Max Rehberger

head of sustainability services

Max is an industrial engineer with a background in lifecycle assessment of emerging technologies. After positions in sustainability research institutes in Kassel and Ulm in Germany, he joined TÜV Süd in the departments of advanced manufacturing and global sustainability services, driving global service innovation projects in the field of verifying sustainability and now in charge of the sustainability services portfolio for the German region.

---

Presentation

Sustainable tires – a sufficiently clear definition?

Regulation and supply chain requirements increasingly push sustainability criteria to be fulfilled. This may include circular economy claims such as renewable or recycled content, but also CO2 emissions of upstream supply chains (Scope 3). However, gaps exist in the field of correctly assessing upstream supply chains in order to correctly develop a claim to be associated with the end product. Various methodologies are described in standards, which can be a foundation for calculating claims for the tire material fractions. However, harmonization is lacking. Single manufacturers of tire components are taking the lead in developing their own rules, but acceptance in the overall tire composition is questionable. A further discussion point is the acceptance of mass balancing and the sub-methods in order to simplify chain-of-custody consideration. TÜV Süd gives some insight into the discussion on how green claims about tires can be correctly stated and what developments in standardization and regulation are currently underway.