Workshop: From Regulation to Reality: How Coatings Companies Are Making Trade-offs on Sustainability, Performance & Risk

From Regulation to Reality: How Coatings Companies Are Making Trade-offs on Sustainability, Performance & Risk, examines how organisations are navigating reformulation decisions, managing regulatory uncertainty, and weighing sustainability commitments against performance demands. 

This workshop explores how coatings companies are navigating difficult decision-making in an environment where sustainability goals, regulatory pressures, cost, and product performance often conflict.

Rather than focusing on technical solutions or regulatory updates, it centres on how organisations make strategic choices under uncertainty. Key challenges include assessing risk, deciding when to reformulate products, determining acceptable performance trade-offs, and clarifying responsibility as regulations continue to evolve.

The session begins by framing the issue: decision-making itself has become a major bottleneck, as companies struggle to balance competing priorities. It then presents multiple industry perspectives, highlighting real-world examples of difficult decisions, unavoidable compromises, and ongoing uncertainties.

A moderated debate follows, tackling critical questions such as whether companies are acting too quickly or too slowly on reformulation, whether durability is undervalued in sustainability metrics, and how regulatory risk should be shared across the value chain. Audience interaction plays a central role in shaping the discussion.

The workshop concludes with a synthesis of insights and practical takeaways, helping participants rethink their own approaches and develop clearer, more confident decision-making frameworks in the face of ongoing uncertainty