Throughout Sto’s history, a focus on sustainability has always been one of our driving principles. Our mission, Building with Conscience, is more than just a tagline. It has been stitched into our daily activities, influencing our behavior and decision-making as a company.
Sto’s core strategy centers on pioneering building solutions that merge scientific innovation with sustainable practices. Our goal is to provide durable, eco-friendly materials that lead the industry in performance and longevity. And that begins with a vigorous and innovative research and development process.
Research, Research, Research, Then Development
At Sto, we believe in exhaustive research. That’s because we are on the hunt for breakthrough innovation that will lead to extraordinary products that push the construction industry forward. There are, after all, enough companies that settle for me-too products. We want to remain the industry leader tomorrow and well into the future.
That requires diving fearlessly into material science. Our research team doesn’t just look at the natural evolution of products within our field, it looks to other industries and even to nature to find innovation that we can learn from and adapt for use in our industry.
Between the natural evolution of a product and the innovation opportunities we discover, we move to development. The priority is always the same: environmental resilience and longevity. While it takes big thinking to pull in out-of-the-box ideas and innovation, sometimes the development part of the process requires getting down to the microscopic level.
Molecular-Level Technology
Often, Sto’s materials are engineered on a molecular scale to enhance properties like water resistance, and algae and mildew resistance. One example of this molecular-level development is with our StoColor Lotusan coating, which borrows properties from the lotus leaf.
Our product development engineers had become a little obsessed with the lotus leaf. It had remarkable properties, like resisting water and dirt, even in extremely wet climates. When they magnified the lotus leaf by 7,000 times, the nanoscopic photograph revealed the plant’s secret. The microstructure of the plant’s unusual surface minimized the contact area for water and dirt. As the surface is also highly water-repellent, the result is water immediately forms droplets and flows off, taking dirt particles with it.
That was the AHA! moment for our engineers. They got to work modeling our new coating’s microstructure after the lotus plant. Like the lotus leaf, StoColor Lotusan minimizes the contact area for water and dirt. Sto’s development engineers also enhanced the surface’s hydrophobic properties. After years of testing, the beauty of Lotus-Effect® Technology was born. Like the lotus leaf, dirt on StoColor Lotusan facades is consequently carried away immediately by the water that falls on the surface, reducing the likelihood of algae, mold, and mildew.
The Benefits of Sto’s Obsession with Innovation
The Lotusan story is just one example of our obsession with innovation. Our R&D has led to breakthroughs in other areas as well, such as UV resistance, longevity, and ease of maintenance, contributing to a building’s overall lifespan and aesthetic quality.
As we said earlier, our goal is to provide durable, eco-friendly materials that lead the industry in performance and longevity. Other benefits include enhanced building value, extended building life, and advancing building comfort—all with the goal of helping to build a better world.
New Standards of Energy Efficiency
Obviously, we’re always striving to create more energy-efficient buildings as well, enhancing performance for the building owners and comfort for occupants. Our insulated wall solutions systems are either bonded or mechanically fixed to a suitable load-bearing substrate, either on new buildings or for thermal upgrading of existing buildings. These systems lower heating and cooling costs and overall energy consumption.
The integration of air and water-resistive barriers (AWRBs) in these advanced wall systems AWRBs also enhances energy efficiency. By preventing air leakage, a major source of heat loss in buildings, AWRBs help a building operate as efficiently as possible, even in extreme weather conditions.
Sustainability and Environmental Impact
Our molecular deep dive into material science has other benefits as well. Our engineers have integrated eco-friendly practices at the molecular level, including reduced VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), aligning with green building standards and certifications. Additionally, our industry-leading wall systems are engineered to reduce carbon emissions through long-term durability and the retrofitting of existing building stock as an aesthetic, economical, and energy-saving sustainable alternative to new construction.
Our Work is Only Beginning
While we’re proud of our unique process and the breakthrough innovation that results from it, we realize that these efforts alone are not enough to ensure a sustainable future for our planet. We recognize that there is more work to be done, and we are committed to doing it.
The conventional view of sustainability focuses on a product itself —as if it were a stand-alone object and not part of a larger process — each step of which has tangible, real-world impacts. With every product we develop, we now strive to reduce the embedded carbon in our products– the amount of carbon that is emitted to produce and transport building materials before they hit the jobsite.
Completing the Sustainability story at Sto is an aspiration and a set of actions that strive to address current gaps in how sustainability is understood within the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
Innovation, Sustainable Solutions from an Industry Leader
With our unique product development process and our determined engineers, it’s easy to see why Sto Corp. is the world’s leading innovator in claddings, air barriers, coatings, and restoration systems. And we are just getting started.
To learn more about Sto’s commitment to sustainability, visit www.stocorp.com/sustainability-solutions/. For additional information about Sto and our innovative products, visit www.stocorp.com.
