PRODUCT CATEGORY RULES LAUNCHED FOR TYRE INDUSTRY

The PCRs, commissioned by the (TIP) and developed and published by  UL Environment, ensure compliance to information and transparency standards when creating an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) – an independently verified and registered environmental label for the lifecycle impacts of a product.

“TIP members identified the need for a comprehensive, globally relevant PCRs for enabling improved consistency in evaluations for life cycle assessments” said Anne-Cecile Remont, TIP Director at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). “The tyre PCRs are a proactive industry contribution to further environmental transparency, helping to reduce the environmental footprint of the tyre lifecycle. This is an important industry commitment to improving environmental performance.”

The tyre industry PCRs were developed to be suitable for EPD creation in any region of the world.

“UL Environment applauds the tyre industry for its commitment to the development of the PCRs and is pleased to work with TIP to issue comprehensive PCRs that will enable the creation of EPDs in global markets,” said Anna Lasso, product manager of Environmental Product Declarations at UL Environment. “Because tires are a product that most of the population uses or encounters every single day, manufacturers who pursue EPDs have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment by better understanding their products’ environmental impacts.”

The final PCRs were published following the completion of a pilot phase that included expert review and testing by TIP members and sustainability consultancy, Quantis.

“We are very proud to have been part of this major collaborative project that successfully brought tyre manufacturers from all over the world together to define common rules for measuring environmental performances of tyres,” said Violaine Magaud, sustainability expert in the tyre sector at Quantis.

The PCRs pilot process also involved participation from the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (JEMAI) for ‘Ecoleaf’ and the International EPD Program by EPD International, both integrating the tire PCRs in to their respective EPD programs.