The company’s aim is that, by going beyond linear thinking with its partners, transparency is created across the value chain. This will help pinpoint barriers and define possible solutions to accelerate carbon footprint reduction in the vehicle repair industry. 

“Collaboration will play a fundamental role in helping to safeguard our world far beyond tomorrow,” explains Patrick Bourguignon, Director of AkzoNobel’s Automotive and Specialty Coatings business. “It’s about joining forces so we can push boundaries and find inventive ways to make a positive contribution to an ever-changing world. By investing 24 hours, we’ll endeavor to collectively accelerate progress towards reducing our carbon footprint. I look forward to the outcome.”

The VR Sustainability Challenge will focus on three topics: 

• Energy transition – enabling faster decarbonization of the vehicle repair industry as it transitions to renewable energy sources 
• Process efficiency – making key improvements across the industry 
• Circular solutions – increasing circular use of materials throughout the value chain 

“Everyone has a part to play in reducing our carbon footprint and collaboration is vital if we’re to make this happen and achieve our ambitions,” says Wijnand Bruinsma, AkzoNobel’s Director of Sustainability. 

“By bringing people together and fostering collaborative discussions in this challenge, we hope to spark innovative ideas for solutions that will make a real difference to our collective carbon footprint. Ultimately, this will also help create transparency and move us towards our science-based goal of achieving a 50% reduction in carbon emissions across both our own operations and the entire value chain*.” 

Launched in 2019, Paint the Future has established a strong collaborative innovation ecosystem with startups, suppliers, customers and other value chain partners. Its challenges and wide variety of programs have revolutionized sustainable innovation in the paints and coatings industry. 

For more information about the VR Sustainability Challenge, visit letspaintthefuture.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X. For more information about last year’s Collaborative Sustainability Challenge organized by AkzoNobel, visit the website here. 

*Absolute reduction, compared with the 2018 baseline

About AkzoNobel   

We supply the sustainable and innovative paints and coatings that our customers, communities – and the environment – are increasingly relying on. Our world class portfolio of brands – including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon – is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and have set our sights on becoming the global industry leader. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering paints company that’s committed to science-based targets and is taking genuine action to address globally relevant challenges and protect future generations.

About Paint the Future

Launched in 2019, Paint the Future is AkzoNobel’s global collaborative innovation ecosystem. It’s a bold initiative to accelerate, test, launch and scale ideas and solutions for the paints and coatings industry. Paint the Future runs a variety of programs to accelerate innovation. Initially open to startups, it was quickly expanded to embrace customers, suppliers and other value chain partners. As the ecosystem continues to grow and build on the success of each program, it’s become the largest in the industry. All initiatives, and the implementation of the program and related projects generally, are compliant with competition laws at all times.