A Germany-based leading testing service provider validated a methodology co-developed by the Union of the European Lubricant Industry and the Technical Association of the European Lubricants Industry to calculate and report product carbon footprints for lubricants and other specialties, the organizations announced at an ATIEL technical seminar last week.
“This is an important step in recognizing the ATIEL/UEIL methodology as an international standard and ensuring that the lubricants and specialties industry has a method in which the whole globally industry can have confidence, bringing a level of transparency and consistency that until today has not been possible for cradle-to-gate calculations across the lubricants sector,” the two organizations said in a joint press release issued Nov. 30.
On Nov. 30, the organizations announced that TÜV Rheinland Energy GmbH successfully reviewed revision 1 of the methodology and “confirmed that it is compliant with international standards for calculating product carbon footprints, the first time such a validation has been conferred on a cradle-to-gate methodology for the lubricants, grease and specialties industry, anywhere in the world.” For the future, TÜV Rheinland recommended to continually enhance the product carbon footprint methodology in line with the developments in science, technology and chemical industry and to adopt the methodology documents accordingly.
On Oct. 6, ATIEL and UEIL announced publication of “Methodology for Product Carbon Footprint Calculations for Lubricants and other Specialties,” a “cradle-to-gate” document that was developed by a task force consisting of UEIL and ATIEL members, external advisors and Carbon Minds GmbH in Cologne, Germany.
The methodology came about to address the increasing requests from customers in the lubricants industry to supply product carbon footprints – also known as carbon footprint of a product or CFP – of lubricants and other specialties. The ATIEL and UEIL noted in the methodology document that for such customers, transparent and coherent product carbon footprints are important for identifying and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the lubricants value chain. They noted that different methodologies and assumptions for calculating product carbon footprints widen their spread and variability. Product carbon footprint calculations are also perceived as timing-consuming and costly, hindering their broad calculation across value chains.
By adapting a standardized approach, the methodology document aims to help minimize the spread and variability of product carbon footprints and serve as a starting point for all companies to calculate comparable product carbon footprint values.
TUV Rheinland is one of the world’s leading testing service providers. Since 2006, the company has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption.
The 37-page carbon footprint methodology document is available from the websites of UEIL and ATIEL.