COAT Sustainable Principles - An Open Book, 2024-25

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SustainablePrinciples: AnOpenBook 2024-25

Born for better

COAT comes from a desire to be different. Launched in late 2020, we saw our critical chance to reinvent how paint is bought and sold, in a way that feels fairer to people and our planet. So forget industry greenwashing and all the technicalities of paint for a second - this open book is our way of sharing exactly how we do things in a clear and concise way, so you can judge for yourself whether our new take on luxury paint feels right. We think people deserve to know the people they’re buying from, and as a small business of real people and radical transparency - we hope to go all the way in showing you that.

A Founding Principle

The Short Version

Our Mission

Our five core principles

1 Zero waste production

2 Light footprint operations

3 Conscious products

4 Hyper-local focus

5 Regenerative business

Certified: Climate Positive & B Corp

The Future

Nobody’sdenyingthatclimatechangeisreal.We’reway beyond that. So,wedon’tfeel aneedto make acasethat positive changeisneeded.

But-being conscious,or sustainable,orplanet-first has become a hot topic (bad pun) anda buzzword ineverybody’smarketingcampaign. So what COAT and all other businesses need todo- is beveryclearand plain about how they contribute to better.

Sustainability,andmaking apositive impactonthe world around ushas been a foundingprincipleforCOATsincewe launchedin 2020.

We’renot ones forfadsor gimmicks -wejustbelieve that our way of making, selling, and distributing painthas a lower planetimpact than the norm for our industry.

Since launching just4yearsago and making some noise... we’ve seen major players in thepaintindustryrallyto domore,anddobetter. We sparked a movement for more tangibleaction aroundenvironmental andsocietal change, and we’re proud of that.

Inthisreportwe’respelling outexactlyhowwedo things at COAT, and the decisions we’ve made-becausepeopledeservetoknow the people they’re buying from.

Sothanks forbeing curious,and for backing the new way.

The Short Version

A new, better way

As an online business, COAT sells directly to customers exclusively via our websiteoffering the highest quality luxury paints, direct to your door. We’ve no middlemen or retailers to pay, and no fancy stores either - so our customers can benefit from fair prices for luxurious paints, without unnecessary friction. And with no need for endless lorries shipping paint to stores, or car visits back and forth - our new way aims at a much lighter footprint, too.

It’s not just ‘what’ you do - but ‘how’ you do it. Plenty of companies make paint - but most produce in large batches and ship it for miles to sit on a store shelf. COAT makes it exclusively for you, and never for stocking in stores.

Our expert team mix paint freshly to your order right here in the UK, with our paint supply chain entirely based here. We avoid excess supply and waste in the supply chain by making only what’s needed, exactly when it’s needed. Fresh paint, and zero waste. Feels like a no brainer, right? 100% made to order

Conscious Products
Light Footprint
No-Waste Production
Hyper-local Focus Regenerative Business

Leading The Way

5 ways to make your home greener this month

COAT’s green credentials are now official: thanks to its 100 per cent recycled packing, low-VOC paints and reusable peel-and-stick swatches, it has been made the UK's first – and only – B Corp Certified paint company, which means it meets verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

The UK’s First B Corp Certified Paint Company

The world’s only Climate Positive Certified paint company. A regenerative business that doesn’t subscribe to greenwashing. Made to order, fresh paint meaning zero waste, fewer nasties, and bespoke to the customer.

Mission

It’s time for something different

The past few years have changed our view on plenty of things. Our time, our relationships, and even our core values. Most people have found themselves with more time at home, to think about their home life and environment. Decorating is about creating spaces people love, that last - and COAT wants the planet to last too.

COAT Paints launched in 2020, mid pandemic, with a goal to simplify the paint buying experience and give the luxury paint market a swift kick into the modern world. Perhaps the swiftest of those kicks came in the field of planet conscious business - which we think is still lacking in our industry.

“We’ve renovated several houses over the years, and trekking to and from the DIY store for paint tester pots and tiny colour chips left us bored and generally out of time. With scores of luxury paint brands all inspired by the past - we wanted to create something new that was focused on our future” - Rob Abrahams, co-founder at COAT.

based and low-toxin paints - but through our broader focus as a regenerative business, where we can stand proudly on every ethical decision we make.”

COAT is the first Climate Positive Paint Company in the world, which means the business has taken responsibility for all it’s Scope 1-3 carbon emissions, and offsets unavoidable emissions by contributing to UN Gold Standard environmental offsetting projects through partner accreditor Carbon Jacked.

“The meaning of Luxury has evolved. Luxury is about doing good for yourself and for the world. It’s balanced, and democratic. COAT Paints are a symbol of that shift in generational perception and environmental responsibility.”

COAT is proudly championing The New Way to paint that’s simple, conscious, and rooted in doing right for our generation and the next.

“We wanted to create a new challenger presence in the paint world, that’s designed around our future - and not our past.”

Unique Principles: Our Guiding Light

Five Clear Principles

“Don’t make things that people don’t want”

“Keep things simple, and minimise our footprint”

Conscious Products

The entire COAT paint range is water-based, low or near-zero toxin (VOC), and entirely made to order. It’s also free of any nasty paint smells. Substance comes before style for us, and we’ll make sensible material choices that prioritise timelessness and longevity over fast-fashion.

“Create conscious products - that last”

Hyper-Local Focus

One critical way to minimise environmental impact is to source and create things close to home. COAT paints are sourced and manufactured in the UK, to avoid long shipping distances. We also ship direct-to-door for all customers, using Carbon Neutral delivery partners - cutting out unnecessary car and lorry journeys.

“Produce in the UK, and minimise shipping miles”

Regenerative Business

To sustain isn’t enough. COAT was born to create a positive force for the environment, society, and economy by giving back to the planet more than we take - and is certified as the first Climate Positive Paint Company. Combined with our zero-waste production and loop recycling system, we’re giving back more than we take.

Give back more to the world than we take”

“We created COAT to do things differently. Because our actions, as they say, speak louder than words...”

Zero Waste Production

(Don’t make things people don’t want)

100% Made To Order

The smarter way

Many paint companies batch-produce paint in large quantities, in different colours, for it to sit on shelves in stores or warehouses. It then sits there until someone walks in and wants that particular shade. Customers then take multiple trips to-and-from the stores to pick out a dusty tin. And at worst, this paint goes unsold and can get wasted.

But not COAT. We produce coloured paint to order, when you order it, and send it straight to home via Carbon Neutral delivery partners. That’s means no risk of excess waste in the supply chain - and less car trips to DIY stores too.

No waste

It’s not ‘what’ you do, but ‘how’ you do it that makes the difference. Plenty of companies make paint - but COAT makes it exclusively for you, and never for stocking in stores.

Our expert team mix paint freshly to your order right here in the UK, with 100% of our paint suppliers based here. Rather than the mass manufacture of ready mixed colours, our way avoids excess supply and waste in the supply chain by making only what’s needed.

It feels a bit of a no brainer, right?

Fresh Paints

Never off the shelf

Who wants some old paint off a dusty shelf? Paint made to be stocked and last ages on the shelf can have more nasty preservatives, and it’s more likely to split and separate whilst it waits for an owner. So for that luxuriously smooth pour and near-zero VOC’s, we’re 100% freshly mixed for you and hand finished by our expert team.

Picked and finished by hand Mixed and shipped the same day Fewer nasty preservatives The smoothest possible pour Shipped direct to your door

“Our paint mixing operation is ECOVADIS Gold Certified and ISO14001 / 19001 Certified”

2. Light Footprint Operations

(Keep things simple, and minimise our footprint)

DIY and paint stores can feel like a soul-destroying places. Racks of dusty paint tins stacked high, patchy stock of tester pots, and gloriously unflattering fluorescent lights to help you with that all important colour choice.

COAT changed the game. We decided to sell online, and deliver 100% accurate colour samples and fresh paint direct to your door.

Simple. Sustainable. Enjoyable.

Direct Shipping

We send paint directly from us, to you via carbon neutral delivery partners.

Our paints are sourced and made in the UK, meaning they cover much less mileage than larger international paint producers shipping finished tins of paint across borders. And, there’s no army of lorries hauling tins across the UK to sit on DIY store shelves either.

Minimised transport miles

Direct Carbon Neutral delivery

No high carbon impact logistics

No road journeys to stores

No store footprint

Fair Pricing

Cutting out the middlemen and distribution faff means we can price our paints competitively against more established luxury paint brands:

All data is publicly available and sourced directly from company websites (coatpaints.com, farrow-ball.com, littlegreene.com) or paint packaging. Data is correct at the time of publishing on 30.10.2024. All pricing data relates to comparable water-based durable matt emulsion products with <5% sheen, in 2.5L tin size. Prices quoted are based on the Recommended Retail Prices (incl. VAT). B Corp certification at bcorporation.net. Climate Positive Certification and Published Carbon Footprint at carbonjacked.com. For more details or verification hello@coatpaints.com.

View the full table here.

3. Conscious Products

(Make conscious paints - that last)

Not all paint is water-based and low or trace VOC like ours. Paints with high levels of VOCs still use heavy solvents and harmful chemicals. No thanks. We’re constantly pushing limits to make quality long-lasting paints that are kinder to people, and the planet.

Made to orders (zero waste)

Water-based (no nasty solvents)

Low or trace VOC (nasty chemical compounds)

Zero-VOC pigments

Locally sourced and made in the UK

Vegan, and 100% free of animal-derived ingredients

‘Child and Pet Safe’ tested under EN 71-3:2019 - often known as Safety of Toys Regulation. This test ensures there are no toxic ingredients that could harm children or pets if inhaled or accidentally ingested.

Indoor Air Comfort certified A+ (Eurofins)

Breathable, and made with natural minerals (Claypaint)

Clever Claypaint

Clever Samples

Typical paint tester pots can be wasteful, and messy to use.

“Gone are the days of endless paint tester pots going to waste. We’re pioneering clever prepainted samples, with 95% less waste than regular testers.”

We changed the game with COAT Peel & Stick Samples. 95% less waste, 100% recyclable, and 110% smarter thinking.

Any conscious business thinks hard about single-use plastics, and our Samples are the pack leader when it comes to practical and responsible choices:

95% less waste than a conventional 250ml tester pot (our swatches use <10ml of paint)

100% Adhesive free (no solvents)

4. Hyper-Local Focus

(Produce in the UK, and minimise shipping miles)

Print materials: Produced in Yorkshire using 100% recycled materials. Printed with biodegradable inks to be fully recyclable and compostable.

Packaging materials: Sourced in England within 100miles of our site to avoid unnecessary freight. 100% recyclable, and made from 100% recycled materials.

Shipping: We use carbon neutral delivery partners to get paint directly to you in a fast and effective way that relies on far fewer car and lorry journeys.

5.

Regenerative Business

(Give back more to the world than we take)

Certified: B Corp

Certified: The Climate Pledge

Our Carbon Footprint Certified:

(Measure it, Own it, and make it right)

Carbon Neutral Climate Positive

Measured, owned, and verified (from day one)

Independently verified Climate Action, by Carbon Jacked.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is currently no legislation dictating footprint assessmentsand no requirement within the paint industry at all to measure or openly publish assessments. But, being COAT, we’ve decided to behave differently.

We partner with Carbon Jacked as an independent third party to review, measure, and mitigate our emissions - in a rigorous, tangible way that we can stand by. We also openly publish in this document exactly what our impact is, where it comes from, and how we make it right.

Carbon Jacked is a totally independent third-party provider of carbon footprint assessments and formal verification of carbon neutrality, in line with the recognised Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol - which is the international framework for carbon accounting.

This is an accredited process and we are so happy to be working with an expert group as driven towards climate positive change as us. Beyond the measurement, Carbon Jacked help COAT to offset any unavoidable emissions through financial contribution to UN Gold Standard sustainability projects across the globe.

“Like us, COAT do things differently. They don’t see sustainability as an afterthought. They prioritised it from the start, partnering with Carbon Jacked to make them carbon neutral from day one.

And now they’ve gone even further by taking responsibility for their entire supply chain and offsetting more CO2 than they produce. The amount they’ve done in such a short time is genuinely standout.”

Jack Curtis and Jacques Sheehan - Founders at Carbon Jacked

Assessment Methodology

challenge, pushformore...that’swhat wedoatCOAT.BecomingClimate Positive isn’t somecertificateyouget-there’sarigorousevaluationprocess,actionplan and financial commitment tomake asacompany.

Here’show we’vebeen assessedbyinternationallyrenowned standardsby independent bodyCarbon Jacked.Thenumbershere areactuals fromApril 2021-March 2022, and we’reworkingwithCarbonJackedon an ongoingbasisto updateourmeasures annually on a retrospectivebasis.

Source:COAT Carbon FootprintAssessment 1stApril 2023–31stMarch 2024producedbyCarbonJacked. CarbonJackedare anindependentspecialistsincarbonassessmentand action:https://carbonjacked.com/coat

Source:COATCarbonFootprintAssessment1st April2023–31st March2024producedbyCarbon Jacked. Carbon Jacked are anindependent specialists incarbonassessment andaction:https://carbonjacked.com/coat

VERIFIED CLIMATE POSITIVE

VERIFIED CLIMATE POSITIVE

At COAT we decided to own our Scope 3 emissions too. We want to drive change, and if we can make friends and influence people to make better climate decisions let’s do it. In the meantime we’re taking responsibility and offsetting our supply chain emissions too.

Our emissions calculations do also include ‘end of life treatment’ of our products i.e. what people do with leftover paint for example. We’re working even harder to tackle those by only making paint to order (zero waste), and with our unique closed-loop recycling programme that allows customers to return empty or unused COAT paint to us for full reprocessing and recycling.

“Greenwashing by companies is pretty prevalent. Producing plastics, and then cleaning the Oceans. Polluting the planet, then planting new trees. We’ll never knock the positive actions anyone takes, but to be truly conscious companies need to think in a deeper way, and be far more transparent.”
Source: COAT Carbon Footprint Assessment 1st April 2023 – 31st March 2024 produced by Carbon Jacked. Carbon Jacked are an independent specialists in carbon assessment and action: https://carbonjacked.com/coat

Source: COAT Carbon Footprint Assessment 1st April 2023 – 31st March 2024 produced by Carbon Jacked. Carbon Jacked are an independent specialists in carbon assessment and action: https://carbonjacked.com/coat

*Carbon dioxide equivalent is the unit of measurement used to capture the global warming impact of the six core greenhouse gases set out in the Kyoto Protocol such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

VERIFIED CLIMATE POSITIVE

Responsible, beyond our own business

98% of COAT’s Scope 3 emissions come from Purchased Goods and Services. That’s the stuff we buy from our suppliers. It is not unusual for an online business like COAT to have limited Scope 1 & 2 emissions - but it means that to have the greatest positive impact, we’re focusing improvements on Scope 3 and the areas in our supply chain that are more difficult to influence. The stuff in your control is easy. Influencing and taking responsibility for others is not - but it’s the right thing.

Purchased Goods & Services emissions are the emissions of a product or service from its creation to the point of purchase (‘cradle to gate’). For example, the emissions associated with the purchase of paint would include all raw materials, production and operations. For PG&S, by far the biggest source of COAT’s emissions comes from base paint and colourant, as well as the factory production and packing process.

Source: COAT Carbon Footprint Assessment 1st April 2023 – 31st March 2024 produced by Carbon Jacked. Carbon Jacked are an independent specialists in carbon assessment and action: https://carbonjacked.com/coat
*Carbon dioxide equivalent is the unit of measurement used to capture the global warming impact of the six core greenhouse gases set out in the Kyoto Protocol such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
VERIFIED CLIMATE POSITIVE

Mitigating Any Impact

Assembly, and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030. That’s not so far away...

COAT contributes financially to initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, supporting way beyond a minimal offset amount. Not only that, the projects we support are verified Gold Standard by the UN, and contribute to 12 of these 17 sustainable development goals.

That’s pretty cool, right? (pun absolutely intended).

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Smart Focus

COAT is offsetting more than our measured carbon footprint - because we think that ‘to sustain’ in this world is not enough. We want to give back more than we take, and help to turn the tides.

We’re supporting projects verified under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) programme, which is one of the leading international standards for the verification of carbon credits in the world. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

Purchased Goods & Services emissions are the emissions of a product or service from its creation to the point of purchase (‘cradle to gate’). For example, the emissions associated with the purchase of paint would include all raw materials, production and operations. For PG&S, by far the biggest source of COAT’s emissions comes from base paint and colourant, as well as the factory production and packing process.

Effectively protecting and restoring forests has the potential to mitigate 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 - significantly reducing the effects of climate change.

Planting new trees ain’t going to save us, so let’s protect the trees we’ve got.

But you might not know that poorly planned and illegal farming is responsible for 80% of forest loss - lots of which happens across continents like Africa and South America. Carbon Tanzania is an organisation that COAT supports with carbon offsetting credits, with projects designed to address the issue of poorly planned or illegal deforestation by empowering communities to enforce their land use plans and defend their land rights. With irreversible climate changes less than a decade away - we think the battle lies in protecting ancient forests, not necessarily in planting new seeds. It’s sad, but we’ve got to move faster than that.

COAT has chosen to support the Ntakata Mountains project in Tanzania, purchasing credits via Carbon Jacked equating to 687 tonnes of CO2e. This project is certified under the Verified Carbon  Standard (VCS), which is one of the leading international standards for the certification of carbon  credits. The VCS is administered by the nonprofit Verra and further information can be found here.

The Future

What Next?

We won’t stop

We started right. Local sourcing, clean products, and zero-waste production. Oh, and Carbon Neutral operations from day one.

Going beyond that to look at up-and-downstream Carbon emissions and owning them right now, is a step that the majority of companies never take.

We hope you feel that our actions speak for us.

There’s so much that can still be done though. We have a plan to lobby our supply chain, bring innovation to the table, implement cutting edge work practices and continue to reduce carbon emissions in house and with our entire supply chain.

Watch this space. Make moves.

“We started a company from nothing in 2020, and made sure our footprint was light from day one. We want to leave a better planet behind for our kids, just like plenty of other thoughtful people out there” - Rob A

We’ve shared how we do things at COAT and the ethical decisions we make. Not because we’re sanctimonious - but because we think consumers deserve to know who they’re buying from, to make conscious choices. A few too many charts perhaps, but you get it.

We’re not chaining ourselves to trees at the weekend or anything, we’re just really conscious of our impact and making the right decisions for a better future. We’ve got control of how we behave as a business and the decisions we make - so we’re making sure we use ours in the right way to offer a better option for painters.

Bravo if you got to this point. And thanks for being curious about responsible business. We’re always here if you want to chat

“Numbers are important, because if you can’t measure your impact then how will you improve it? But behind the numbers, and the company, we’re people - who care.” - Rob G

Sustainable Principles: An Open Book 2024-25

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