Tire companies report on environmental performance of manufacturing operations

As part of its commitment to improving the sustainability of the tire industry, the Tire Industry Project (TIP) has published a report on the environmental performance of the manufacturing operations of its members.

Geneva 23 December: The report uses aggregated data and a set of annual absolute and intensity key performance indicators (KPIs) to offer a year-over-year view of the evolution of the environmental performance of tire manufacturing operations.

This is the fourth edition of the report and includes annual monitoring data from 2009 to 2020, and KPIs that consider the energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, water intake and ISO 14001 certification.

The aggregated data indicates overall improvements in environmental performance which can be attributed to changes that TIP members have made to improve the resource efficiency of their production lines. The steady year-over-year improvement in performance seen since 2009 faltered in 2020 as the tire industry felt the destabilizing social and economic impacts of COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, TIP members have ongoing efforts in place to improve the sustainable performance of their manufacturing operations.

Aiming to inspire the sector toward continued improvements, the report includes examples of the measures that TIP members have put in place to make more efficient use of water and energy, to switch to renewable and low-carbon energy sources, and to establish and follow Environmental Management Systems (EMS).

TIP will continue to report on the environmental performance of the manufacturing operations of its members and recognizes the relevance of this work in ensuring that the sector remains focused on optimizing its contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At the time of compiling data for this report, TIP launched Sustainability Driven: Accelerating Impact with the Tire Sector SDG Roadmap. The Roadmap offers a framework for action that outlines impactful pathways for the tire sector to contribute to the ambitions of the SDGs, which themselves lay out a global agenda to tackle the world’s most pressing social, environmental and economic challenges by 2030.

TIP’s KPI reporting is central to the Roadmap, which aims to guide, inform and support decision-making along the value chain, encourage stakeholder dialogue and inspire action-oriented initiatives among industry peers and beyond. TIP’s ongoing work to track and report sector environmental KPIs will play a central role in that monitoring, and TIP will develop any additional indicators to measure progress toward the SDGs by 2023.