In this episode, Cole Strandberg chats with Cinthia Gutierrez, Premium Segment Manager Americas for Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions at BASF. BASF has been a leader in sustainable innovation, helping collision repair businesses reduce waste, improve efficiency, and meet the growing demand for eco-friendly practices. In this episode, we discuss why sustainability matters for shops of all sizes, how it impacts hiring and retention, and the latest innovations from BASF that are shaping the future of collision repair. Whether you’re looking to lower costs, attract top talent, or position your shop for long-term success, this episode will give you insights on how sustainability can be a competitive advantage.

Cinthia Gutierrez: So I work in BASF as a premium segment manager responsible for the Americas. And I’ve been over 20 years already with BASF in the automotive industry in different segments of the automotive industry from different perspectives, different businesses in different countries as well in Mexico, US, Germany, back in the US on the sales part, marketing also on the other side of the negotiation table in procurement as well. And now here working in refinish since almost four years ago. And I’m based in Houston, TX which I love it married and one daughter and this is what I do.

Cole Strandberg: Wonderful. Well, you’ve lived all over the world as we talked about the Americas is a huge territory. You’ve seen so many different sides of the business. Really, really excited for this conversation and your your perspective on multiple topics within the industry, but obviously here primarily today we’re here to talk about sustainability. So talk to me about why sustainability is such an important.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Thank you. That’s a very important topic and I’m very happy that you raised it. So sustainability has been emerging as an important topic from different perspectives, and this goes beyond the environmental aspects. Starting with that, sometimes people think that sustainability and profitability are two very different topics that are mutual exclusive, but that’s not the case. That’s normally a myth. So we talk here in sustainability sometimes about regulations, which are basically the ticket to play, but it goes beyond that. So one topic can be, for example, we all know the talent shortage. There is a very common topic that is also part that falls under sustainability. So nowaday we see our industry basically in the battle for for getting the right talent. And that’s also something that we need to take into consideration. I’m saying this because when you hear the term sustainability, it can be seen by some people like something that is very far away that it’s basically proper to big corporations and not to certain size of businesses, but it’s touching many places. We talked about talent shortage, we talk about the environment, but we also talk about other players in the industry. So for example, the insurances who play an important role in this industry are growing also in awareness in this topic. And as their awareness increase, their requirements will go into that direction as well. So this is a topic that the industry needs to embrace more and more and the ones who are embracing it or who will embrace it, those are the ones that are striving for a more sustainable future.

Cole Strandberg: Beautiful. So many things you touched on here that I want to take a a bit of a deeper dive into. Firstly, with your global experience, I, I. Find it interesting the US is so we we pride ourselves on being advanced in technology and ahead of the world in so many places, but it seems like Europe and other parts of the country might be a little bit ahead of us in terms of that focus on sustainability and I think that’s where we’re trending is that fair to say in your global experience that there are there are different parts of the world where this has been a focus for some time already.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Definitely, definitely, I can share my experience. For example, Europe, they are some steps ahead here. So for example, they are very interested beyond regulations because Please remember, regulations are the ticket to play. So they are very interested for example, in energy saving, lower consumption, how to reduce the consumption, waste management, circular economy, impact also on the CO2 as well VOC. These are topics that are more and more in the DNA of the people running these businesses are working in this industry. So this is something that they pay attention in their daily activities on how they can further incorporate that into their operations. In the US. Here we see it as well with new regulations changing in some states like for example California, South Coast also adopting new regulations. So I will say the level each, each region or each country are at the different stage in their journey. But All in all, this is a topic that is increasing in awareness. Everybody has its own journey, but it’s something that is coming.

Cole Strandberg: Beautiful you you also mentioned the talent shortage and I want to zoom in there a little bit. Listeners of the collision vision know this topic comes up every every episode just about regardless of if we’re talking sustainability, if we’re talking anything, the talent shortage is so top of mind. You mentioned in our pre show call, a tech force survey that shows younger generations prioritizing sustainability when they’re kind of thinking about their career choices, what does that mean for shop owners from your perspective? Yes, that’s a very interesting topic because as you know, we are very active in this topic and sustainability and BASF. So we knew that the young generation that to be workforce, they are very interested, interested in sustainability. But we wanted to confirm if that’s the case in this industry. So that’s why we teamed up, teamed up with Tech Force to run this survey about the importance of sustainability practices in the workplace. And we were very surprised to see that 2/3 of the respondents says that yes, that’s very important to choose their workplace, the place where they want to set some roots and so on. And for 1/3, it was less important, but still important. And this was so interesting that we decided to take it into the next level. So now we wanted to learn why, what are the reasons behind it? Why do they say that?

Cinthia Gutierrez: So it was like a sort of an open question. So we can hear more from them. And part of the questions, part of the answers that we got from them was like, if the employer, let’s say the shop, they show sustainability practices or efforts on these, it shows that they are forward thinkers. So they care about their people, they care about their community, their environment. And that’s something that I would like to enjoy, something where I would like to spend my professional life or also because it, it’s in their core values. So they said I’m someone that cares about my, my, my family, my team. And if I’m working for someone who also cares about me, then that’s a workplace that I want to be and that I want to grow with. So as you can see the sustainability practices, they play a more and more important role to become attractive to the to be workforce.

Cole Strandberg: No question about it. And I love that our industry is is starting to really talk about this here I think it’s just such a good thing across the board, whatever definition of sustainability we’re talking about it has so many positive impacts and I have to imagine from a young person evaluating careers. In addition to the normal definitions of sustainability, it also has to be synonymous with longevity?

Cinthia Gutierrez: The career path I’m pursuing is going to be around for a while. It’s not going to be disrupted and I think the industry certainly has that going for it as as well.

Cole Strandberg: Within a company and and therefore employee retention, customer perception, all that stuff, how what kind of impacts on culture do we see with companies pursuing sustainability?

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yeah. So if you are of this industry, industry, if you are in a place that they care about this, for example, sustainability practice in terms of the well-being of the, of the employees, safety and so on. So the moral will increase. There’s going to be a positive environment, the employee will feel appreciated. So here basically my employer cares about me, about my well-being, of me, of the team, of the community. And it also helps to enhance the brand as well of the shop because this is something that is not only for the employees, but that’s something that the customers see, that the community see. And this is increases the sense of belonging as well. If you see all these taking place and if your sense of belonging is strong, you stay longer in that place. And then the employer can also save on the recruitment process, for example, save time, save, save efforts, save also time and efforts on the learning curve, on the training and so on. And all all these because of the positive moral that is being triggered by these practices.

Cole Strandberg: Wonderful makes total sense. So we talked about employees we talked about customers, how about that middle? Road kind of sort of partners, sort of customers in insurance companies and OEMs, have you found value there in, in terms of the perception among those groups?

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yes, we see that changing. So we see the increased awareness on the insurances, how they are growing in in their interest and how they would like to adopt these practices still at an early stage. But we see them raising questions to companies like us in terms of sustainability with the OEM is even stronger. So we see already some changes, for example, BMW looking at waterborne coatings, for example, how they want to position themselves in terms of sustainability, their practices not only in house, but how they deal with the value chain, not only what they buy, but also what comes afterwards. That’s the footprint. So to say that we see that being like a pulling effect or a domino effect where you can see that they are changing, increasing in awareness and they are demanding also the people working to the money, their value chain to follow accordingly. So that’s why we see that one of the other reasons that we see this is changing. Beautiful. Yeah. I.

Cole Strandberg: You know, the definition of sustainability appears selfless in nature and there’s plenty that that is selfless, but there’s also a lot of benefits to your business and your profitability by pursuing sustainability within your business. I want to talk obviously you’re here representing BASF and it’s pretty apparent that you guys are so active in sustainability efforts, you’re working with tech force on different surveys to figure out what’s important. What do you guys see in the market right now?

Cinthia Gutierrez: You perhaps we can start a bit with the the definition of sustainability. So for us, how we see sustainability is the ability of being successful today without impacting our ability to be successful in the future. So what we see also is you will see it climate change, we have all experienced it regardless of where we are living. We see the natural resources are being scarcer. We see also pressure on the ecosystems. We see it everywhere. There are many signs of this and we in BASF, we would like to contribute to a better quality of life and also to empower our customers through our solutions to go through the green transformation. So we would like also to empower them to go through it and that you can see it also in the commitment statement of the company where we want to be the partner of choice for sustainable solutions. Has this been a new effort or?

Cole Strandberg: Like talk to me, about how long sustainability’s really been top of mind for the organization. Or is there a catalyst right now or in the recent past that’s really saying, hey, we need to go all in on this now?

Cinthia Gutierrez: I think this has been something that has been increasing. Perhaps this is something that we have been seeing but under a different name, not under sustainability that as mentioned the definition, sometimes it’s not clear and now we have a clearer name sustainability. But this is something I can say from BASF that it was since a while ago on how we do business, on how we run our operations internally. And this is something that now we want to further share now externally with our customers, with a society, with environment where, where we live, we see the evolution and sustainability as well. So this has been a topic that has been ignored, let’s say for many years, so to say. But right now we’re here especially in the in this industry as from the 90s, if we go back since the 90s that it started with some regulations taking place and that triggered also in the industry new eco friendly products which are now in the industry. And so it slowly the awareness or the importance has been increasing over time and now reaching the mind of the consumer. But yes, as we mentioned several years ago, many years ago before the 90s was something that it was not in the mind of people. It didn’t have a name, but it has a slowly growing a big force at the beginning through regulations, but now it’s something that is evolving over time.

Cole Strandberg: Fantastic. So you, you mentioned some eco friendly products, the tech force studies and partnerships there. How is BASF staying ahead in sustainability rather than simply reacting to to new things coming at? It seems like there’s a really proactive approach there.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Oh yes, because regulations, they are a ticket to play. And we want to go far, far away from that. We, we want to do much more. So we’re doing many things. We have many, many, many things going on right now. So for example, we are reinventing the way we do chemistry. So instead of the traditional conventional products, we are launching biomass balance products, for example, chem cycling. Let me tell you a little bit about them. So on the biomass balance, this is we get out of the conventional chemistry and we are producing using renewable feedstock. This is contributing to less CO2. The products, if some of them, they have the same performance, some of them they have a different type of efficiency, But we try to put both together, the echo, we call them eco effectiveness, the ecological or the sustainable component, but also the efficiency for the shops. So the best of two worlds together, reinventing chemistry with biomass balance. There’s another one that is about chem cycling, for example, where we reuse, we use as feedstock some other waste like for example tires that we are using to, for example, produce gear coats. This is new say, technology into this industry. I’m very proud to say that we are the first ones. But that’s what I mean about reinventing the way we do our products, the chemistry, beyond the technology, we are also working on the awareness and the training. So we have also, for example, the Grant Refinish Academy where we show the shops working with BASF. What do we mean by sustainability? What do we mean by sustainability in this industry? What are these technologies that offer only, not only efficiencies but the sustainability component as well, like for example less CO2, less BOC, circular economy and so on. Also if we take a look at the pipeline, our pipeline of new solutions coming paint and beyond, they all have a sustainability component. So we go back to that two factors, the sustainability component and efficient, efficient component as well. And this goes not only on the paint part, but all the other solutions that we offer. As BSF naming the digital solutions as well that help less waste, improve efficiencies, time and so on. So everywhere our total offer not just paint, but everything to have these two components.

Cole Strandberg: Reinventing chemistry is a a cool way to put it. I I’m so grateful in all of my conversations on the collision vision to find out that there are so many brilliant people in our industry to reinvent chemistry. I I couldn’t even understand normal chemistry back in high school so reinventing it and doing some really cool things is a great way to put it. Talk to me about some success stories and some practical steps of implementing sustainable practices, and I want to start with some examples of BASF products that help shops save energy improve sustainability. Any stories you can share there or or examples you can give us?

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yeah, sure. So we, we have Rich offering our portfolio for this, but let me show you some examples. So on the paint side, we have glass rate 100 line and that you see here and this one is an ultra low VOC, for example, 250g per liter. This is the lowest VOC payment with the lowest VOC in the market, far beyond any regulations. We come back to that ticket to play. We go far beyond that. It’s not only the VOC, but it also offers the efficiencies for the shop. So for example, lower consumption, so up to 30% lower consumption against water. Water borne paints also faster as well, faster compared to other paint lines. And by being faster in these other components that leads to less energy to less use of energy. That’s one of the examples we have. The biomass balance mixing clears. Or you can save up to 50% on CO2 with the same efficiency with the same application. Nothing changes for the painter for example, but you are working on less CO2 emissions. We have other technologies like for example the one code clear. It’s a clear code that you apply on only one application and this one leads to less energy because instead of applying 1 weight and apply the second one in only one, the job is done. So it’s less energy, less CO2, also less effort for the painter instead of going back and forth on one application that’s enough. And also less exposure to the painter to hazard those materials as well. Yeah, these are some of the examples that we have besides air drying products, fast drying UV products as well.

Cole Strandberg: That’s perfect, very good and something sustainability we might or might not think about is how painter safety and working conditions is impacted and how that’s evolved over the years. The stories of the 80s and 90s and and in a booth spraying without any protection and all that stuff. And we know those materials back then were what they were. Talk to me about painter safety in working conditions as it relates to some of these sustainability.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Practices and products, yeah, that’s an important one because part of our research, it shows that if you as the painter directly, they care about the safety, I mean their safety and their well-being, that’s one of the main or the most common topics or phases of sustainability that the painter cares us off today. So for example, the proper use of materials and equipment, that’s something an important topic how to proper use them in a Safeway so they are not exposure to overexposed to chemicals, the right way of getting read or manage the waste as well. The proper use of equipment and all these we could put it into one bucket. That is basically the training, training and awareness. That’s something very important that they are aware with what they are dealing and why is it that they have to take those precautions or to work in that way. Their well-being as well. That’s another another component that is the moral is high. There will be more. They will be more motivated, they will be more efficient. They will increase their self sense of belonging as well. And the other part that I could say here as well is not only that we talk about paint and some other products like this, but also the the equipment. And the vast majority where we see some of the issues is on the big equipments, on the maintenance, for example, the booth and the paint booth and so on. The importance of the right maintenance not only for efficiency, because we are all up for efficiencies, but also for less energy, for example, that’s in another topic. And also it does the job properly for protecting the painter while working in there. That’s that’s another one that tends to be sometimes forgotten or a bit avoided because of the cost that that could be. But it’s not only for deficiencies, but it leads also to other other topics like the energy savings and the safety of the of the people who’s working in it.

Cole Strandberg: Very important, no doubt, and to that if you’re a Body Shop owner right now listening to our conversation and saying man I don’t know how sustainable or eco-friendly we are, but I’d like to start moving in that direction. Are there any small steps that shops can take? Today to be more eco friendly and more sustainable.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Oh yes, definitely. I mean we, we can’t, we offer a consultancy here, but there are many other topics that we can start mentioning. So 1 can be the digital tools, for example, to switch into the digital tools instead of having the physical tools there to switch into the digital one that can lead to less waste, to a better waste management, recycling programs for example. And these are easy, easy activities that they can implement in a quick way and doesn’t represent the high cost. There are some other ones like for example, the use of paint with low VOC or water borne paint as well that contains less hazardous chemicals as well, less VO2, Bo, CO2, sorry, and all these when they do these changes, one of the recommendations would be that let’s think first about what is it? Select an area where they would like to work on because sustainability can be a broad topic, but let’s select an area where they would like to focus. And then from there, we to start working on selected activities, not to go all over the place. And the other part when we are working on these is to see the total cost because perhaps at the beginning it can be seen as an effort or as an additional cost, but please see the total cost of ownership. So how will these lead me to other efficiencies once I implemented or once I start working on it that I didn’t consider in the future? That’s something very important to take into consideration since the very beginning.

Cole Strandberg: Absolutely. Well, and and you mentioned something important there, the total cost. What can you tell us about how impactful that could be you’re reducing waste, low VOC products, improved efficiencies. How does that translate from your perspective into real business benefits?

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yeah. So all these measures that we talked about at the end, but they will impact this the the profitability basically the the bottom line of the shop and we have to see this in in a holistic approach. So if we are talking, for example, about the waste management, so paying attention about the waste that we generate and what do we have to do later with the waste that will lead us to check opportunities for cost savings, for example, on when we do the maintenance of the equipment as well. So what’s going to come afterwards that is going to help me improve my efficiency, my, my. SO PS for example, to improve these efficiencies in, in, in my process, not just on the activity that I’m looking at, but please see what’s coming afterwards. We talked about the paint. There are some other ones like the digital tools as well. But yes, at the beginning, it can be something that I have to learn, but it will lead you to more efficiencies in the future. So you will be able to achieve more in a period of time. And that’s going to hit at the end your, your profitability. So please see the value that comes after implementing it or throughout the journey, the gains that you are getting that might be represented somewhere else and not specifically there. The immediate win that you will get some of them, some of the measures as we mentioned earlier can be immediately. I mean, when we talk about eco friendly activities in the shop, like, I don’t know, a recycling system for yeah, easy products or is that are in the office, for example, through the holistic view of all the products that they use at The Body Shop, for example, on on the painted side and so on. It’s it’s.

Cole Strandberg: Interesting when we were kind of teeing up this series on sustainability and it’s it’s basically a pitch for shops to be sustainable regardless of our guests throughout this series and I was kind of thinking, man, this sounds expensive. It’s going to be a tough sell. The resounding theme, though, is hey, you can do good for the environment, you can do good for your employees and oh by the way, you can make more money. It’s a, it’s a great pitch for sustainability and I, I appreciate those kind of real world examples. Action items I want to talk about the future of sustainability in collision repair and you’ve seen other parts of the world, you’ve seen for some time now sustainability efforts evolving. How has the industry’s attitude towards sustainability evolved even over the last few years?

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yeah. So we talked earlier about sustainability being a topic not in the mind of anyone being a bit ignored and regulations came and triggered a bit this topic and also equal friendly products coming into the market. Now we see that changing. Now we see more people journey, more parties joining that journey. We talked a little bit about insurances, we talked about the OEMs. There are some other people joining the party. So to say, the effects that we have in the market of consolidation. So the consolidators, the big companies, they’re also, as they grow, they’re paying more attention to sustainability aspects and that’s going to be another point of influence in the market as well. We also see the electric vehicles, that’s another part that is growing as well that is also pushing more into the terms of sustainability. We talked also about the two big workforce, the people who’s going to join our industry, they care more about sustainability isn’t their DNA. So there’s another wave that is pushing for this. And as sustainability increases in awareness, we will see more and more customers, people visiting the shops, caring more about sustainability, about how is it that the shop cares or practices or experiences sustainability? What is it that they take care, how they show it into practice that they care about their employees, about what the impact to the community and so on. So we see this increasing in a nutshell, we see these increasing and we see that the shops that joins those journeys will, will get, will strive in the marketplace. So two big workforce, their image, their brand for example, and the adoption of that, the big players in the market are also adopting as well.

Cole Strandberg: It was a great kind of breakdown on where we’ve been where we are today and where we’re going and I, I completely agree. And another good point, the big players are investing in this, they’re doing this, but it’s not something that’s just for the big players. How these guys go, the industry will follow and there’s real world benefits for going ahead and investing in sustainability. Even as a single store or a small MSO. I think it makes total sense you have some unique take insights I think into the future as well. So I want to keep that crystal ball out and talk to me about where BASF is focusing on R&D efforts to continue advancing sustainability internally.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yes. So this is a topic that is in our heart. We look at the future and looking also at our pipeline. Everything that is there has the sustainability component, the sustainability component and also the benefit in terms of efficiencies for the shops. And this can be not only on the paint side, it’s also on the training, it’s also on our digital solutions is the way or how we talk about our products. You will see it overall and this is continuously evolving and it’s going to become stronger and stronger. I mentioned earlier that we are continuously looking at ways to reinvent how we do chemistry and with the biomass balance with Kim cycling were circular economy and so on. And you will see more and more products that you see made out of a sustainability reason. That’s something that you will see more and more. We’re continuously evolving and this is something that is in the at our core that expect more from BASF coming, more looking forward.

Cole Strandberg: Again, so happy we have smart people working on chemistry. I, I look back, I think I got AC in high school chemistry. So even some of what you said is above my head. But excited for the future there no question about it. I know its something we spoke on earlier, but I think it bears reiterating before we part ways, and that is just to kind of bring it home, how can businesses balance sustainability initiatives for their future without increasing their costs and in fact with making more money.

Cinthia Gutierrez: Yeah, here in this case, what I would recommend is that they first start selecting an area where they would like to work on because as mentioned, sustainability, the concept can be very, very broad. Select that area where you would like to work on and see what are the options. Some of the changes that you can do, they don’t require an initial investment, some they do, but please analyze the total cost of ownership, what comes afterwards and it can be something very simple. Digital solutions embrace them. So for example, digital solutions get less use of the hard hardware tools, for example, but use the detailed solutions. Something very simple can be like less paper and manage everything digital. It will improve also the efficiency of the shop, not only the waste part. Other sustainability green practices that they can implement in the team to, I don’t know, brainstorming ideas about how can they be more green, so to say in their practices. The training, if you don’t know where to start, that’s another part that you can go to training and see what are the options that you have that maybe you didn’t see before and that after training, after getting more informed about the topic to see the opportunities. You can also take a look at the waterborne coatings with low VOC. That’s the other one because that at the end that will lead to yes, that’s a that’s a change that’s a learning curve, but it will lead you to more efficiencies and it can lead you also to less exposure to hazardous chemicals, for example. And those are one some of the ideas, but my first recommendation is, is to focus on where is it that you want to start working on? Is it something that is in the operations part? Is it something about your people, about your talent? And then take it from there on. What are the activities that you can do to improve or to take action into the sustainability part? I love it. You don’t have to take drastic.

Cole Strandberg: Measures within your Business Today to make an impact, it starts with just little by little incremental wins towards sustainability, but realizing you want to do that is the first step and from there you have a lot of options to make a positive impact there.