To make the production of tires even more environmentally friendly in the future, Continental is investing in energy-efficient, economical and low-emission production methods. We are aiming to achieve carbon neutral production for all tires by 2040.
To this end, we have set ourselves ambitious interim targets:
As a result of years of efforts, Continental Tires has reached an industry-leading position when it comes to energy consumption per metric ton of tires produced compared to the industry average. This is the result of a Continental-internal benchmarking exercise with the average energy consumption of the world’s leading tire manufacturers, as reported by the Tire Industry Project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In 2023 alone, Continental’s tire division reduced its annual energy requirements by a total of around 150 gigawatt hours thanks to 160 energy-saving projects. This was achieved by such measures as for example thermal insulation. This is roughly equivalent to the average annual electricity supply of 12,500 single-family homes.
Since late 2020, the electricity that we purchase for our tire production facilities worldwide has been carbon-neutral and derived from renewable energies. To prove this, we secure energy attribute certificates in accordance with the criteria of the RE100 initiative. To generate green electricity on site, we also operate solar installations at our tire factories.
By 2040, our production will be carbon neutral. This is an ambitious goal, as tire production requires large amounts of electricity and heat.
We therefore invest significantly in continuously improved, innovative and resource-conserving production processes. For example, we already source 100 percent of our electricity at our production sites worldwide from renewable energies (RE100) since 2020.
We also intend to generate as much renewable energy as possible on site at our tire manufacturing facilities in order to minimize transmission losses and operate as efficiently as possible. Several of our sites worldwide are already using their own solar installations to produce energy.
In this way, many Continental sites are making a decisive contribution to fulfilling our climate protection strategy, which aims to operate in a carbon neutral manner across the entire value chain.
In Lousado, we are showing that even very large tire plants can produce CO2-neutrally.
Since this year, we have been able to produce tires in a CO2-neutral manner at our tire plant in Lousado, Portugal. This is made possible by the generation of steam with the help of a boiler that is operated purely electrically. We use both self-generated solar power and renewable electricity from the power grid to generate steam.
"In Lousado, we are showing that even very large tire plants can produce CO2-neutrally. The availability of renewable energy sources at competitive prices is crucial for this," explained Dr. Bernhard Trilken, Head of Production and Logistics at Continental Tires. He added: "We are preparing our plants to be able to use as much renewable energy as possible. The commissioning of our electric steam boiler in Lousado is the beginning of an exciting learning curve."
The electric boiler can generate steam from green electricity instead of gas
