A lot like Michelin: Sustainability commitment is built into tire maker's DNA

SONOMA, Calif.—Sustainability can be abstruse.

Because at first blush, it's an intangible concept, one articulated through ambitious goals that boil down to benchmarks, percentages and milestone years (think: 2030 or 2050).

Sustainability can be chaotic, overwhelming and complex, particularly when conversations around achieving it become more prevalent and the challenges of its pursuit compound.

But somewhere amid all of that is the definition—the essence—of sustainable.

And believe it or not, that definition may be more familiar than you'd expect. Because sustainability may, in fact, look like a tire.

One designed with the material expertise and performance parameters that allow it to have a smaller impact on the environment. One manufactured and shipped more responsibly so as to reduce its overall carbon footprint.

Yes, sustainability can—and should—look like tires, said Alexis Garcin, Michelin North America Inc. chairman and president.

That's because sustainability, he said, looks an awful lot like Michelin.

"Our purpose is that we care about giving people everywhere a better way forward because we believe that we can find all-sustainable solutions," Garcin said. " … If you look back through Michelin's history, this is nothing new for us. We have been doing this—we have been pursuing this sustainable mobility—since our inception."

During Michelin's Sustainability Summit, hosted March 13 at the Sonoma Raceway, Garcin was joined by representatives from across the global company to discuss the ways in which Michelin works to define sustainable every single day, across every area of its business. The program, though, placed particular emphasis on:

• High-tech materials expertise;
• Product performance;
• Manufacturing operations; and
• Supply chain management.

And achieving sustainability across all of these areas requires a clearly charted course for progress. One that can be measured step by step.

So, you can bet that Michelin has established some very specific, deadline-oriented goals.

By 2030, the tire maker promises, it will achieve 40-percent sustainable materials content across its entire portfolio of products. By 2050, it will achieve 100-percent sustainable materials content.

More than that, by that 2050 deadline, the company's operations will be carbon neutral.

So, call it bold. Call it optimistic.

But also call Michelin exactly what it is: Focused, committed and unwavering in the pursuit of sustainability.

For proof, Garcin said, look no further than Michelin's road-ready, 42-percent renewable and recycled materials passenger car tire, which Sustainability Summit attendees had the chance to test for themselves.

And that tire, Garcin added, is just one example of the successes Michelin already has seen in the product development space.

Michelin has also produced a road-ready, 58-percent sustainable materials bus tire. It's rolled out 30-percent sustainable materials IMSA racecar tires and 63-percent sustainable materials racing tires that tested their mettle in last year's 24 hours of Le Mans.

But why?

Why reinvent the wheel from the inside out? Why push to change the very composition of your products?

The answer isn't all that complicated.

"It is just the right thing to do," Garcin said, for people, the planet and Michelin.

Cyrille Roget, Michelin Group's scientific and innovation communication director, noted that when Michelin promises more sustainable tires, it is talking about more than just the more sustainable materials inside.

Because yes, inside Michelin's tires you'll find sustainably sourced natural rubber, recovered carbon blacks and pyrolysis oils, rice husk ash silica, recycled plastics, bio-butadiene and even orange peels. But those sustainability strides represent something bigger.

Performance.

More sustainable performance.

It's the kind of performance Michelin strives to build into every tire it rolls out. The kind that extends the life of a tire with better wear and durability, while at the same time promoting range/fuel efficiency through rolling resistance reductions.

"If you look at that and take a look at that bigger picture, we understand that … 12 percent of the (tire's) impact globally comes from the material," Roget said. "But it is not the main impact. The main impact comes from when the tire is on (the) vehicle. Eighty percent—more than 80 percent—of the impact of a tire comes from when the tire is on the vehicle."

Already, Garcin said, Michelin has engineered tires with treadwear improvements of up to 20 percent. And its EV-ready tires, he noted, can improve the range of electric vehicles by as much as 40 miles per charge.

"We believe," Garcin said, "that a tire is the most efficient feature, tool, product, ingredient of the car—if you make the connection with cuisine—that can improve the range of the electric vehicle."

But there's something else to be said about Michelin's more sustainable performance.

It will never come at the expense of safety.

"It is not an either/or. It is not all the performance at the expense of the environment. It is an and," Garcin said. "It is also not everything about the environment at the expense of the performance. That is the theme of today."

Make no mistake, achieving 42-percent-sustainable-materials tires was no easy task. Nor was achieving the performance or sustainability benchmarks already established by its existing products. All of that came because of investments to and in research and innovation.

But getting to 100-percent sustainable? That's huge.

And it's going to require even bigger commitments of time, resources and know-how.

That said, though, know this: Michelin is all-in.

"When you think about the vision we have—to have 40-percent renewable and recycled materials by 2030 and 100-percent renewable and recycled material by 2050 this is a challenge," Garcin said. "But this is the vision, and we will make it."