Some businesses go green because of legal obligations, others add a solar panel to save a few dollars and still more stick on an organic stamp to capture a previously unknown market. Dunn-Edwards Paint is not like these businesses. They have jumped at every chance they have gotten to make their paint as environmentally friendly as possible since the start. 
In a world where business conscious is now often eco-conscious, it is hard to weed the true earth-loving business people from the market savvy corporations. But with a glance at their history, it is easy to distinguish Dunn-Edwards Paint as one of the former. As is the motto
at Dunn-Edwards, they are “Greener by Design.”
The seed of the business was planted in 1925 by Frank Dunn, who began a wallpaper store in Los Angeles. As the business grew, Dunn began manufacturing his own paints. In 1938 he formed the Dunn-Edwards Corporation with a friend, Arthur C. Edwards.
In the 1950s, twenty-five years before the federal government forced paint makers to remove lead from their paints, Dunn-Edwards did just that and discontinued the last of their lead based products simply because they cared about their customers. Throughout the past forty years they have also rid their water-based paints of common, but potentially harmful ingredients like mercury biocide and ethylene glycol, and their colorants of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), all before standards were created to limit these substances.
In 2011 manufacturing and distributions operations were consolidated into a LEED Gold-certified facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which reuses washwater, prevents particulate matter emissions and recycles over 95% of their process waste stream. To prevent soil and groundwater contamination, they have no underground storage tanks.
Dunn-Edwards paints are made for efficient application and durability, to cover more surface area without wasting paint and to last as long as possible before requiring reapplication.
Going beyond their obligation to sell paint, Dunn-Edwards developed a Green Building Paint Guide for architects and interior designers. The guide covers Dunn-Edwards products qualifying for LEED®, CHPS Green Wise and CRGI standards, as well as their Zero VOC and Recover (Dunn-Edwards’ recycled latex paint) lines.
At Dunn-Edwards Paints, the proof is in the paint. By investing in research to keep their paint above performance requirements and ecological standards, and voluntarily initiating policies to keep products non-toxic and eco-friendly, Dunn-Edwards makes it clear that they care about their customers, and about the planet.
“We believe in eco-efficiency, which for us means: “do more good” by optimizing the performance of our paints, and “do less harm” by reducing or avoiding the use of harmful ingredients.”
-Robert Wendoll, Director of Environmental Affairs at Dunn-Edwards.
–Aidan Kelly
Photo Credit: Dunn-Edwards Paints
