carbon eating murals

Global warming is a hot topic which has a lot of doom and gloom surrounding it right now, however this is not the place for that negative energy! This is a platform for positivity and aesthetically pleasing paint. Which leads perfectly onto the subject at hand and our good friends at Graphenstone who are doing remarkable things within the paint product space, with the environment at the forefront of what they do. Their lime based paints are hungry, carbon eating coatings that contribute to reducing CO2 (during the curing phase) and irradiating toxic air-born chemicals, typically present in busy city centres. 

Luckily for you, we’ve teamed up with someone in the know about this product: Patrick Folkes, Director at Graphenstone. He kindly took the time to answer some questions and give us an insight into what this company is all about, how the product works and why it is so important for consumers in this industry to paint with the environment in mind.

Here's Patrick!

Louis– So, what exactly is Graphenstone?

PF– Simply put, Graphenstone is a range of decorative paints and primers, usable in all areas and on all substrates, inside and out.

Louis– How and when did the story of Graphenstone all begin?

PF– The story began in 2012 when a scientist with a background in the paint business set out to create a range of natural paints, while taking advantage of the amazing Nobel Prize winning 21st century discovery of graphene (sourced from pure carbon). 

Antonio Leon spent two years perfecting a paint which fuses graphene, the strongest material on earth, with lovely trusted natural materials like lime, clay, chalk and other carbonates to create something unique and special in a historically toxic industry. 

The rest, as they say, is history! Graphenstone has quickly gained traction all over the world as specifiers from the architectural and design communities move swiftly to more ecological and sustainable alternatives.

Louis– What exactly is it that makes your paint different to others, how does it work?

PF– This unique fusion offers a natural range without the usual compromise in performance. Mineral and natural, yet Class 1 strength; unique. 

As important as the ingredients are, it’s as much about what we do NOT have in the product make-up. No man-made chemicals or petro-chemicals, microbeads or VOC’s (trace level only at under 1g per litre, the lowest profile in the market). Other key features are our certifications, such as Cradle to Cradle Institute (C2C) – every one of our paints ranges has passed the thorough and holistic C2C product evaluation process, giving our customers the independent evidence of Graphenstone’s genuinely powerful claims in terms of sustainability and ecological purity. 

Finally, it’s fantastic quality; much higher in solid content (what you really pay for that remains on your wall, after the water has evaporated away), super rich in pigments so the colours really ‘Ping’ and incredibly easy to apply.

CO2 absorbing mural by peche at nmbw festival

Louis– What brought you to work for such a purpose driven organisation?

PF– As so often happens, I didn’t go out to find a paints brand. I was introduced to the Graphenstone founders back in 2016, down in Seville Spain, perhaps my favourite city in Europe! It was only after doing further research that I was tempted by the opportunities to bring something new and technically advanced (using graphene technology) to the market. The good news is that designers and many retail buyers are now increasingly demanding cleaner, certified paint products.

Louis– Have you seen an increase in artists using your paints?

PF– Yes, murals seem to be a fast-growing sector in the paints market. We’ve increased supply to mural artists exponentially in the past year and been a part of some amazing projects, including two with yourselves! 

Louis– Yeah we loved working with your Australian team on our street art festival No More Blank Walls in Perth which Graphenstone were a sponsor of. We worked out that we painted 550m2 which equates roughly to 15kg of CO2 absorbed, on top of the 24 trees you guys planted for us which will absorb 4.8 tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime.

vibrant graphenstone paints at NMbw festival in perth

Graphenstone x Blank Walls project – 3 artist-led clean air murals were commissioned in London, Newcastle and Belfast on behalf of WRAP.

mural by woskerski

PF– Other notable work moments of mine include Rise Up Clean Up Margate, where several dozen huge walls were used as the backdrop for our air-purifying paints ranges, across Margate. Lots of fantastically talented artists were secured for the project and their Instagram page is testament to the quite extraordinary results. 

We’ve also worked with Lindemans wines with some amazing murals, Tier Scooters, Tower Hamlets, INSA in Basildon, painted a huge Blue Whale on a wall in a Battersea school yard and many others.

Louis– Could you wow us with some facts and figures about the positive impact Graphenstone products have produced as a result of a particular project?

PF– We recently provided paints for 1000 student rooms in London for Greystar, a US based real estate business. The relative carbon saving (CO2e) was over 23 tonnes! Just from paints. That’s a 21-tonne relative saving against traditional synthetic products (we have one of the lowest embedded carbon profiles in the industry) in addition to a 2.5 tonne saving from the actual CO2 reabsorption process of the Graphenstone lime products used. An amazing result.

Louis– What does the future hold at Graphenstone?

PF– Paints is a huge industry and we’re still a very small brand. Our future is about educating trade and the public alike about the impact of their colour choice on both health (VOC’s, off-gassing and the importance of air quality in both homes and offices, given how much time we spend inside these days) and the ecology of the planet. Given the climate emergency, these are incredibly important issues and paints have historically been a highly toxic and polluting industry. Time for Change and that time is right now. It’s time to #PaintDifferent with Graphenstone and Turn it Around.

this is not a green wash! Show your consumers you care with a carbon eating mural