The shift in consciousness in ordinary consumers that there is a major need to lessen harmful emissions of toxic substances to the environment is due mainly to the coordination of many sectors of society who worked together to make this possible. The concern over the quality of breathable air and the environment as a whole originally came from decades of government initiative to control the release of damaging VOCs to the environment.
Government environment legislations tasked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be the executing agency for environmentally-sensitive programs. Together with the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council), these agencies pushed for the adoption of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system that urged low- and zero-VOC compliance from construction industries including the commercial building painting industry.
With the support of the public and private sectors, the commercial building painting industry began producing zero- and low-VOC products. When consumers began to ask for green commercial building painting products, environmentally-sensitive coatings finally become mainstream, and as competitive as their standard paint counterparts. To become competitive in this fast becoming environmentally-sensitive market, previously high-VOC paint products were inevitably redesigned to keep up with the green competition.
At present, the demand for environmentally-sensitive coatings and applications is increasing, which is a good thing for the environment, because this ensures that present and future commercial building painting applications remain as ecologically-friendly and less-harmful to the environment as possible.
