Social LCA of Life Extension Options for Truck Tires in Brazil

In 2014, the CIRAIG’s International Life Cycle Chair (Polytechnique Montreal/ESG UQAM) completed a joint environmental and social LCA mandate for Michelin. The object of these environmental and social LCAs was to carry out a... [ view full abstract ]

In 2014, the CIRAIG’s International Life Cycle Chair (Polytechnique Montreal/ESG UQAM) completed a joint environmental and social LCA mandate for Michelin. The object of these environmental and social LCAs was to carry out a study of the useful life extension of truck tires in Brazil, specifically as it pertains to the practices of retreading and regrooving.
With this goal in mind, four use scenarios were developed and a functional unit was determined. For the Social LCA part of the study, the main goal was to assess the issues and impacts arising from the behaviour of companies associated with the life cycle of truck tires. Secondary goals were to provide a global hotspot portrait of social issues over the entire life cycle, as well as a more precise portrait of the “retreading” and “end of life” stages which occur in Brazil. The Social LCA study mobilized various types of data, data collections and types of evaluation, creating a hybrid Social LCA methodology. Primary, secondary and generic data were all used in order to better capture the specifics of various life cycle stages. The Social hotspots database (SHDB), performance reference points (PRP) and a data quality evaluation methodology were used to analyze data and provide an evaluation of the social performance of companies within the life cycle. Two types of recommendations were provided: first, strictly on the basis of the main social hotspots for the Social LCA; second, jointly with the environmental hotspots, in order to present recommendations which would avoid creating impact transfers from one dimension to the other.
This study was one of the most ambitious projects to mobilize both the social and environmental teams of analysts and was a fertile ground for methodological development for both performance/impact assessment and for the development of extensive and joint recommendations between the two dimensions of sustainability. It entailed many methodological developments, namely related to the challenge of combining various data collection and analysis. It also gave rise to a workshop, which was carried out by a class of students of the strategic ecodesign graduate program (Faculté d’aménagement de l’Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal). Some sneak peeks of these ecodesign solutions will be premiered during the presentation.