The Tire Industry Project (TIP) has welcomed the launch of new Product Category Rules (PCRs) for the tire industry.
Commissioned by TIP and developed and published by UL Environment, the PCRs 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 comprehensive, globally relevant PCRs in enabling improved consistency in evaluations for lifecycle assessments,” said Anne-Cecile Remont, TIP director at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
“The tire PCRs are a proactive industry contribution to further environmental transparency, helping to reduce the environmental footprint of the tire lifecycle. This is an important industry commitment to improving environmental performance.”
The tire industry PCRs were developed to be suitable for EPD creation in any region of the world.
“UL Environment applauds the tire 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 a review and tests conducted by TIP members and sustainability consultancy Quantis.
Violaine Magaud, a sustainability expert in the tire sector at Quantis, added, “We are very proud to have been part of this major collaborative project that successfully brought tire manufacturers from all over the world together to define common rules for measuring environmental performances of tires.”
Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry for ‘Ecoleaf’ and the International EPD Program by EPD International both also took part in the PCR pilot, integrating the tire PCR in to their respective EPD programs.
