Our ‘Mars Mission'

Pursuing Far-Reaching Climate Change Footprint Reduction

In late 2018, we launched an aggressive “Mars Mission” to envision and transform manufacturing of our additives in a way that substantially reduces our carbon footprint. We have convened a steering team of senior leaders and a working team of visionary technology strategists, chemists and engineers – who are charged with executing on this mission: “By 2028, we will enable fluids with technology that have half the footprint to manufacture, are sustainably derived, have a holistic, positive impact on the environment and improve lives.”

In this Mars Mission, everything is up for consideration: the base oils and other basic materials that we use, the way we make our products, the energy required, the waste we create and how much of it we can divert from landfills, and, of course, the ultimate performance, reliability and durability of our products.

We know that approximately 80% of our carbon footprint is in the supply chain, which creates the need to utilize raw materials and develop finished chemicals that are much less dependent on fossil fuels. We also intend to use “process intensification” techniques, which will enable us to be more energy efficient and make sustainability a driving force in all aspects of production. The ultimate goal is to combine low-carbon-intensity raw materials to significantly lower our footprint and provide the performance that our customers and stakeholders expect.

Given the far-reaching impact of this work, we have identified partners in academia and government globally to help us drive the program forward and maximize our impact. This includes collaborating with research centers such as the University of Nottingham's Centre for Sustainable Chemistry and the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, along with the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) National Manufacturing Institute.