Michelin Helping Yellowstone Park Reach 30% Carbon Reduction Goal

Weaving through the almost 3,500 square miles (9,000 square kilometres) of Yellowstone National Park are more than 460 miles of roads. Each year these roads are used by some 1.1 million vehicles carrying around three million visitors. And while grizzly bears, wolves and elk are not generally a tyre maker’s area of expertise, Michelin believes it can help make a difference when it comes to the beasts that roam the park’s tarmaced areas. To do so, it serves as the official tyre of the Yellowstone Park Foundation and has announced it is helping the park achieve its goal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions within Yellowstone by 30 per cent within the next five years by providing its energy-saving tyres for the park fleet.

“Since Michelin became the official tyre of the Yellowstone Park Foundation in 2009, the park’s fleet managers have reported fuel savings on the first seven vehicles of as much as 20 per cent compared to the previous tyres,” said Don Baldwin, product category manager for Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “This translates into emissions savings of more than four tons of CO2 each year per truck. In addition, the Michelin tyres are lasting twice as long as the previous tyres, further reducing environmental impact.”

Michelin provides its fuel-saving tyres to a wide variety of vehicles in the park ranging from haul trucks and dump trucks to front-end loaders and other service vehicles. The tyre maker’s most popular wide single truck tyre, the Michelin X One XDN2, is used on work trucks that operate both on- and off-road. Often unseen by visitors, these vehicles are essential to maintaining the park.

In addition to providing tyres, Michelin field engineers frequently visit the park to consult with fleet managers about optimising tyres for the harsh Yellowstone environment. By doing this the field engineers not only help the park operate more efficiently, they also gain fresh insights into how Michelin tyres respond in extreme conditions. “Yellowstone is the ideal proving ground for developing the best tyres for our customers,” commented Baldwin. “These trucks operate in extreme conditions all year round. From very low to high temperatures, in varying altitudes, in both dry and wet weather, and on all kinds of surfaces—from pavement to gravel, sand to snow—these trucks have to keep working. What we’re hearing is that Michelin tyres have helped them do that more efficiently.”