Jorge Almeida will become Head of Sustainability at Continental Tires from 1 May 2023, taking on responsibility for the strategic positioning and global management of the tyre maker’s sustainability activities. He succeeds Claus Petschick, who is retiring after more than 30 years at Continental.
Solvay is investing at its Livorno site in Italy to launch the company’s first circular highly dispersible silica (HDS), a product derived from rice husk ash. Production should begin by the end of 2024 and circular HDS will gradually replace the existing Zeosil portfolio. Tyre maker Continental is a key partner in Solvay’s journey to bring HDS to market.
The goal at Continental is to exclusively obtain natural rubber for its tyres from responsible sources as of 2030. Confirmation of responsible sourcing is essential to natural rubber’s status as a sustainable raw material, and gaining this confirmation requires traceability within the supply chain. Although completely seamless traceability is currently technically impossible, Continental says it is “working at full speed” on a blueprint for the sustainable and responsible structuring of natural rubber supply chains.
Mountain bike tyres from the Continental Gravity range have become the first products to feature responsibly sourced natural rubber from a project aimed at establishing sustainable natural rubber supply chains. Continental aims to achieve 100 per cent sustainable supply chains by 2050 at the latest, but is going one step further when it comes to natural rubber and intends to cover its entire demand exclusively through responsible sources by as soon as 2030.
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.
Tyre maker Continental and Security Matters, an Australian company focused on the digitisation of physical objects in the blockchain, are collaborating to develop and test a marker technology for natural rubber. The two companies have entered into an agreement covering this work.
We’re used to encountering yarn spun from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in clothing and soft furnishings, but from next year motorists will be able to buy Continental tyres containing this material. Continental will use PET-sourced polyester yarns in the construction of tyre casings and says these can “completely replace” conventional polyester. It will present a concept tyre built upon a PET polyester casing at the IAA Mobility show in Munich this September.
Continental is extending its commitment to sustainability in the natural rubber supply chain. The tyre maker and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) have agreed to significantly expand their project to ensure full traceability within the natural rubber supply chain in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan (Borneo).
We associate the slogan ‘every little helps’ with a well-known supermarket, but the idea of small savings adding up to a large one applies to more than just baked beans and washing detergent. From this month, Continental is making do without one of the two stickers it previously affixed to new tyres sold in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. By doing so, it expects to avoid around 110 tonnes of plastic waste per year from the stickers themselves as well as waste from the backing foil.
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