About VILLANATURA, UK suppliers of Biofa paints

The company was set up by Jerome Petit MD who grew up in Southern France where his family had a hardware shop. His parents tried every means to cure Jerome's eczema - the only way that worked was to repaint their house using natural paints. The results were so good - Jerome's eczema got so much better - that they stopped selling chemical paint and only stocked natural paints. Jerome therefore grew up with the concept of natural products from a young age.

He set up Villa Natura Ltd in Brighton in the summer of 2002 along with Laurent Robert who has a background in the hotel business. Between them they have vast experience of selling, marketing and customer service. They want to continue to bring quality European products to the UK.

BIOFA paints obtained the best results in the ECOBILAN tests, carried out in collaboration with the French Environment Ministry and the French Environment and Energy Control Agency, in December 1993.

Profile of Villa Natura as an environmentally aware company
In the 21st century, environmental issues are part of the complexities of running a successful business. At Villa Natura we have naturally taken these issues as the bedrock of the company. We reuse, recycle and watch our CO2 output.
The company was founded on the belief that the products that we import should be of the highest quality; the definition of quality meaning both production values of our suppliers and the interaction of the manufacturing process with the environment as well as the performance of the finished product.

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About AURO

Auro Phytochemistry is based in Germany and the company has been producing natural paints for about 15 years. The guiding principle behind Auro is to respect the environment at every stage.

For bonding agents Auro use only replenishable (vegetable) raw materials. The pigments used are also exclusively of vegetable or mineral origin. Auro paints and varnishes contain NO artificial preservatives and make no secret about the origin of all the contents of their products.

Linseed oil is the main raw material used in Auro products and is grown within 30km of the Braunschweig factory by farmers using regulated organic methods, minimising transport and guaranteeing quality. The binder used is from the tropical Dammar tree. This sustainable use of the forests maintains the eco-system and gives its inhabitants a secure source of income. Rainwater at the main factory is collected in a series of underground tanks and pumped to points of use, and because Auro products consist of natural raw materials, the small quantity of waste slurry produced during manufacture is easily disposed of by being turned into plant-friendly compost.
The Auro factory itself has been refurbished throughout using Auro products according to the principles of building biology. All work stations have natural daylight, natural ventilation and solid wood furniture, the exterior has planted open areas.
Auro stain products present no hazard to children. They conform to the DIN European Standard 71 safety regulation for children’s toys and are resistant to saliva and sweat, with certification issued on compliance with EURO Norm (EN) 927, and there is also an unrestricted recommendation of these products from Germany.s best reputed eco magazine, Oko Test.

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About AQUAMARIJN

Aquamarijn has more than fifteen years experience in the development of professional, ecological and responsible natural paint products. It is the first Dutch natural paint manufacturer which has concentrated on the development of durable natural paints made from natural products. As a basic principle all Aquamarijn products consist of natural, vegetable (i.e. harvestable) or mineral raw materials.

Let’s be honest.
Every manufacturer of natural paint products comes up against limits where the technical qualities of natural raw materials cannot satisfy the quality requirements that are currently placed on the end product. Only in these cases is an alternative used. Here the basic principle is to find an optimum balance between the highest possible durability and the lowest possible impact on the environment. That is why Aquamarijn has formulated the Natural Paint Classification. Together with the Raw Materials List, this classification in four classes gives a clear insight into the composition and the degree of naturalness in each product. the class numbers are displayed on the label in the form of a tree symbol.

Class 1 = more than 99% natural raw materials
Class 2 = more than 95% natural raw materials
Class 3 = more than 90% natural raw materials
Class 4 = more than 70% natural raw materials

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About CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES - The UK’s first ecological builders merchant

Construction Resources is Britain's first ecological builders' merchant, and a centre for ecological building, bringing together under one roof in central London a unique range of state-of-the-art building products and systems.

They sell high-performance building materials and systems, for both domestic and commercial construction, which combine maximum use of safe, healthy, renewable natural materials with minimum use of energy and of non-renewable and non-recyclable resources. This embraces products and systems of a wide range of complexity, from the most basic unfired clay bricks and plasters, to the most sophisticated heating control systems providing maximum comfort and efficiency with minimum use of non-renewable fossil fuel.

The building itself is a converted factory which includes 3 floors of display, a seminar room, a training and demonstration room, a warehouse with trade counter, and advice counters staffed by specialists in each product area. The services are mainly directed towards the building trades, architects, engineers and other professionals, but the building is also open to the general public.

All the products on display are available for sale from the centre and delivery can be arranged all over the UK. Some items, such as paints and finishes, insulation materials, rainwater filters, brushes and tools, and books and magazines on sustainable building, can be taken away the same day, other products may need to be ordered.

Seminars and the provision of information are an important part of Construction Respurces activities. Both introductory and specialist seminars are open to the general public as well as to professionals, and they have a range of product information sheets available both online and for collection in person. Training courses for trades in the application, installation and maintenance of many of the specialist products and systems which are sold are available.

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About TIERRAFINO^®

The Dutch company, ‘Leembouw Nederland’, is based in Amsterdam. Carl Giskes is the name of the chap who set up the firm and came up with Tierrafino, an organic and environmentally healthy wall finish. Carl’s motivation is to build healthy houses. That is what he continues to do. The number of clay building projects realised is over 500.

His enterprise produces and applies clay products. His firm has built and/or plastered villas, housing development projects, schools, shops, farms, museums, factories, a cinema, a court house, a new age centre and an engineering firm, as well as government offices of all sorts like tax offices and town halls and the nature protection headquarters of The Netherlands.

‘An increasing number of architects realise that the choice for clay is in the first place a healthy choice’, says Carl, who travels all over to teach. Designers and architects are amongst his clients, but he also assists those who want to refurbish their home themselves, and professional plasterers, as well as universities and centres of learning for ecological building.
Tierrafino clay finish is a 100% natural building material made from a mix of clays and coloured sands. The material is extracted from quarries around Europe, is uncontaminated and contains no chemical or pigment additives. Its characteristics include excellent adhesion, durability and colour purity, it is non-flammable and is as tough as lime mortar stucco.
Clay, loam or mud, three words for the same organic building material, it breathes thirty times as much oxygen as brick and a hundred times as much as concrete. The amount of silicon in clay is the same as the amount of silicon in the human body. Their inner electric capacities are alike. Clay consists of 50% oxygen, 40% silicon and 10% minerals, trace elements and enzymes.
Clay has some very special inherent qualities. It is a breathing surface that regulates both humidity and temperature. By absorbing moisture it makes rooms more tolerable in humid weather. And when the weather becomes drier it releases moisture into the room helping to improve the air quality. Clay surfaces can also help moderate temperature swings. Wall surfaces remain cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The more clay used in a room the greater the beneficial effects, and so Tierrafino works best when it is applied over a thick undercoat of clay plaster. Tierrafino can also be used safely over in-wall heating systems.
Once applied the colour of Tierrafino never changes and is easy to repair. Even after some years impairments can be mended without showing, by applying the same mix of colours. Walls plastered with Tierrafino are easily made to look anew when washed down with a wet sponge and rubbed with a soft brush. If you want to change the colour of your walls at a later date, just sprinkle ‘Tierrafino®’ powder onto a wet sponge and apply this to the already plastered wall
Tierrafino is available in six standard colours which complement each other and can be mixed to create attractive options. The standard colours are: Delphi-white; Roman-ochre; Djenné-red; Iquitos-green; Gomera-grey and Nassau-orange. Any shade can be created by adding varying amounts of Delphi-white with the other colours. For a natural look very finely chopped straw looks great in ocherous shades. For other effects mother-of-pearl can be added, which is exactly what I have done in my kitchen and it looks bloomin’ marvellous all day long!

‘Tierrafino ®’ allows a smooth form and finish in tune with the Post Modern style of today, extra shine can be created on ‘Tierrafino ®’-plastered walls by polishing them with agate stone. The natural ingredients give a livelier wall than plasters that close off the surface. Clay is ecologically as well as economically an interesting finish. ‘It has become fashionable to live in clay,’ Carl explains, ‘even if it is only for the extra oxygen.’

Recently Tierrafino has also introduced a clay paint available in the same base colours as Tierrafino clay but has an added ‘Dover white’ and again the paints can be mixed with each other to obtain different colours, although as the clay paint is made from naturally occurring other so many colour variations are possible.

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About BIOFA

BIOFA are one of Germany's leading manufacturers of natural paints. Their products are some of the best performing on the market and have been extensively specified for commercial use throughout much of Europe and having won many awards over the years.
Biofa Paints was established in 1980 as a subsidiary of a company manufacturing homoeopathic remedies. Graduate engineer Werner Hahn had worked with cultivating medicinal plants and the natural production of remedies, dietary products and natural cosmetics since 1974. He transferred his experience with natural remedies to the production of natural paints, adhesives, waxes and cleaning products.

Biofa believes running a successful business in the 21st century is a thoroughly multi-faceted operation. With the impact of human industrial activity becoming a significant, and in many cases disturbing, influence on our global environment and individual human health, manufacturing businesses must rise to the challenge of becoming a fully functioning part of the natural cycles of nature and human social systems. There is no room for wasteful production of toxic artificial materials if industry is to fully support the development of a perpetually sustainable production and distribution system. The level of transparency global communications and information technology has introduced to business processes makes it not only desirable, but essential, to make ethical imperatives a core of any business operation.

BIOFA, the founding part of the BIO group of companies realised many of these key factors during the 1970’s. The companies have built a manufacturing operation and business model on a number of sound principals which have recently been categorised as an “ethical business” model and are seen as at the forefront of future business development.

The key aspects of this company philosophy are:
- Human activity is only part of nature
- Materials used for human activity must be left as natural as possible and returned to natural cycles
- Ecological loss and damage should not be socialised when economic gain is capitalised
- Products should manufactured and marketed to improve the human well-being and general environment
- Manufacturing should be based on renewable resources
- Marketing and distribution of products should be a mutually beneficial process for customers, business partners and employees in the spirit of partnership
- Responsibility for product quality and full information about product ingredients is the best marketing strategy
All companies in the BIO group subscribe to these principals and project the same image of openness about manufacturing and production processes and quality assurance to the customers in their countries and regions of operation.

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About the ASSOCIATION FOR ENVIRONMENT CONSCIOUS BUILDING

The AECB is the leading independent environmental building trade organisation in the UK. The Association, with it’s network of members and publications provide a wealth of knowledge to enable you or your company to help the environment. Formed in 1989 the AECB encourages greater environmental awareness within the building construction industry. Its diverse membership encompasses almost every sector of building construction and management.

The AECB Charter encourages its members to persevere towards ever-improving environmental standards in exchange for dedicated support and promotion from the association. AECB members consistently win leading industry awards for their energy efficient and ecologically sensitive buildings. SPEC is the AECB Sustainable Projects Endorsement Certificate which gives formal recognition to members who apply the principles of the Association in their work.
Over the last ten years AECB members have accumulated such prestigious awards as the `Green Leaf Housing Awards' (New Homes Marketing Board), `Green Building of the Year Award' (Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association), Marley Environmental Awards (Marley Building Products) and many others.

Click here to go to our links section for the AECB contact details



About HOLKHAM LINSEED OIL PAINTS

Tom Coke, of the Norfolk estate Holkham, has rather a lot of properties which need regular maintenance. He was dissatisfied with the poor performance of modern ‘industry standard’ paints and learned about Hans Allback’s Swedish linseed oil paint at a meeting in Norfolk and secured a licence to import it.

Unlike modern paints which generally form a protective coating on the surface of wood, linseed oil paint utilises the small size of it’s molecules and it’s capillary action to enter wood and nourish it. The pigment then over the years gradually oxidises with the environment and brushes off, in doing so it fades after 6-8 years and becomes chalky after 12-15 years. It can be revitalised with a coat of warm linseed oil or a single coat of linseed oil paint.
Holkham Linseed Paints last up to 3 times longer than modern paints. Not only will the subtle paint colours decorate your woodwork beautifully, but the linseed oil in the paint gives protection and nourishment to the wood itself.

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About ECO-SOLUTIONS

Eco Solutions was developed out of a concern for health, safety and the environment. Their roots are in a company that was one of the UK's larger users of solvent-based paint strippers. Being worried about the negative impacts of chemical paint stripping on health and the environment, they set themselves the task of developing safe and environmentally friendly alternatives to dangerous solvents that were effective for daily use in a commercial environment.
Eco-Solutions is a world-leading technology and innovations-driven company that has developed internationally patented leading-edge water-based paint strippers, coatings removers and associated products. Eco Solutions is dedicated to providing safe and eco-friendly alternatives to hazardous solvents for use by consumers, as well as in a variety of applications across different industries.
Eco-Solutions is run by a small team of people with over 40 years experience in the coatings removal and paint stripping industry. In the words of their founder, Ivor Chivers:
"We were fed-up with the increased indirect costs associated with the use of solvent-based paint stripping products. Our employees regularly complained of headaches and we suffered from a high staff-turnover, which was normal in our industry at that time."
"Fortunately for us, government regulations were tightened towards the late 1980's. As professional users, we were no longer allowed to work with solvent-based products without dressing-up like astronauts and following very stringent health and safety guidelines. I just do not understand why these dangerous products are still being sold over-the-counter to consumers, who often do not read the warning labels on the tin. That is amazing, when you consider that these labels carry the risk phrase R40, 'Possible risk of irreversible effects'"
"There were no clean and safe products available, which were effective enough to be used in our daily paint stripping and coatings removal business, so we took a gamble and developed our own. Today Eco-Solutions markets the safe alternative to solvent-based strippers; all our products are water-based and do not harm their users or the environment."
In addition to this, eco-solutions is the only company known to us, to be marketing a paint stripper with a CE-mark for safety as a children's toy. Their Home Strip product is thus being re-packaged for sale into the educational sector, both in the United Kingdom and overseas.

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About LIVOS

LIVOS Phytochemistry began over 25 years ago in Germany with a small group of teachers working with handicapped children. This group included a few hobby chemists, who created nontoxic organic finger paints for their students. Their formulas weren’t all that new. Long before people developed acrylic, latex and other synthetic resins, houses and furniture were cared for and brightened with organic pigments blended with natural oils and other ingredients, all safe for humans, animals, air, water and soil. Once people tried these reformulated safe paints, the teachers were swamped with requests from schools and hospitals wanting more safe paints for children. From that revolutionary beginning grew a thriving international company.

Healthy, organic products for your home decorating and home care needs. Made without harmful chemicals, LIVOS naturals contain only biologically and environmentally responsible ingredients, grown without pesticides. For over a quarter century, LIVOS has employed the science of phytochemistry in formulating its 1,200 natural products. This science updates centuries-old formulas based on healthy natural resources for use in our demanding modern world. For stringent quality assurance, LIVOS follows a three-part system: all ingredients are tested for human health and safety, then for environmental health and safety, then for how the ingredients react with each other. (LIVOS never tests on animals.) This unique system helps LIVOS produce the best quality products in the industry.

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About the GREEN BUILDING STORE

The Green Building Store is wholly owned and run by Environmental Construction Products Ltd, a company which has specialised in environmentally sensitive building products since 1995. The company is committed to products which promote energy efficient, sustainable and healthy buildings.
The Green Building Store has recently (2001) been launched, with the aim of making these products more widely available to private and trade customers through an efficient online, mail-order and information services. Their range of products include doors & windows, paints, water saving WC’s, natural insulation and steel guttering.
They are based in the picturesque small town of Meltham in the rural Yorkshire Pennines. Founded by three experienced building professionals, Bill Butcher, Chris Herring and Steve Slator, the company grew out of their commitment to developing thermally efficient and environmentally sensitive building practices.
Bill and Steve designed and built the Longwood (Huddersfield) low-energy house, one of the most energy efficient in the UK. This house has been featured in a number of technical publications, and was one of the only four properties selected to pilot the Building Research Establishment's environmental assessment scheme (BREEAM)
Chris and Steve have been involved in research into the health and environmental implications of timber preservatives, and have been published on the subject in Building For a Future, the journal of the Association for Environment-Conscious Building (AECB).
All three directors are longstanding members of the Association for Environment-Conscious Building, and Chris has served on the National Steering Committee for some years.

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About CALCH-TY-MAWR

Calch Ty-Mawr Lime Limited: The business was established in 1995 in order to provide appropriate materials for the repair of the farmhouse and outbuildings and subsequently to make these generally available. Lime-based products and related materials are now sold throughout Wales and the Borders, as well as to specific projects in the rest of the UK, Europe and America.

Calch Ty-Mawr Lime is also an outlet for Natural Building Technologies which has been established to resource, raise awareness of, and encourage the use of other natural building and decorating materials, such as paints, insulation materials and earth products

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