The formulation of ecofriendly coating compositions with protective properties against corrosion and/or mechanical degradation requires appropriate selection of bio-based binders and functional additives. Although the concentration of additives remains limited, they highly contribute to the enhanced lifetime and may alter processing conditions of the coating. Their influences on processing conditions also affect the selection of appropriate end-of-life options with specific technological challenges on recycling and re-processing of the coating. Therefore, the replacement of fossil-based additives into bio-based additives may deliver an important contribution improving the carbon footprint of a coating over its full lifetime. However, the role of bio-based additives in life-cycle analysis is often neglected and minorly considered, as up to present only few dedicated case-studies have been identified in literature. Reasons for this are further pointed out in this paper, including lack of data, methodological inconveniences and appropriate design of realistic scenarios. Within this work, a simplified approach is followed by ab-initio cradle-to-gate analysis of coating compositions focussing on the replacement of specific fossil additives into bio-based additives. Particular case-studies are presented in relation with replacement of carbon black, silicates, calcium carbonate into biochar, bio-based wax and recovered calcium carbonate. There is a main interest in improving coating performance by substituting cellulosic additives into nanocellulose from different sources, where environmental benefits are associated with their high performance at low concentration. The environmental impact parameters (human health, ecotoxicity, resource scarcity, carbon footprint) are calculated from ecocost analysis (Idemat 2024 v2.2 database) indicating a 15 to 30 % gain in environmental footprint for given coating formulations. The need for intermediate processing of the bio-based additives is a main parameter contributing to their environmental impact, but is abundantly compensated by their carbon storage credit and performance improvement.