Embedding Lifecycle Thinking into Product Development

Lifecycle thinking means looking beyond the factory gate to consider all stages of a product’s life. From raw material extraction and manufacturing, through to customer use and end-of-life. Lubrizol has integrated cradle to grave thinking into its product development process. Rather than focusing only on the immediate emissions of production, the company asks: “How will this additive or lubricant contribute to sustainability over its entire lifespan?”

To enable this, Lubrizol has significantly expanded its LCA capabilities in recent years. What began in 2018 with a single LCA specialist and basic carbon footprint software grew into a global team of practitioners embedded across multiple business units. Skip to present day and Lubrizol has launched the Lubrizol Sustainability Dashboard, enabling the footprint of every Lubrizol product, by individual location, to be calculated in minutes. This internal LCA expertise ensures that sustainability is not just a checkbox, but a quantitative foundation for innovation decisions.

Life cycle chart

Balancing Footprint and Handprint

A core principle in Lubrizol’s approach is balancing “footprint” and “handprint.” The footprint of an additive refers to the total carbon emissions and environmental impacts from making that product, including both foreground impacts within Lubrizol’s operations and background impacts from the supply chain (most notably raw material production which often accounts for the majority of emissions.)

The product’s handprint is the positive sustainability impact it enables downstream in its use or end of life phases. In simpler terms, footprint measures what it costs the planet to produce the solution, while handprint measures what it saves or improves during use.

To offer an example, an engine oil additive package may require energy and resources to manufacture (its footprint,) but if it allows engines to run more efficiently or lubricants to last longer and extend drain intervals, it creates a beneficial handprint by reducing fuel consumption and waste oil over time. Lubrizol emphasizes that both sides of the equation matter. A product with a slightly higher manufacturing footprint can still be the greener choice overall if its handprint savings, i.e. the avoided emissions or resource it delivers in application, are significant.

LCA weight diagram

Importantly, accurately measuring a handprint is much more complex than measuring a footprint. While carbon footprints can be quantified in CO2 equivalent terms following various standards, there is no recognized methodology for handprints. Handprints can include many different variables such as extended product life, energy saved, emissions avoided or other performance gains.

Despite this complexity, Lubrizol’s Sustainability and Innovation leaders believe it is extremely important to consider the purpose of the product in order to truly drive sustainable innovation. By accounting for the full benefit a product provides, Lubrizol ensures that decisions are not made on manufacturing emissions alone, but on net environmental value.

Lifecycle Thinking in Action: Practical Sustainability Strategies

Lubrizol’s lifecycle approach is driving concrete sustainability strategies within its businesses. An example which clearly illustrates how balancing footprint against handprint leads to innovative, greener solutions is our extended-use gear oils.

Extended-Use Gear Oils Lubrizol® IG93MB:

In one project, Lubrizol developed an industrial gear oil formulation that extends oil life up to six times longer than conventional benchmarks. Field and laboratory tests showed that equipment could run significantly longer between oil changes using the new Lubrizol® IG93MB a industrial gear oil additive package. This extended drain interval means far fewer oil replacements over the equipment’s life. Fewer oil changes translate to reduced oil consumption, less waste oil generated, and lower lifecycle emissions from producing, transporting and disposing of lubricants. Even if the specialized oil has a slightly higher initial carbon footprint to manufacture, its handprint, namely the downstream savings of resources and reduction in maintenance downtime, overwhelmingly justifies the innovation.

Features/Performance	Conventional Mineral IGO	Typical Premium Synthetic IGO (Competitor)	Lubrizol® IG93MB-based IGO
Gear & bearing wear / micropitting.	Meets basic specs, low micro pitting resistance, limited OEM approvals.	Strong EP, OEM-approved, some formulations can be aggressive to materials.	Class-leading FE8 & FVA-54 (GFT) performance, balanced chemistry avoids seal / paint issues.
Oxidation stability & oil life.	6 - 12 month drains typical.	Typically 2 - 3 x mineral, lab claims up to 6 x.	> 3-Year drains in severe service, maintains cleanliness and viscosity.
Foam control & air release.	Prone to persistent foam when aged/contaminated.	Improved vs mineral, but ageing/contamination can trigger foam/aeration.	No persistent foam in stressed / aged tests, rapid air release retained.
Efficiency (Energy Savings)	Baseline losses, hotter running.	3 - 5 vs Mineral.	5 - 9% vs Mineral, cooler running; LUCANTTM advantage.
Material compatibility	Older chemistries can affect paints/seals.	Generally compatible.	Thoroughly screened vs seals, elastomers, coatings, passes Flender/SEW/ZF criteria.
Portfolio impact (SKUs).	N/A	Multiple add-packs by tier application.	Single-package strategy reduces SKUs and blending complexity.
Formulation cost.	Low upfront, high TCO from frequent changes/downtime.	Higher base-oil cost, TCO partly offset by life/efficiency.	Optimised cost-performance, enables Group III + LUCANTTM to mimic full-PAO at lower cost.

This demonstrates how scientific, data-driven analysis guides Lubrizol’s sustainability decisions. By quantifying both the costs and benefits over a product’s life, the company can pursue innovations that deliver tangible environmental gains for customers and end users.

Enhancing Data Transparency

One of the challenges in rigorous lifecycle assessment is data quality and transparency. Lubrizol is investing in improving primary data collection from its operations and suppliers, since around 80-85% of many products’ carbon footprint can originate upstream in the supply chain. By obtaining more accurate data on raw material sourcing, energy use and logistics, the company increases the reliability of its LCA calculations. Lubrizol is even exploring ways to communicate the uncertainty ranges (for example, error bars on carbon footprint values) to provide partners and customers with a candid view of variability and confidence in the numbers. This level of transparency builds trust and helps stakeholders make informed choices.

In summary, by aligning its innovation strategy with lifecycle-based metrics and transparency, Lubrizol is future-proofing its business and its partners against the rapidly evolving sustainability landscape.

Lifecycle Thinking in Additive Innovation: Balancing Footprint and Handprint for Maximum Sustainable Impact