Life Cycle Assessment for Tin
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a widely recognized tool for quantifying environmental impacts. For industries such as tin production, it supports efforts to better understand our environmental footprint, while providing valuable data for tin users to assess their own impacts. Collaborative industry LCAs also help improve transparency, strengthen sustainability reporting, and allow for support more informed environmental decision-making and future reduction strategies.
As part of its members’ commitment to sustainable development ITA aim to continuously promote use of the most accurate and recent data in calculations relating to refined tin. Providing sound, reliable and up-to-date life cycle inventory data provides a robust baseline from which the industry can assess and demonstrate collective improvements and measure environmental efficiencies and ongoing progress over time.
ITA commissioned and published the first industry-wide LCA study on refined tin production, with full member companies collectively representing approximately 55% of global refined tin production contributing data for the 2018/2019 reference year. The study, which was published in 2023, covered cradle-to-gate primary and secondary production and was undertaken according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, with a functional unit of 1 tonne of refined tin (99.95%). The results provided the first reliable and representative industry environmental profile for refined tin production
The LCA study included impacts associated with the extraction of resources from mining and beneficiation, and smelting and refining activities. The results are representative of the industry average for refined tin production and therefore do not correspond with any specific technology route or region but are rather reflect the range of technologies used by participating producers.
The outcomes generated from this LCA provide stakeholders with valuable insight about the inputs and outputs and related environmental impacts associated with refined tin production, helping to improve understanding of the industry’s impacts. This information can support downstream users in assessing their own impacts, supplement LCA work undertaken by individual producer companies, and provide an important reference point for future sustainability and climate-related work.
Continuous Improvement and Efforts on Climate Change
ITA and its members are committed to providing transparent, accurate and up-to-date environmental information to all stakeholders. Through continued participation in industry-wide LCA studies, ITA full member companies work collectively to improve the quality, accuracy and representativeness of life cycle data used within industry average LCAs, ensuring stakeholders have access to the most recent and reliable environmental data relating to refined tin production.
Supported by independent global sustainability consultants Sphera and ITA members, ITA is currently undertaking an updated LCA assessment to update existing baseline data and develop an updated public summary report through the ITA Tin LCA Working Group. This update is In line with ISO 14044 requirements, which recommend regularly reviewing and updating life cycle data to ensure its continued relevance and accuracy. This is necessary to ensure results remain representative of current technologies, operational practices and supply chain conditions across the tin industry. Through this process, member companies continue to work closely with ITA to improve the quality and accuracy of industry data, strengthening the credibility of industry average LCAs while demonstrating ongoing environmental improvements and operational efficiencies across the sector.
Alongside this work, ITA is developing best practice guidance for greenhouse gas measurement within the tin industry. Currently, no sector-specific methodology exists for determining the carbon footprint of refined tin. The aim of this guidance is to help harmonise data collection and reporting methodologies, establish industry best practice, and support a more consistent and comparable approach to carbon footprint reporting and disclosure across the global tin industry. This guidance is intended not only to support ITA members, but also the wider global tin industry and other tin producers.
As part of its broader low-carbon transition roadmap, ITA will continue to build on our current reporting activities and ongoing improvements, strengthening our position to develop more actionable and coordinated long-term strategies
Contact
For further information, please contact [email protected]