The cleaner, the greener? Product sustainability assessment of the biomimetic façade paint Lotusan^® in comparison to the conventional façade paint Jumbosil^®

Abstract

Background: The debate on the question whether biomimetics has a specific potential to contribute to sustainability is discussed among scientists, business leaders, politicians and those responsible for project funding. The objective of this paper is to contribute to this controversial debate by presenting the sustainability assessment of one of the most well-known and most successful biomimetic products: the façade paint Lotusan®. Results: As a first step it has been examined and verified that the façade paint Lotusan® is correctly defined as a biomimetic product. Secondly, Lotusan® has been assessed and compared to a conventional façade paint within the course of a detailed product sustainability assessment (PROSA). For purposes of comparison, the façade paint Jumbosil® was chosen as reference for a conventional paint available on the market. The benefit analysis showed that both paints fulfil equally well the requirements of functional utility. With respect to the symbolic utility, Lotusan® has a particular added aesthetic value by the preservation of the optical quality over the life cycle. Within the social analysis no substantial differences between the two paints could be found regarding the handling and disposal of the final products. Regarding the life-cycle cost, Lotusan® is the more expensive product. However, the higher investment cost for a Lotusan®-based façade painting are more than compensated by the longer life time, resulting in both reduced overall material demand and lower labour cost. In terms of the life-cycle impact assessment, it can be ascertained that substantial differences between the paints arise from the respective service life, which are presented in terms of four scenario analyses. Conclusion: In summary, the biomimetic façade paint Lotusan® has been identified as a cost-effective and at the same time resource-saving product. Based on the underlying data and assumptions it could be demonstrated that Lotusan®-based façade paintings have a comparatively low overall impact on the environment. Summarizing our results, it can be emphasized that Lotusan® is the more favourable product compared to Jumbosil® according to sustainability aspects.

Paradigms for biologically inspired design

“…These steps were all completed by the botanists, lead by Willem Barthlott, who discovered the mechanism and they further suggested possibly applications in self-cleaning surfaces and paint (step 4 and 5) 28 . Barthlott patented the Lotus effect in 1995 and the company Sto SE & Co acquired the patent and started producing the paint Lotusan (step 6 and 7), which is now commercially available and has demonstrated advantages including being more cost effective compared to traditionally paints 29 . Thus, the Lotus effect is a clear example of a successful application of solution-driven BID.…”

What Do We Learn from Good Practices of Biologically Inspired Design in Innovation?

“…In particular, the focus has been on the contribution of BID to idea generation and to the development of biologically inspired solutions. In this context, several studies analyzed cases of BID, for instance the motivation for development [33], how to classify [8] or assess the solutions, for example, in terms of sustainability [14,15], or the general success of development [2,22]. Based on the BioM Innovation Database [22], 70% of the BioM products did not make it to the marketing phase, as they were still in development, a concept, or already discontinued.…”

“…Implementing BID in practice offers a potential to generate optimized solutions combined with the potential to address sustainability as shown for instance with air-retaining surfaces which lead to drag reduction and, as a consequence, a reduced fuel consumption [12]. The topic of sustainability in the context of BID [2,8,[13][14][15] as well as the limitations of transferring knowledge from biological systems to technological application [16] need separate analysis, and the reader is referred to the indicated literature.…”

Biological and biomimetic materials and surfaces

“…Antony et al [ 21 ] present the sustainability assessment of the facade paint Lotusan ® , which is a well-known biomimetic development based on the research of Wilhelm Barthlott. The authors used criteria from the Association of German Engineers (VDI) to verify whether the product can be defined as biomimetic.…”

“…Using a systematic comparative product sustainability assessment (PROSA), the authors demonstrated that this cost-effective and resource-saving product is indeed biomimetic. It is also shown that Lotusan ® has a low environmental impact [ 21 ].…”