Business Sustainability in Turbulent Times: Circularity and Growth in the Automotive Industry

Why It Matters

By turning paint‑shop energy use into a quantifiable profit driver, the FCLE model proves that sustainability can be a competitive advantage, accelerating the automotive industry's transition to a low‑carbon future.

Key Takeaways

• Axalta's Fast Cure Low Energy cuts paint drying time by 40 minutes.
• New chemistry reduces paint‑job carbon footprint by roughly 54%.
• Energy savings validated by Solera’s independent data analytics platform.
• Faster cycles boost body‑shop throughput and profitability significantly.
• Measurable sustainability creates triple win for society, customers, Axalta.

Summary

The INSEAD webinar examined how circularity and sustainability can drive growth in the automotive sector, zeroing in on the often‑overlooked paint‑refinish segment. Speakers from Axalta, ABS Auto Haïst, and Solera discussed concrete initiatives that turn environmental goals into business opportunities.

Axalta introduced its Fast Cure Low Energy (FCLE) technology, which replaces high‑temperature drying with a chemistry‑driven air‑dry process. The cycle time for a bonnet drops from 78 minutes to 47 minutes, and even with a brief 40 °C bake the total time shrinks by 40 minutes, cutting energy use and delivering roughly a 54 % reduction in CO₂ emissions per repair.

Bart highlighted that the lower‑temperature resin, developed in‑house, maintains finish quality while slashing energy demand. Solera’s independent analytics platform validates these claims, leveraging a proprietary five‑petabyte data lake to quantify savings across thousands of daily repairs. Marco emphasized that reliable data is essential for scaling sustainable practices throughout the collision‑repair ecosystem.

The combined technical breakthrough and transparent measurement create a “triple win”: societies benefit from lower emissions, body shops gain higher throughput and lower utility bills, and Axalta strengthens market share. As the automotive repair chain increasingly relies on data‑driven decisions, such scalable, measurable solutions are poised to become industry standards.

Original Description

Business Sustainability in Turbulent Times: Circularity and Growth in the Automotive Industry

23/04/2026

The transition to a more circular automotive industry is accelerating, driven by regulatory pressure, resource constraints and evolving customer expectations. To explore how circularity is becoming an opportunity for business growth and profitability across the value chain, even in turbulent times, we are delighted to welcome three distinguished industry leaders:

- Bart De Groof, Vice President, Global Refinish Marketing, Axalta

- Marco Iriarte, Global Head of Sustainability, Solera

- Edward Reinderts, CCO & COO, ABS Autoherstel

This webinar will share concrete examples of sustainable and circular approaches across car repair networks, automotive materials innovation and automotive data services providers. These range from embedding CO₂e metrics into claims management and leveraging AI-enabled damage assessment to support repair-over-replacement decisions, to deploying next-generation paint technologies that reduce energy use while improving productivity.