Continental gains 4th consecutive top CDP rating

Four in a row – For 2021, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has once again awarded Continental the highest grade in its Supplier Engagement rating. This makes Continental one of the eight per cent of companies awarded 2021 leadership status by the international non-profit organisation for supplier commitment to climate change.

In all, CDP looked at more than 13,000 companies and organisations worldwide. The organisation bases its assessment upon data provided by the respective companies on corporate governance and Scope 3 emissions as well as on supply chain management as a whole. CDP pays particular attention to strategies and measures that help make environmental risks and emissions measurable along value chains in order to minimise them. Continental says CDP recognised its “holistic approach of working closely with its suppliers to achieve comprehensive improvements by involving as many stages of the supply chain as possible.”

“We look at the entire value chain of our products, from material sourcing to recycling. This is the only way we can achieve truly sustainable supply chains that conserve resources and support important climate protection goals at the same time. Continental’s goal is to achieve fully sustainable supply chains by 2050 at the latest,” says Claus Petschick, head of Sustainability at Continental Tires.

Petschick adds that Continental is “involved in many projects and initiatives to integrate suppliers into our supply chains. Innovative technologies and digitalisation are the primary tools we use to make environmental risks transparent and to reduce these risks within our complex supply chain.”

Conti’s sustainability projects

To minimise environmental risks and emissions when sourcing natural rubber, Continental has defined clear responsibilities and obligations for all parties involved in its sourcing policy. The company also employs third-party partners to evaluate its suppliers based on verified self-reports. For example, since 2017, Continental has been working with EcoVadis, the world’s leading provider of sustainability ratings for companies and global supply chains.

In other projects, such as a 2018-launched collaboration with German development organisation GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Continental is promoting a digital traceability system for natural rubber originating in the project region, Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on Borneo. By optimising the supply chain and offering training in the sustainable cultivation of natural rubber, smallholders can increase quantity, quality, and yield, thereby improving their incomes. A cultivation strategy based on sustainability also prevents logging and deforestation, conserving valuable resources. Following a successful pilot project, the number of smallholders integrated into the main project is expected to increase from 450 to around 4,000 by 2024.

Continental states that the use of sustainable raw materials for tyre construction and a commitment to their production and processing have long been high priorities for the company. It points to its work with Russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) rubber as evidence of this. The tyre maker works with partners at a research facility in Anklam, near Germany’s Baltic coast, to towards the industrialisation of rubber extracted from Russian dandelion. The aim is to one day grow part of the natural rubber required for Continental’s tyre production in the vicinity of the factories, thereby reducing the CO2 emissions caused by long transport routes.

The use of sustainable raw materials also includes the utilisation of recycled polyester from recycled plastic bottles, which Continental is currently introducing into the series production of its tyres, as well as the use of silicate from the ash of rice husks, an agricultural waste product. Plant-based oils and resins also reduce the proportion of crude oil-based materials already today. Continental has a goal of successively using 100 per cent sustainably produced materials in its tyre products by 2050 at the latest.

Continental has been participating in the CDP’s annual reporting and disclosure of climate protection-relevant data for more than ten years. In addition to top rating for supply chains, CDP has acknowledged the company with a B rating for its efforts in the field of climate change mitigation. In the category of sustainable water management, Continental’s actions and data also scored a B.