About Us - Climate Surfaces

19 year track record – established 2001 as an early adopter of powder coating technology for use on non-metal building materials
50,000+ buildings are protected or decorated with a Climate powder coating
Approximately 5000 buildings per year have a Climate powder coating protecting it
Over 1,500 tons of powder applied to building materials with less than 5% of that as waste
4 million m2 of coating capacity per year
Provide coating services to leading building material manufacturers
Manufacture and distribute our own products such as ClimateLine wall board and ceiling tiles into local and export markets

How we got here

Climate is a world leader in the field of powder coating heat sensitive substrates for building materials.

A heat sensitive substrate is a material such as MDF, plywood or plasterboard that is essentially non-conductive and sensitive to the temperatures required during the powder coating cure process.

The metal powder coating industry is worth $12 billion (USD) globally and started in the 1960’s as a more efficient, economic and durable alternative to solvent based liquid coatings for metallic materials.

Everything from window joinery, furniture, lawn mowers to cars are powder coated today. Growth in the past 20 years has been driven by legislative changes to air pollution regulation aimed at reducing pollution from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from solvent based coatings.

Since the late 1990’s entrepreneurs and multinational corporates around the world invested time and resources into the development of powder coating technology for heat sensitive substrates such as MDF for furniture and kitchen cabinetry. The objective has been to impart the decorative and functional properties of powder coating onto materials that are susceptible moisture, chemicals, wear and UV light.

Unfortunately, the industry suffered a false start, the technology required further R&D time and resources to resolve critical issues, during which many companies commercialised powders, coating application plants and released products to market resulting in company and product failures.

The industry proved resilient however and today the technology and supporting knowledge is delivering all the value and promise it had originally intended.

Climate is at the forefront of this evolving market and technology, having been an early adopter, developer and now leader in the field.

Going Global
After 20 years of development and commercialisation, the powder coating industry for heat sensitive substrates is thriving. Driven by macro-economic forces including the reduction in use of solvent based coatings, the need for longer lasting, better performing materials and automated factory coated materials to reduce waste and improve construction productivity.

Powder coating is one of the most efficient, low waste, VOC free coating technologies on the planet.

Climate continues to be at the forefront of new developments, investing in R&D and leveraging global alliances to explore and commercialise new raw materials that are faster, better, more sustainable and new methods of application and curing to further improve productivity and coating performance.

Going Global: delivering the value of our brand, supply partners, process and market knowledge to a global market

Climate has since inception focussed on the global market opportunity, extrapolating success in Australia and New Zealand into the global construction markets. During this market development, Climate has accumulated and strengthened relationships with key resin, powder, equipment and building material manufacturers and distributions throughout Europe and Nth America.

With representation in Switzerland, R&D and operations in Auckland and Belgium Climate has you covered.

We continue to evolve our business model to deliver lower risk, faster technology adoption by removing the barriers of capital expense and knowledge acquisition.

If powder technology interests you and you’re a manufacturer or distributor of building materials around the globe then we can:
- Do it for you (Coating Service) or,
- we can do it together (On Site Coating Services) or
- help you do it for yourself (supply of equipment, materials and knowledge)

Climate - about the brand
Focus on sustainability in name and action

When the name and brand Climate was dreamt up back in 2001 it didn’t mean much to a construction and furniture industry that took sustainability as a nice to have feature. 20 years on, the mandate for reducing waste, air pollution, reducing water usage and improving construction productivity is real and valued by industry and consumers.
- 95% of powder applied at Climate is re-used
- No water is used in the application or clean-up
- Board waste from cut to size service such as plasterboard or plywood is collected for recycling by approved third party waste providers
- Any packaging materials that can be re-used or recycled is
- The powder coating technology used by Climate has up to five times lower carbon footprint when compared to conventional solvent-based coatings.

Developed in New Zealand

New Zealand has a long history of innovation. Kiwi’s have a “can do” attitude and due to our isolation before the world became a small place, problems were solved on our own out of necessity. These innovations are often exported to the world along with our primary produce, dairy products and tourism.

New Zealand ranks highly for ease of doing business and has support programs for high growth and export led businesses.

The building market is relatively small, having a population base of just 5 million, however it is well developed and relatable to many of the larger developed markets around the world which use many of the same materials we are powder coating.

Climate is focused on delivering powder coating to the global building and construction markets from our base in Auckland New Zealand.