Euro 2020 highlights why Minutes Matter

The need for access to defibrillators was highlighted again in the public eye recently, when 29-year-old Denmark footballer Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest when playing against Finland in the European Championships. Thankfully, he survived after prompt medical treatment on the pitch. If something good can come out of such harrowing individual circumstances it is that the resulting publicity may help save lives in other cases in the future.

In the wake of the Eriksen case, The Community Heartbeat Trust has seen a flurry of enquiries from the public asking how they can help improve access to potentially life-saving defibrillators in their area. The UK Resuscitation Council suggests a defibrillator should be available wherever medical treatment is more than five minutes away. Yet, clearly, many parts of the country – especially those in rural locations – are much further away from hospitals and specialist help.

The Minutes Matter campaign sets out to provide defibrillators in as many rural phone boxes as possible across the UK. The BCF has been a proud supporter of this campaign for a number of years now, working in partnership with The Community Heartbeat Trust and BT’s Adopt a Kiosk scheme, refurbishing and repurposing old red ‘Jubilee’ BT telephone boxes into community defibrillator stations. BCF members have been supplying paint to give the repurposed boxes a top-grade finish, and helping preserve an important part of our national heritage. To date, our members have assisted with the refurbishment of around 650 boxes. The BCF Board agreed to a significant donation from the BCF’s reserves, and will be our preferred charity for the 2022 BCF charity bike ride.

Over the summer we will be looking to help raise the profile of the Minutes Matter campaign and the CHT. We plan to write to all the MPs who have had kiosks installed in their constituencies and ask them to highlight the charity and campaign through media and social media, maybe having photos taken at different sites during the Parliamentary recess. We will also be engaging on social media directly ourselves and will be encouraging BCF members to join in and spread the word too, especially those who have been contributing paint as part of the Minutes Matter campaign for free. Keep an eye out for emails about how you can get involved and help us raise the profile of the amazing CHT charity and the vitally important Minutes Matter campaign.

Unused telephone boxes transformed into defibrillator stations. Thanks to the BCF members who provided paint for the campaign Minutes Matter red phone boxes with defibrillators can be found all over the UK

To find out more, please visit: www.minutesmatter.org.uk

Sustainability in the coatings and inks industry

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference – or COP26 – is due to be held in November this year. The UK Government holds the Conference’s Presidency and the summit is being held in Glasgow. All eyes will on the UK to see how it leads at the Conference and the Government is keen to showcase its commitments to sustainability. With COP26 fast approaching, and importantly the UK’s presidency of COP26, the world will be watching to see how the UK will work to meet our sustainability commitments.

As an industry, we are working hard to promote sustainable practice throughout our supply chain and beyond. To highlight and celebrate the work our members are doing to create a more sustainable industry, we will soon be launching our #sustainablecoatings and #sustainableinks campaign.

#sustainablecoatings, #sustainableinks will be a campaign through BCF publications and social media which aims to showcase how our members are supporting sustainability within the coatings industry. We will be sharing case studies provided by our members in the run-up to and throughout COP26 which can then be shared on members’ social media channels. We will also be encouraging members to use the #sustainablecoatings and #sustainableinks hashtags on any related social media posts they issue so we can all see them more easily and share and reinforce the messaging.

Want to get involved?

If you are a BCF member and would like us to feature your sustainability initiative in our campaign, please provide us with the following: • Details of your sustainability initiative • Any accompanying branding or imagery for the initiative • Your company branding

In return, we will provide you with the following: • Personalised social media post graphic templates for your use across your social media channels • Template content for social media posts • Promotion on BCF social media, publications, and our website

If you wish to participate, please send your case study and accompanying documentation via email to our BCF Marketing team, Evie Luxton and Amy White, at evie.luxton@bcf.co.uk and amy.white@bcf.co.uk.

Sustainability pledges

In April 2021, the BCF Sustainability Committee took part in a thought starter activity, where members of the decorative coatings, industrial coatings and printing inks sectors discussed potential pledges that the industry could make ahead of COP26. The next Sustainability Committee is taking place on the 15th September 2021; the purpose of this meeting will be to formally agree a pledge and to start the creation of roadmaps to provide guidance in achieving the targets set out in the pledges. If you would like to be involved, please register via the events page on the BCF website.

Recycled paint has 50% lower carbon footprint

10 UN Sustainable Development Goals that the coatings industry align with Three-fold reduction in VOC emissions since 1996 - 84% of decorative paints sold are now water-based

Printing inks play a vital part in packaging and ensuring food stays fresh Accident rates in the workplace eight times lower versus 1996 (Source: Coatings Care)

Three-fold reduction of energy use per tonne of coatings and ink production since 1996 (Source: Coatings Care)

Five-fold reduction in carbon footprint of coatings consumption (Source: WWF)

645 defibrillator phone boxes painted through our Minutes Matter campaign New EV charging points at our BCF office

World’s shipping fleet would use 40% more fuel without antifouling coatings - saving 70 million tonnes of greenhouse gases