Our Carbon Neutral Ambition
At Pennzoil, we want to help drive the future by reducing our carbon footprint. We are committed to providing lower-carbon alternatives.
Lubricants play a vital role in keeping the world moving. As the world’s needs for mobility increase, so too will the demand for lubricants1. There is a need to balance this increase in demand with the environmental impact of lubricants. As part of Shell Lubricants, we understand customers and consumers expect brands to offer sustainable products and services and make it easier for them to make sustainable choices.2 Motorists and vehicle manufacturers want lower-carbon alternatives for their current and future mobility needs.
Shell is the biggest supplier of lubricants in the world.3 Shell Lubricants focuses on delivering products designed to achieve efficiencies in any technology with moving metal parts, helping achieve fuel economies in passenger and commercial vehicles.
To achieve this, we are focused on two strategic initiatives:
- Reducing CO2e intensity of our own products.
- Helping customers manage their sustainability needs.
Reducing CO2e intensity of our products
- Avoid emissions by optimizing the efficiency of our production process and product design and by aiming to embed circular economy thinking at the heart of our lubricants business. By designing products with reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) and less packaging (e.g. bigger, re-usable packaging, encouraging customers to buy bulk and transporting product using LNG trucks) we aim to keep products and materials in use for longer.
- Reduce emissions by improving the energy efficiency of our facilities and increasing the use of renewable energy to help reduce the CO2e emissions of our supply chain.
- Until avoid and reduce measures can be deployed at scale, offsetting remaining emissions of our premium products through Shell’s nature-based solutions.
How we offset the remaining emissions
While avoid and reduce measures offer the best way to tackle emissions in the long term, until scalable solutions are deployed, carbon offsetting programs provide an immediate solution to reduce GHG emissions. Shell wants to offer a worldwide portfolio of carbon neutral4 lubricants for a wide variety of applications spanning both personal and commercial use. To support this effort, Pennzoil is working to offset the emissions of every litre of premium lubricant sold in the US, across premium passenger car motor oil.
In July 2020, across the US, Pennzoil product labels will affirm that the following premium motor oils are carbon neutral through carbon offsets: Pennzoil Platinum 0W20, 0W16; Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage 0W20; Pennzoil Platinum Euro 0W40, 0W30; and Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0W20, 0W40.
Shell’s globally diverse, externally-verified, and high-quality, nature-based carbon credits5 will compensate for CO2e emissions from the lifecycle of the products including the raw materials, packaging, production, distribution, customer use and product end of life. Each carbon credit represents the avoidance or removal of greenhouse gases equivalent to one tonne of CO2.
Helping customers manage their sustainability needs
We help customers set and meet CO2e emissions goals by providing premium products and cutting-edge technology to help maximize performance and processes.
Lubricants reduce friction and consequently wear and tear, therefore helping extend the life of engines. Our most advanced low-viscosity lubricants increase fuel economy by up to 2%.6
More information and associated documentation
Our carbon neutrality calculations are performed through an internal carbon footprint model by Shell. Lloyd’s Register has subjected the model, which is a source of key parameters and methodologies for carbon intensity calculations on a product level, to a critical review against the international standard ISO 14040/44. For the purpose of this task, a review panel was formed involving external independent industry experts from the IFEU Institute (www.ifeu.de).
Find more details on Shell’s Net Carbon Footprint ambition and how we plan to meet it.
Carbon Footprint Disclaimer
Sky Scenarios & CN Combined Disclaimer
Assurance Statements
The associated processes have been independently reviewed by Lloyd’s Register, an external, accredited Verification Body. This includes the following processes:
- Processes for calculation of the life cycle carbon dioxide emission associated with a product (documentation here),
- Processes for screening of third-party Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) projects for generation of carbon credits (documentation here)
- Processes for carbon credit procurement, reconciliation and retirement (documentation here)
In addition, Lloyd’s Register has subjected the model, which is source of key parameters and methodologies for carbon intensity calculations on a product level, to a critical review against the international standard ISO 14040/44. For the purpose of this task a review panel was formed involving external independent industry experts from the IFEU institute (www.ifeu.de).
1 Global Lubricants: Market Analysis and Assessment Report 2019, Kline
2 Customers and consumers are increasingly expecting brands to offer sustainable products and services as a table-stake, with 74% globally citing environmental concerns. Consumers want brands to make it easier for them to make sustainable choices (43%), Project Maximus, Shell Insights + Kantar, Nov 2019
4 In the context of this document, terms ‘Net Zero Carbon’ and ‘Carbon Neutral’ are used interchangeably and reflect how Shell Lubricants are branded in different regions. There is no difference in the approach undertaken by Shell to ensure that the CO2e footprint of these products is net zero.
5 Nature-based solutions comprise all activities related to the protection, creation or redevelopment, of natural ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands and wetlands, to help absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
6 Based on Sequence VI fuel economy test using SAE 0W-20