UEIL Newsletter – February 2023

28/02/2023

President’s Report

2022 has been challenging in our industry due to the main disruption in the supply chain of lubes – from the higher energy costs, rising inflation and, more particularly, following the war in Ukraine. Thus, we are starting this new year, 2023, not knowing what will exactly happen for our industry in the upcoming months, and it is hard to predict. However, we can only be positive and push hard on the strength and interest of the industry to move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic and the hardships of the past year.

And what we know is that UEIL is going to continue to serve its members by collecting and sharing knowledge of the industry throughout the year.

To do this, together with the Board, we have created and developed several work streams. For example, now we have work streams concerning our advocacy, membership, industry data and our internal organisation that will continue and improve the work of UEIL for the upcoming year.

And our main goal is to shed the light on UEIL’s work and effort in the industry and to show the ambition of the organisation to be the most prominent representative association of lubricants.

Mattia Adani

UEIL President

Technical & Competition Committees Update

The Technical and Competition Committees continue to make progress on a large number of cases.

On the advocacy side, the Committees carry on their contacts with National Competition Authorities in order to express UEIL’s views regarding the MVBER and to make them aware of the uncompetitive behaviours faced on the market.

Regarding Regulation (EU) 2018/858 and more specifically provisions on Access to Technical Information (ATI), the Committees maintain regular exchanges with the European Commission regarding the failure from some Member States to implement or properly implement the Regulation. The issue has been raised once more by DG GROW during a meeting with National Type Approval Authorities on 16 February 2023.

Sustainability Committee Update

Product Carbon Footprint Working Group for the Lubricants Industry

UEIL is pleased to announce a collaboration with ATIEL to develop a methodology to calculate and report Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) for Lubricants and Greases. Beginning in January 2023, a working group has come together under the guidance of a consultant to develop a harmonized cradle-to-gate (blenders / marketers exit gate) PCF methodology.

The aim of the PCF WG is to develop a common standard that can be used by the whole lubricants industry, ensuring consistency and transparency throughout the entire supply chain.

It is anticipated that the PCF methodology for the Lubricants and Grease industry will be published in the second half of 2023.

In the meantime, UEIL is aware that lubricant and grease blenders / marketers are being asked to provide PCFs for their products but in the absence of industry standard methodology this is challenging and makes comparisons between products and suppliers difficult, unless suppliers provide full discloser of the methodology applied when calculating PCFs for their raw materials.

In support of members and non-members alike, UEIL Sustainability Committee has prepared a PCF template letter so that stakeholders who are currently unable to provide PCF data or wish to take a holding position can inform their downstream stakeholders of the initiative being undertaken and their future commitment to provide PCFs for their lubricants and greases.

STLE Hosts UEIL Corporate Carbon Footprint Webinar

Following on from the very successful webinar hosted by UEIL in October 2022, the Product and Logistics working group were delighted to be invited to present the CCF Toolbox via the STLE platform on 25th January. Many companies are still at the early stages of calculating their corporate carbon footprint and the availability of the UEIL developed CCF Toolbox will become an increasingly valuable tool for recording and reporting corporate carbon footprint. The CCF toolbox is available to all stakeholders in the lubricants supply chain.

Understanding the Product Carbon Handprint of Lubricants

The latest UEIL Sustainability whitepaper focusses on the carbon handprint of lubricants and greases (PCH). While the product carbon footprint describes the sum of all GHG emissions and removals across the life of a lubricant or grease, the use of such a product may bring about changes that are not accounted for in the product carbon footprint. These changes (positive or negative) may only be determined by considering the before and after, for example the replacing of a product A with a product B. The sum of the of the changes in GHG emissions and removals occurring because of this change is what is considered the handprint. For a detailed and holistic analysis of the lubricant’s or grease’s handprint, a comparative Life Cycle Assessment according to ISO 14040 is recommended.