Our GPSNR Policy Framework Commitment

Our Predicament

Today, our society faces a monumental challenge. How can we provide food, clothing, and shelter for nearly 8 billion people without destroying the ecosystems we depend on for survival, while also fairly distributing resources in such a manner that each human has the opportunity to live long and prosper?

The owners of Suburban Tire are very concerned about these challenges. Locally we do what we can to be socially and environmentally responsible. We recycle, limit our carbon footprint, drive electric cars, and treat our team with dignity and respect. But the local efforts of a small business such as Suburban Tire are not going to amount to a hill of beans worth of difference when we are up against the capitalistic forces that drive 8 billion people to wake up every morning and go to work to earn a living. People need food. They need Shelter. They need clothing. And they need tires to make all that happen.

Unfortunately, the production of tires can exasperate our environmental problems. The manufacturing of tires is a complex process that requires petroleum, steel and other metals, fabrics, and lots of natural rubber. Though the production of each of these resources causes significant environmental damage, the production of natural rubber is particularly problematic. Rubber trees grow best in tropical rainforest areas that have high biodiversity and act as a carbon sink.

Most rubber today is produced by about 7 million small farmers living in tropical areas. They clear land, plant rubber trees, and earn what the market will bear for the natural rubber they harvest. These farming practices often results in rainforest destruction and other ecosystem damage, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, pollution, and contamination of water supplies.

Also of concern are the human rights and poor living conditions of the people working the rubber farms. Small holder rubber farmers and farm workers typically eke out a living doing difficult work in remote areas, and their compensation is subject to the vagaries of the global rubber market.

Producing tires that are manufactured in an environmentally sustainable manner and that respects the human rights of the farm workers, is a critical challenge for our society. As leaders in the tire industry, Suburban Tire intends to minimize the environmental impact and human rights problems that arise from the production of natural rubber, and thus Suburban Tire is adopting this Sustainable Natural Rubber Policy.

Our intent is to support tire manufacturing done in an environmentally and socially responsible manner by buying tires exclusively from tire manufacturers who utilize a sustainable natural rubber supply chain, and who have committed to minimizing human rights issues of the workers that farm and harvest the rubber that goes into their tires.

In line with these goals, Suburban Tire has joined the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR). The GPSNR is a cross-industry partnership whose goal is to promote sustainable natural rubber production in a socially responsible manner. With the assistance of GPSNR, Suburban Tire has developed the following set of commitments to ensure human rights and sustainability are part of our everyday actions.

Promoting Healthy Ecosystems

Suburban Tire is a small tire retailer located in the suburbs of Chicago. As such, we do not have a direct impact on the ecosystems on the other side of the globe, but we can make an impact by supporting the sustainability efforts of the tire manufacturers. We can have a say by voting with our wallets. As such, we have committed to only purchase tires from manufacturers that:

Work within the natural rubber supply chain to protect natural forests and minimize damage to the ecosystems where natural rubber is produced.
Use natural rubber produced in a manner that does not contribute to deforestation or degrade areas that are considered to be of High Conservation Value (based on FSC Standard version 5-2) after April 1, 2019.
Identify areas of High Conservation Value, limit their development, and manage their conservation based on the High Carbon Stock Approach.
Help restore deforested areas and former rubber plantations.
Help prevent the use of fire for clearing forests, land management, and waste management, except where necessary for the establishment of fire breaks, sanitary purposes (if public garbage collection is not available), and phytosanitary purposes.
Support activities to protect wildlife, especially rare, threatened, endangered, and critically endangered species. This includes acting against poaching, over-hunting, and habitat loss.
Protect water quality by preventing contamination of water supplies and waterways from agricultural and industrial chemicals, and by preventing erosion and the resultant sedimentation of waterways.
Commit to utilize supply chain operators who protect soil quality by preventing soil erosion, soil nutrient degradation, land subsidence, and contamination of land by industrial chemicals.
Commit to preventing the development of peatland
Commit not to use natural rubber sourced from plantations located on peatland.
In addition, we protect the quality and quantity of water and soil in our areas of operation.

Commitment to Legal Compliance

Suburban Tire will comply with all international treaties, local and national laws, including human rights laws, labor laws, land use and environmental laws throughout its business activities.
Suburban Tire will comply with all local and national rules to prevent corruption, including any form of corruption, bribery, or embezzlement.

Respect for Human Rights

Suburban Tire commits to following the established human rights policies listed herein:

We will observe all international human rights norms, including:
the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),
the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP),
the various treaties of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and
international accords concerning land tenure rights of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For complaints related to tire manufacturers and their natural rubber supply chains we have established an anonymous reporting system that will be operated in accordance with the effectiveness criteria developed by the UNGP. All complaints should be sent to:
e-mail address: Steve@SuburbanTire.com
Postal address: Steven Leffler 1900 Lincoln Highway, St Charles IL 60174, USA Earth.
Suburban recognizes the customary, traditional, and communal land tenure rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. We operate in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and though we don’t typically interact with indigenous peoples, we support their rights to land tenure and access, including subsistence hunting and gathering rights, and in support of indigenous cultures and religious traditions.
We believe that Indigenous peoples and local communities have the right to give or withhold their consent to any activity that affects their lands. Thus, prior to any activity that might the affect rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, territories and resources, Suburban Tire will secure their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) using generally accepted methodologies, and associated GPSNR guidance, and will insist that our suppliers do likewise.
Where our activities, or our suppliers’ activities, impinge on the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, they should be compensated appropriately, and accommodations should be made via mutually agreed actions that reflect the negotiated outcome of the FPIC process as determined using the FAO (2015) Free, Prior and Informed Consent Manual, or similar internationally recognized procedures.
In instances where our suppliers previously took possession of lands, territories, or resources of indigenous people and local communities, or caused harm to them without securing FPIC, our suppliers should adopt measures to provide remedy through mutually agreed procedures. In such cases, the implementation should be jointly monitored by the supplier and the community, or by a mutually agreed third party.
In instances where a Suburban Tire supplier interacts with indigenous peoples and local communities, they should establish ongoing, effective, and culturally appropriate channels of dialogue.
Suburban Tire will comply with all labor laws in the jurisdictions where we operate. Additionally, we operate under the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and the ILO’s core conventions. This includes:
Freedom of association and collective bargaining
No forced labor or child labor
Decent living wages and work hours
Safe and healthy workplaces with no abusive practices
Non-discrimination policies based on race, color, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, including gender equity for males, females, and non-binary individuals.
These policies apply to all our workers and those of our suppliers.

Support of Community Livelihoods

Suburban Tire believes that all humans should have decent living conditions in their local communities, and we support such outcomes. This includes the right to:

Safe living conditions
Clean drinking water and proper sanitation
Adequate housing
Food security
Maintenance of local or indigenous cultural practices
An education
Basic health care
Good governance

Increases in Production and Efficiency

To minimize land disruption, Suburban Tire supports improved efficiency by rubber producers, and encourages our suppliers to provide training for natural rubber producers to improve yield and quality.
Suburban Tire manages our operations to minimize the amount of energy usage and maximize natural resource efficiency.
We always try to minimize our carbon emissions and have set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025 using solar and wind energy to power our vehicles and buildings, and by purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate the CO2 generated when heating our buildings.

Sustainable Natural Rubber Procurement

Suburban Tire does not directly purchase natural rubber, but we do create demand for it when we sell tires to retail consumers. As such, we can affect change by insisting our tire suppliers follow the Sustainable Natural Rubber Production guidelines laid out by the GPSNR. We will maintain an active dialogue with our suppliers and encourage them to transparently provide relevant information proving their procurement of natural rubber in a sustainable manner.

Supply Chain Traceability

Suburban Tire supports and encourages our tire suppliers’ efforts in conducting supply chain mapping to assess natural rubber suppliers for their social and environmental risks, and to engage in activities to mitigate found risks.
Suburban Tire supports development of a traceability system for natural rubber to an appropriate jurisdictional level that allows the GPSNR members to confirm that the natural rubber they use conforms with the GPSNR Policy Components.
Suburban Tire will notify all tire manufacturers that effective January 1, 2023, only tires produced in accordance with the GPSNR Policy Components will be purchased and sold through Suburban Tire and will ensure that supplier contracts reflect these requirements.
Suburban Tire will set an expectation with our suppliers that they monitor their supply chains, and periodically confirm their conformity with GPSNR standards, and assist upstream producers as needed using incentives and support inducements, and with procurement monitoring systems.
If Suburban Tire discovers a supplier not conforming with the GPSNR Policy Components, we will discontinue the purchase of their tires until such time that the supplier is back in conformance. During this time, we will offer to cooperate with the supplier in the development and implementation of a plan to remedying the situation within a set deadline.
Suburban Tire Commits to engage in multi-stakeholder, landscape and supply chain interventions that support sustainable natural rubber usage in the global marketplace.

Monitoring Our Progress

Suburban Tire will regularly monitor and report on its progress towards our commitments to GPSNR and will annually disclose our progress towards these implementations through submission to GPSNR and by publishing them on our website.

Concerns?

To address any concerns regarding our operations, our suppliers operations, and our sustainability activities and measures, and to resolve disputes regarding such in a fair and timely manner, please contact Steven M Leffler, owner, at 630-764-6984.