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UEIL SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE TAKES OFF

29/04/2019

The UEIL Sustainability Task Force was officially launched on 27 March 2019 during its first meeting in Brussels. Members of the Task Force gathered for a full day of meetings and took this opportunity to introduce themselves and the sustainability strategy of their respective companies, to start an initial discussion on how UEIL should take this concept on board.

At its Annual Congress in Budapest in 2018, UEIL had announced the formation of a Sustainability Task Force charged with developing a framework to define, develop and measure sustainability in the European lubricants industry. The formation had been introduced by Apu Gosalia, Vice-President for Sustainability (CSO) & Global Intelligence at FUCHS Petrolub, who chairs the Task Force and who explained that the group should work proactively on requirements that the European Union is already beginning to introduce for other industries.

The membership of the UEIL Sustainability Task Force was designed to fulfill certain criteria and prerequisites and is therefore:

• composed of EU-headquartered companies;
• representative of the whole lubricants value chain, including additive suppliers, base oil suppliers, lubricant blenders, and customers;
• composed of companies that have proved to be willing to engage in the sustainability debate;
• representative of a mix of European countries.

Company members of the Task Force include BASF Fuels & Lubricant Solutions, CRODA, EVONIK Oil Additives, LANXESS, NESTE, NYNAS, INEOS, VISCOLUBE, FUCHS Petrolub, BLASER Swisslube, RS Clare, CIPELIA, NOWAL Chimica, BOSCH and BMW. The Task Force will evolve into a fully-fledged committee of the association at a later stage.

In the morning session participants were invited to proceed to a tour de table to introduce themselves, their companies, and their companies’ sustainability strategy. The first exchanges, presentation slides, and discussions on the way forward were very fruitful, open, and targeted in the same direction. In the afternoon the members agreed that the work of the Task Force should consist of three main steps:

• define what sustainability is for the lubricants industry;
• develop commitments for key sustainability targets;
• define how to implement these commitments.

The Task Force reconvened on 4 June for a second meeting to further develop its work plan. This was an opportunity for the Task Force members to brainstorm on what sustainability means for the lubricants industry as well as ranking the most relevant SDGs for the sector.

Stay tuned for more updates!