According to Matthew Brown, Managing Director of Uzin Utz UK Ltd, the company leads the way on sustainability, with a raft of accreditations, such as EC1, EC1 Plus and Blue Angel.
“We have been sustainability orientated since 1985 and I believe we are world leaders in this area,” he says. “We produced the first solvent-free adhesive for flooring and have looked towards removing solvents from all our products since then. We look at this as an environmental and social responsibility.”

The company’s Chairman of the supervisory board and previous CEO, Dr Werner Utz, was involved, along with likeminded colleagues, in 1997 in the development of the EMICODE, which is the accreditation for for construction products with low emissions. In the 1980s the company produced the first solvent-free dispersion adhesive for flooring and in the 1990s a full low emission flooring system. Also in the 1990s it started using recycled and recyclable packaging and since 2011 it has almost totally removed solvents from its range.

“We do find that there is still an important role for training,” says Matthew Brown, “as some installers still prefer the solvent-based products, and we are aware that we still sometimes have to convince people of the effectiveness of solvent-free products. Unfortunately there are still some products containing quite unpleasant chemicals in use out there.”

The company uses raw materials which have been produced sustainably as far as possible, and has worked with BASF to develop polymers which are from biomass, rather than the petrochemical industry. It has managed to do this without its products being generally more expensive than those of other companies. It is also proud of the fact that all the adhesives that it sells in the UK come from the greenest adhesive production facility in Europe, which is situated in the Netherlands and is completely carbon neutral.

To read more please click here