your new shades. Here’s our pick of the best eco-friendly paint brands.
The Guide to Sustainable Decorating
What Eco Friendly Credentials to Look For:
VOC Levels
First off, what actually is a VOC level? It stands for a volatile organic compound, and it’s a type of chemical that’s added to water based coatings and paints. The reason why it’s added is to help the paints flow, and help preserve the paint in the can. The downside is that paint with high VOC levels can have negative effects on your health and the environment.
B Corp Certification
The B Corp Certification is a legal designation used by a business that shows a high level of social and environmental performance. In other words: it’s today’s seal of approval for the brands that are excelling in making a sustainable and ethical impact. Have a read of our full definition here, for more.
What is a B Corp Certification?
The Best Eco Friendly Paint Brands
Coat
Coat, it’s just been announced, is the first UK paint company to acquire a B Corp Certification.
If you don’t know what B Corp is, it’s basically one of the most sought after climate credentials around, where brands have to go through a painstaking evidence-based process to prove their social and environmental impact.
Coat doesn’t do a limp handshake with sustainability. Off the cuff, the paint brand has a 100% Low-VOC Water-Based paint range, regenerative bamboo painting supplies, 100% recycled and recyclable packaging, and carbon-neutral delivery partners.
Taking it further, co-founder Rob Green says ‘COAT has been leading the way in our industry since launch, so things like offsetting by 200% our Scope 1-3 carbon emissions, and operating a 360-degree closed loop recycling system all contributed to an overwhelmingly positive score in the end.”
It sounds quite technical, but in reality, a close loop system is cutting out as much waste as possible. That looks like cutting the paint tester pots and swapping it with recyclable Peel & Stick swatches, that cuts typical paint waste by 95%.
There’s a ream of more sustainable initiatives that take over the whole raison d’etre of Coat. Coat, for example, is the only paint company to offer recycling returns to their customers, where customers can bring back their empty tins, and Coat will reprocess and recycle 100% of the tin.
Coat isn’t particularly blasé about ‘carbon neutral’ either (which tends to be overly used, and not properly understood or scrutinised).
So, what the brand says, is that it’s actually relatively easy to be Carbon Neutral (this means offsetting Scope 1-2 Carbon Emissions). But what Coat has done is take responsibility for Scope 3 emissions, offsetting unavoidable emissions of their supply chain by 200%.
You can read more about their sustainability credentials here.
House of Hackney
Calling all those who love aesthetic trinkets, patterns and historical whimsy: House of Hackney has announced today it’s launching into paint.
Inspired by nature’s paintbox (think: minerals, roots, and berries), some 38 dazzling shades are dropping today (no less by the exuberant names like Orpiment, Azurite, and Madder).
It’s also fortunate that it’s one of the most eco-friendly paints you can get. House of Hackey is a B Corp brand plus the paint itself has low VOC levels (a must), which comes with a FSC wooden stirrer made from by-products that would otherwise go to
waste.
Every paint tin sold too enables them to purchase and protect 35 square metres of forest in partnership with the World Land Trust too. So it’s a win, win. houseofhackney.com
Graphenstone
Not only is Graphenstone paint virtually completely free of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), but it also actively improves air quality by absorbing CO2 with the organic lime in its formula. To put things in perspective, three 15-litre tins will absorb the same amount of CO2 as a fully grown tree over a year. Its pots are also made from 100 per cent recycled and recyclable plastic. graphenstone.co.uk
Little Greene
Little Greene’s paint tins are made using 50 per cent recycled steel and can be recycled again once you’re finished with them. It’s water based paints carry the industry’s lowest eco-rating, with almost zero VOCs. Its wallpapers, too, are made from paper which comes from FSC or PEFC certified sustainable forests.
In 2004, Little Greene were one of the first UK paint manufacturers to achieve the European environmental standard BS EN ISO 14001. littlegreene.com
Edward Bulmer
Edward Bulmer’s natural paint is CO2 neutral and made using ingredients like linseed, chalk, earth and pigments which are non toxic and have full organic or equivalent certification. Founder Edward Bulmer is himself an eco campaigner, hosting an annual Spring Greens fair at the brand’s HQ in Herefordshire. edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk
Lick
In addition to its water-based low VOC formula, Lick is a champion of sustainable initiatives. The brand has partnered with ocean cleaning initiative 4ocean to help remove rubbish from seas, rivers and coastlines. So far in 2021 all Lick purchases have contributed to removing 11,000 kg of plastic from the sea and planting 5,112 trees. lickhome.com
Earthborn
A holder of the EU Ecolabel for Indoor Paints and Varnishes, Earthborn manufactures environmentally friendly, breathable paints. Its Claypaint is highly breathable, child safe, non toxic and has almost zero VOCs. Plus, the brand is also open about its ingredients and has a useful guide to its formula here. earthbornpaints.co.uk
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
READ MORE
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