He went on to note VOCs count as greenhouse gases and told the delegates the industry needed to ensure a uniform approach to rules across Europe.
International Paint, in conjunction with industry partners the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) and Awlgrip, says it’s working to ensure its customers have access to accurate and concise information, along with training and support tools to facilitate compliance.
Albert Willemsen, ICOMIA’s environmental representative, backed Holmberg’s claims, telling the audience VOCs were affecting the troposphere zone. He added that some 90% of boatbuilders and yards at present don’t comply with the directive.
The SED is EU legislation which aims to prevent or reduce emissions of VOCs into air by regulating solvent-based activities which are the source of the VOC emissions.
Businesses that area affected by the SED will need to either: filter out VOCs from emissions to air and meet a VOC emission limit value in discharged waste gases; or implement a plan to reduce solvent use by adoption of a solvent emission reduction scheme.
The legislation affects any facility - such as a boatyard, boatbuilder or application facility - if its annual use of VOC totals five tonnes (5,000kg) per year, or more. Larger users of VOCs using more than 15 tons per year are more heavily restricted and there are different types of limits for different operations.
In the pleasure craft industry, metal coating operations have different VOC emission limits to wood coating operations.
The SED is not just about paint and coatings products: it is relevant to any facility which produces solvent emissions - some 20 different activities in total, ranging from dry cleaning to footwear manufacture.
Solvent users can determine the amount of VOCs contained within a product by obtaining the relevant material safety data sheet from the manufacturer of the product. International Paint product labels and product data sheets contain information relating to VOC content and this data is also supplied pre-loaded into the Solvent Emissions Reporting tool that has been developed in conjunction with ICOMIA.

How can a yard become compliant?
Under the SED, yards have a legal obligation to comply with VOC regulations set by the country in which they operate. In order to become compliant with this legislation, yards have the option to take one of two approaches, both of which require the preparation of an inventory of all solvent containing products used in the yard.
Option 1 – In this approach, the yard must capture and filter all VOC emissions as they are drawn through a chimney stack or similar. They must also track and quantify all ‘fugitive’ emissions that may escape via open windows, doors, drains etc. This option is applicable to a yard in which coating activities are carried out inside a building.
Option 2 – Where it is impossible to capture VOC emissions (for example, outdoor painting or surface cleaning operations) yards are required to comply by implementing a ‘Solvent Reduction Scheme’ – whereby they must reduce VOC use to meet a given target. This approach is based around each yard calculating their own annual emissions of VOC based on their product inventory and taking into account usage, purchases and recycling activities.

International Paint, along with its sister company, Awlgrip, is sponsoring ICOMIA’s efforts to work with the European Commission to implement the SED, in a way which is workable within the marine industry.
It is also working to develop products to support its customers’ regulatory challenges. Finally, to help yards and builders plan their compliance activities, the company has developed a Solvent Emissions Reporting tool. This digital tool comes fully formatted with International Paint products to save customers the complicated task of inputting product data sheet figures, as is required.
Information regarding the SED and other regulatory issues will shortly be available on International Paint's trade website, yachtpaint.com/trade