Sustainability in Flooring Production

Sustainability and Carbon Footprint Reduction in Floor Coating Production Across every sector, we are now increasingly hearing terms such as "continuity, renewable, sustainable, carbon footprint" in discussions related to the environment. While manufacturers conduct R&D work to produce quality, low-cost products, they are now also dedicating efforts to becoming sustainable and reducing their carbon footprint. Due to the negative impacts of rising production on people and the environment, greenhouse gas emissions have increased, causing global temperatures to rise. The press and social media frequently report on this issue and disseminate awareness-raising information. As concrete results emerged regarding melting glaciers, floods, and natural disasters, the term "carbon footprint" entered the vocabulary of many countries and major manufacturers. In fact, a number of manufacturers emerged that use this as a tool in their PR efforts, striving to make their production more natural and environmentally friendly. PÜRKAY A.Ş., which generates 65% of its revenue through exports, conducted R&D work with support from the European Union Framework Programme Horizon 2020 to make the PÜRKAY 019 polyurethane-based self-levelling product it has been producing for many years more environmentally friendly. The research focused on "Manufacturing Polyurethane Floor Coatings Using Renewable Resources." The project aimed to move away from petroleum derivatives and produce polyurethane self-levelling products by utilizing hydroxyl groups in plant-based oils, evolving into a sustainable business model. Vegetable oils produced in our country include sunflower, cotton (seed), soya, peanut, sesame, rapeseed, safflower, poppy, maize, flax and olive oil. However, since these oils do not contain OH groups and our R&D work did not aim to add OH groups by subjecting bio-oils to any chemical reaction, we decided to continue the R&D work with Castor Oil, which contains OH groups. Polyurethane products are obtained using polyether, polyester and, in some cases, acrylic resins. Polyurethane-based product formulations contain various additives. These additives are used to prevent settling, to wet various fillers and pigments within the product, to prevent foam formation on the surface, and to delay or extend the curing time. Manufacturers of such additives, quite reasonably, develop their work by taking into account the structure of polyether, polyester and acrylic resins commonly used in the market. Since manufacturing polyurethane self-levelling materials with bio-oils does not exist globally, additive manufacturers have not undertaken work in this direction. Consequently, the greatest challenge in producing polyurethane self-levelling products with bio-oils has been identifying which additives that work with polyether, polyester and acrylic resins could work with bio-oils and be compatible with these oils. As a result of R&D work, certain modifications made to the production process and machinery, along with ensuring compatibility of certain additives with bio-oil-based resin, led to the successful completion of the project. For the first time in our country, PU self-levelling coating, which we began producing with synthetic resins in 1992, is now being produced with a bio-oil-based resin as a result of R&D work. Following the commercialization of the project involving castor oil, a renewable resource, all PU-based products with the BIO designation added to their names are being successfully used by customers. After adding the word BIO to our PÜRKAY 019/01 Polyurethane Self Levelling product name due to the success we achieved, we focused on our other polyurethane products. PÜRKAY 022/A Polyurethane Putty, PÜRKAY Pareks Parquet Adhesive, and PÜRKAY Sandwich Panel adhesives have become products manufactured with "Renewable Raw Materials" as a result of this research and development work, and the word BIO has been added to the names of these products as well. Let us also examine carbon footprint: Carbon footprint is a measure, expressed in units of carbon dioxide, of the damage human activities cause to the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas produced, and consists of two main components: direct (primary) footprint and indirect (secondary) footprint. Primary footprint refers to direct CO2 emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, including domestic energy consumption and transport (for example, cars and aircraft), while secondary footprint refers to indirect CO2 emissions related to the entire life cycle of the products we use, from their manufacture to their final decomposition. The fact that limited resources (such as fossil fuel-based products) will eventually be depleted after a certain period means that the legacy we leave for future generations will diminish. As a result of this work, the output obtained has brought about a change and development that simultaneously causes a reduction in the consumption of limited resources. We believe that the low carbon footprint brought about by manufacturing with renewable resources, the fact that limited resources will no longer be consumed, and the taking of serious steps toward becoming a self-sufficient world are all significant developments. As PÜRKAY A.Ş., we periodically review our strategy in our efforts to maintain a cleaner and more sustainable business model. With the belief that awareness in environmentally friendly product manufacturing will accelerate further in the coming years as the new generation enters the workforce, and that a sustainable production approach will gradually eliminate the traditional production model, PÜRKAY A.Ş. aims to maintain our motivation at the highest level in producing firsts and leading products.   Saydun Gökşin General Manager PÜRKAY Boya ve Kimya San. A.Ş.