Infineum’s Jaquie Berryman was recently elected president of the Additive Technical Committee of Petroleum Additive Manufacturers in Europe, vowing that the trade group will focus on developing industry standards for measuring environmental impacts of companies.
Berryman, who is industry liaison advisor at Infineum, said commonly recognized standards are needed if industry is to make true progress toward becoming more sustainable and that she wants the committee to develop some during her two-year term.
“A common industry approach to carbon footprint and life cycle assessment, recognized for its robustness and benefit to the entire value chain, would be a good outcome,” she said in a news release issued by Infineum.
“This approach could facilitate informed discussions with suppliers so lubricant marketers can ask the right questions to understand what the provided sustainability data mean. Having quality information should then enable informed product purchasing decisions.”
The ATC is a trade organization formed to help lubricant additive suppliers cooperate on technical and regulatory issues. In the past it has provided input to the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers in their development of ACEA engine oil specifications. It has also worked on health, safety and environmental regulations.
Standards related to sustainability are not a new topic for the committee. In 2019 it formed a Sustainability Subcommittee charged with developing harmonized approaches and methodologies for calculating sustainability data.
Berryman said there are a number of other important trends that the ATC needs to address, including globalization, the increasing use of electric vehicles and globalization. She said it is also important that the group continue supporting the Coordinating European Council for Development of Performance Tests for Fuels, Lubricants and Other Fluids in writing and maintaining tests that form the basis of the region’s engine oil specifications.
The number of tests that the industry requires has increased in recent years, and tests have become more difficult to develop, taxing the industry’s ability to keep up with new specs.