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The focus of large oil companies is mainly on making fuels and lubricants more sustainable for everything that drives on the road. GVG Oliehandel, on the other hand, a third-generation oil company owned by the Van Gelder family, focuses on making all non-road mobile machinery more sustainable: from chainsaws to the largest shovels. Among other things, the family business helps infrastructure contractors to significantly reduce the CO2, nitrogen, and particulate emissions of their machinery.
GVG Oliehandel has been the independent Benelux importer of Aspen, a producer of clean, high-quality alkylate gasoline, since 1990 and operates internationally with its own brands, such as Agealube. “We are essentially a trading company, but with our own R&D department, we are able to develop sustainable alternatives to conventional fuels and lubricants,” says Ernst van Gelder, who, together with his two brothers, represents the third generation of GVG Oliehandel. “In the past, green alternatives were still portrayed as inferior, and sometimes rightly so, but that has been a thing of the past for many years now. We are also noticing an increasing interest in green alternatives among infrastructure contractors. They want to distinguish themselves and be at the forefront.”
GVG has been distinctive since the turn of the century. “In 2000, we made a conscious decision to specialize in a niche market by supplying and developing fuels and lubricants for all equipment that operates off the beaten track,” says Van Gelder. “We are true techies at heart and know better than anyone that this market in particular places high demands on the quality of lubricants and fuels. The goal of reducing harmful emissions is a good one, but it should not come at the expense of quality. Developing green alternatives therefore requires considerable effort. And that is precisely what gives us satisfaction. As GVG, we are therefore going one step further.”
The Agealube brand has become a renowned name in the infrastructure sector, not only for ‘regular’ lubricants, but also for ‘green’ products. “Typical examples where Agealube makes a profit are in the field of grease lubrication and hydraulic oil, lubricants that can end up in nature,” says Van Gelder. “In collaboration with grease manufacturers and laboratories, we have developed sustainable alternatives that fall within the manufacturer's specifications. It is not uncommon for us to be able to reduce the range of lubricants required by our customers by looking at demand and the machines. As a result, with Agealube, they only need to use three types of grease instead of the six they previously had to use. This not only saves on costs, but also on labor and pressure on staff. And all this while using a green alternative!”
Slowly but surely, we are making the transition to an electric (read: emission-free) machine park. “There are some exciting developments in this area, including among the smaller OEMs with whom we already collaborate frequently,” Van Gelder acknowledges. “Battery packs have only limited capacity. Special lubricants that we develop and that deliver energy savings of 5 to 10% suddenly become very interesting, because they allow you to work not 8 but 8.5 hours a day. The fact that these lubricants are also more environmentally friendly makes it a win-win situation. And so we constantly try to anticipate developments in the market.”
