Continued from page 17


medium-sized company by the German Sustainability Award Foundation, being the first chemical company in the nine-year- history of the ceremony, to receive this prize, beating out more than 800 other companies from various industries. The award recognises outstanding achievements of sustainability in the economy, local communities and research, being one of the most prestigious prizes of its kind in Europe.


2017 for the first time. Regulators expect companies to follow sustainability standards where they exist. Apu predicted that the requirement will eventually be extended to smaller companies and that governments may also develop a standard for lubricant companies if the industry doesn’t first. This, he said, should encourage the lube industry to develop its own standard. “We still have some breathing room – exactly one year – and freedom to develop this on our own, before the EU might come up with some of their own ideas for us. We can no longer sit this out,” he mentioned. In his address at the UEIL conference, Apu offered to work with the association if it decides to develop a sustainability standard for the European lubricant industry.


According to the jury, FUCHS pushes forward sustainability in the lubricants industry as a pioneer. The jury’s decision for the FUCHS nomination reads as follows: “Numerous measures with measurable successes prove that also a lubricants manufacturer can incorporate sustainability along the value chain as well as in its own business model and is able to continuously improve its sustainability level. The expert jury encourages the company along this path as a role model for the industry and acknowledges the sustainability initiative of FUCHS PETROLUB SE in a not yet well known sector with the award in the category ‘Germany’s most sustainable medium-sized company 2016’.”


This approach already started last year in Germany. The German sustainability initiative for lubricant companies (named ‘NASCH’) was established under the roof of the German Lubricant Manufacturers Association (VSI) together with independent lube manufacturers, namely Avia Bantleon, FUCHS, Klueber Lubrication and Zeller+Gmelin. “But more lube manufacturers will join the regular meetings in 2017,” Apu said. The VSI sustainability group is still developing its standard, which will include a list of criteria that should be used to measure the sustainability of a company’s operations, as well as rules for calculating and weighting them.


Together with partners, FUCHS is further working to quantify the term sustainability for the lubricants industry, with the objective to develop a benchmark that allows products to be assigned to categories as sustainability will be included in the specifications for lubricants in the future. “We need to have our own standard, one that is specifically for our industry, because the day is coming when this will be mandated, and if we don’t do it, someone else will do it for us and we’ll end up with a system we don’t want,” says Apu. Sustainability programs and reporting are voluntary now, but soon they will become mandatory for some businesses. In 2018, the European Union will require companies with more than 500 employees to evaluate the sustainability of their operations and report the results for the fiscal year


18


“However, I do not only see challenges, but also opportunities out there,” Apu said at the UEIL board of directors meeting, which he attended on 26 January 2017 in Brussels. Besides presenting the coming EU Sustainability Reporting Directive, he pointed out, that developing sustainability as a framework could be a great opportunity for the European lubricants industry to differentiate itself from the chemical or the mineral oil industries and in this way highlighting the benefits of the lubricant industry for business, consumers and the society. To be in a position to advise the UEIL members on this topic would be beneficial for the association and its membership base – especially the smaller entities, that will not have the funds to consult with experts on how to tackle the coming sustainability reporting requirement. Apu proposed that UEIL could work together with NASCH on developing sustainability standards for the European lubricant industry. “Let us just simply call it the ‘Triple-S-Initiative’ – ‘Setting Sustainability Standards’ for the European Lubricants Industry,” he said.


Apu Gosalia Vice President Sustainability & Global Competitive Intelligence FUCHS PETROLUB SE


LINK www.fuchs.com/group


LUBE MAGAZINE NO.138 APRIL 2017


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76