Tyre CEOs meet to confirm TIP mandate

Chief executive officers of ten leading tyre manufacturers convened online yesterday to review progress and confirm the ongoing mandate of the Tire Industry Project (TIP). During the biennial meeting they also approved the project’s next two-year work plan.

Founded in 2005 and operating under the umbrella of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the Bridgestone, Goodyear and Michelin co-chaired TIP is a global CEO-led initiative undertaken by leading tyre makers to research how tyres might potentially impact human health and the environment throughout their lifecycle. The intiative represents more than 60 per cent of the world’s tyre manufacturing capacity.

SDG roadmap

In their review of the 2020-2021 work program, the chief executives commended TIP on delivering its work plan despite the pandemic and, in particular, the publication of a sustainability roadmap for the tyre sector. Titled ‘Sustainability Driven: Accelerating Impact with the Tire Sector SDG Roadmap’, this document was published in May 2021 by TIP member companies in consultation with value-chain stakeholders following its review by an Assurance Group of independent scientists. The Roadmap identifies how the tyre value chain interacts with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the areas where the tyre sector can have the most significant impact as well as key actions to scale and accelerate contribution to the SDGs.

Upon publishing the TIP’s 2021 report on environmental key performance indicators (KPIs) for tyre manufacturing, the CEOs reiterated their expectations that the Roadmap makes important contributions to sustainable mobility and requested that ongoing KPI reporting is adapted to contribute to measure company progress toward the SDGs.

TRWP research

The CEOs recognised TIP’s progress in tyre and road wear particle (TRWP) research and communication, underlining the importance of a new website that shares all TIP TRWP research and provides an accessible multimedia introduction to the topic. They also noted the significance of recently published TIP-sponsored research, including a chemical mapping study.

Acknowledging recent important growth in scientific interest in TRWP, the CEOs confirmed that improving the scientific understanding of TRWP remains a TIP high priority. They went on to validate a TRWP work plan for 2022-2023, building on more than a decade of TIP-sponsored TRWP research and featuring continued exposure and hazard assessments – including field sampling, assessment of tread leachates, and the potential for bioaccumulation. The work plan will also see further development of scientific methods and standards for TRWP research that will be of benefit to the scientific community.

ELT management

Praising a series of successful end-of-life tyre (ELT) management-stakeholder workshops and the landmark publication of the TIP Toolkit for ELT management, the CEOs reconfirmed that TIP should continue to publish state-of-knowledge reports on ELTs and further engage stakeholders to foster global-level improvement in sustainable ELT management. Toward these aims, the chief executives approved plans for improved ELT-data collection and the establishment of a digital platform to share ELT data and support the exchange of good practices between ELT stakeholders.

Contributing towards a better world

Sharing details of Hankook Tire & Technology’s participation in the online meeting, president and chief executive officer Sooil Lee said: “The meeting proceeded on the consensus that we should save no efforts to reduce (the) tyre industry’s impacts to the environment and foster sustainable mobility.

“Sustainability is not just a marketing initiative, but a genuine business philosophy for us,” he added. “Throughout the 80 years of Hankook Tire’s existence, Hankook Tire has always operated with the mindset of contributing towards a better world.“