Continental AG is one of the world’s largest automotive technology and tyre manufacturers, with the Tires group sector generating EUR 14.6 billion in sales in 2024 across 29 tyre production facilities in 18 countries. The company published its first Sustainability Report fully integrated into the Annual Report in 2024, compliant with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and prepared in full application of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), making it one of a small number of tyre manufacturers to publish at this level of regulatory compliance. Continental’s sustainability framework is organised around four focus areas: Climate and Energy, Resources and Circularity, People and Society, and Responsible Value Chains, with binding ambitions for each area set through 2050.
Continental received a CDP climate rating confirmation in February 2026, recognising its decade-long effort to reduce GHG intensity and water consumption per metric ton of tyre produced. The company is a member of the RE100 initiative committing to 100% renewable electricity, with grid electricity at all tyre production facilities worldwide purchased as carbon-neutral since 2020 through energy attribute certificates.
Source
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/sustainability/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20260217-cdp/
https://www.continental.com/en/sustainability/reporting-and-downloads/
Sustainability Strategy and Goals
Continental’s formal sustainability strategy aligns with the UN SDGs, with strongest linkages to SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry and innovation), SDG 12 (responsible consumption), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 15 (life on land), and SDG 17 (partnerships). The strategy is anchored in a milestone architecture that staggers commitments across three decades: 2030 for materials and energy, 2040 for carbon-neutral production, and 2050 for full value chain climate neutrality and 100% sustainable materials. Continental’s climate targets for Scope 1 and 2 are SBTi-validated, and the company submits Scope 3 data across all 15 GHG Protocol categories in its annual CDP climate disclosure.
Net Zero and Carbon Emissions
Continental targets carbon-neutral production for all tyres by 2040 and complete climate neutrality across the entire value chain by 2050. Its Scope 1 and Scope 2 reduction trajectory is the most operationally mature in the group, supported by 100% carbon-neutral grid electricity procurement since 2020.
- Combined Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2 GHG emissions were 0.83 million metric tonnes CO2e in 2024, down from 0.89 million metric tonnes in 2023, a 6.7% year-on-year reduction.
- Scope 1 emissions were 671,731 tCO2e in 2024, and market-based Scope 2 emissions were 161,504 tCO2e, with location-based Scope 2 emissions of 1,424,774 tCO2e confirming the significant carbon reduction impact of Continental’s 100% renewable electricity certificate procurement strategy since 2020.
- Total Scope 3 emissions were 99,418,244 tCO2e in 2024, representing approximately 98% of Continental’s total carbon footprint of 101,514,749 tCO2e, a 3.21% decrease from 2023, with full coverage across all 15 Scope 3 GHG Protocol categories.
- Continental targets a 20% reduction in absolute energy consumption by 2030 versus a 2018 baseline, and already consumed 22% less energy and 50% less water per metric ton of tyres produced than the industry average in 2019.
- By 2040, all tyre production will be carbon-neutral on Scope 1 and 2, representing the tightest production-level net zero deadline of any major tyre manufacturer.
Water Stewardship
Continental manages water across all production sites with a focus on reducing total withdrawal per metric ton of product, implementing water treatment and reuse systems, and applying higher reduction targets at sites in high water stress areas.
- Continental reduced water withdrawal per metric ton of product by more than 10% across all production sites between 2020 and 2025, saving a total of 197 million litres, equivalent to filling 79 Olympic-size swimming pools.
- The company targets a 20% reduction in water consumption by 2030 versus a 2020 baseline, with correspondingly higher targets at high water stress sites.
- By 2030, Continental will reduce its absolute water consumption by 50% at high water stress production sites compared to 2020, the most demanding water commitment in its operational environmental programme.
- Since 2020, Continental consumed 55% less water than the industry average per metric ton of tyres produced, establishing a structural operational efficiency advantage even before the 2030 absolute reduction target applies.
Regenerative Agriculture
Continental’s natural rubber strategy focuses on responsible sourcing, digital supply chain traceability, and smallholder support in Indonesia, targeting full responsible sourcing coverage of all natural rubber volumes by 2030. Its joint development programme with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), extended in April 2025, is the most operationally specific third-party partnership for NR smallholder improvement in the German tyre industry.
- Continental and GIZ extended their Indonesia smallholder sustainability project in April 2025, building capacity among rubber farmers in West Kalimantan in sustainable cultivation practices, agroforestry, and higher-quality rubber production.
- The GIZ programme targeted increasing the number of trained Indonesian farmers from 450 to 4,000 by 2024, implementing a digital traceability system covering the full chain from rubber tree to Continental’s production facilities.
- Continental’s Taraxagum dandelion rubber project, running since 2011 in partnership with research institutions and co-development partners, aims to produce natural rubber close to European tyre manufacturing sites, eliminating tropical sourcing dependency for a defined share of NR supply.
- Continental’s ambition is to source 100% of its natural rubber for tyre production from responsible sources by 2030, requiring verified traceability across a supply chain spanning millions of smallholder farms.
Deforestation and Biodiversity
Continental explicitly supports the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), confirmed in its March 2026 EUDR policy statement, and has built a multi-tool deforestation prevention approach combining the RubberWay digital traceability app, EcoVadis supplier assessments, and GPSNR membership. It is one of a small number of tyre manufacturers that publicly advocates for EUDR rather than merely complying with it.
- Continental uses RubberWay, a geolocation and supply chain transparency application developed by CIRAD and WWF, to map and assess the sustainability of its natural rubber supply chain at farm level.
- Continental applies EcoVadis sustainability assessments across its supplier base, creating a risk-scoring and improvement programme for suppliers in the natural rubber and petrochemical categories.
- The Continental-GIZ Indonesia project prevents deforestation by improving smallholder rubber yields on existing farmland, removing the financial incentive to expand into forested areas.
- Continental’s Taraxagum dandelion rubber project directly addresses deforestation risk by developing a European-cultivated alternative to tropical Hevea rubber, reducing dependency on Southeast Asian plantation expansion.
Packaging and Circular Economy
Continental’s circular economy roadmap targets over 40% renewable and recycled materials in all tyres by 2030, 60% sustainable materials in flagship products by 2030, and 100% sustainable materials by 2050. Its proprietary ContiRe.Tex recycled PET polyester technology, its long-term rCB purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations signed in July 2024, and its deployment of rice husk ash silica and recycled steel are the four principal circular material programmes active in production as of March 2026.
- Average share of renewable and recycled materials in Continental tyre production was 26% in 2024, and the company expects a 2 to 3 percentage point increase in 2025 driven by expanded rPET, recycled steel, rice husk ash silica, and bio-circular synthetic rubber deployment.
- Continental concluded a 10-year long-term purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations in July 2024 for high-quality rCB from ELT thermolysis, and all newly produced forklift tyres at the Korbach plant already contain Pyrum rCB, with passenger car tyre series qualification ongoing.
- The Conti Urban HA 5 NXT city bus tyre, launched in October 2025, contains up to 60% renewable, recycled, and ISCC PLUS mass-balance-certified materials, with an externally certified lifecycle assessment (LCA) confirming 11% lower GHG emissions than the predecessor Conti Urban HA 3 model.
- ContiRe.Tex technology, co-developed with textile manufacturer OTIZ, converts recycled PET bottles into high-performance polyester yarn verified by SGS to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 28% in PET tyre cord fabric compared to fossil-based alternatives, with each set of standard passenger car tyres incorporating material from approximately 40 recycled PET bottles.
- Continental’s SC20+ solid tyre for industrial applications already contains approximately 60% renewable and recycled materials, including Pyrum rCB, establishing that the 60% flagship product milestone is achievable across multiple product lines.
Human Rights and Responsible Sourcing
Continental’s Responsible Value Chain approach covers human rights due diligence, supplier sustainability assessments via EcoVadis, and EUDR-aligned deforestation prevention across the full upstream supply chain. Continental formally supports EUDR and has built supply chain traceability infrastructure that pre-dates the regulation’s compliance requirement.
- Continental applies EcoVadis assessments to evaluate supplier sustainability across environmental, social, ethical, and supply chain categories, providing a structured risk management and improvement framework for all key commodity categories.
- Continental supports GPSNR policy components for natural rubber, applying the organisation’s guidelines on deforestation prevention, land rights, community engagement, and smallholder income as the baseline for NR procurement compliance.
- Continental’s supplier engagement policy requires all first-tier raw material suppliers to confirm compliance with its Supplier Code of Conduct covering human rights, labour standards, anti-corruption, and environmental responsibilities.
Community and Social Impact
Continental’s community impact is concentrated in its 18-country tyre manufacturing footprint, with specific programmes in Indonesia (smallholder rubber farming), Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, France, Czech Republic, and Romania (ISCC PLUS-certified plant communities), and North America.
- Continental’s GIZ smallholder programme in Indonesia directly improves living conditions and income security for rubber tree farmers in West Kalimantan, combining environmental training with community development support.
- Continental’s 2030 waste reduction milestone targets 20% waste reduction and a 95% waste recycling rate across all production sites, reducing both environmental impact and resource cost in manufacturing communities.
- Continental’s tyre retreading programme, which saves up to 24% CO2 emissions and reduces material use by 70% and water consumption per retreaded tyre versus new tyre production, creates economic and environmental co-benefits for fleet operators and communities dependent on commercial vehicle logistics.
Governance and Transparency
Continental’s sustainability governance is embedded in the Group Management Board with the Executive Vice President for Sustainability having direct reporting responsibility to the CEO. The 2024 Sustainability Report is the company’s first fully CSRD-compliant disclosure, prepared under ESRS, covering double materiality assessment, value chain impacts, and EU Taxonomy alignment.
- Continental’s 2024 Annual Report integrated sustainability reporting under CSRD-ESRS for the first time, including EU Taxonomy disclosures and a full double materiality assessment covering physical, transitional, and societal risks and impacts.
- Continental discloses Scope 3 GHG emissions across all 15 GHG Protocol categories in its annual CDP submission, one of the most complete Scope 3 disclosures among major tyre manufacturers.
- Continental received CDP climate recognition in February 2026, validating the completeness and quality of its climate governance framework and confirming the credibility of its long-running GHG intensity reduction trajectory.
Technology and Innovation
Continental’s sustainable technology portfolio has five active pillars in commercial deployment or long-term supply agreements: ContiRe.Tex recycled PET polyester, Pyrum rCB via 10-year supply agreement, rice husk ash silica, Taraxagum dandelion natural rubber, and bio-circular synthetic rubber from organic oils including tall oil from the paper industry.
- ContiRe.Tex technology, deployed at four European production sites by 2025 (Lousado, Otrokovice, Korbach, Sarreguemines) and scaling globally, converts PET bottles from regions with no closed-loop bottle recycling into high-performance polyester yarn verified at 28% lower CO2 vs. fossil-based cord fabric.
- Continental’s 10-year Pyrum rCB supply agreement, concluded July 2024, is the longest-term procurement commitment for recycled carbon black in the global tyre industry, covering forklift tyre production at Korbach and passenger car tyre series qualification progressing as of March 2026.
- Continental uses rice husk ash silica from Solvay across its full tyre portfolio, replacing quartz-derived conventional silica, which requires 1,194 to 1,955 kg of coal per tonne of output versus rice husk silica at 238 kg.
- Continental uses bio-based synthetic rubber produced from organic oils such as tall oil, a paper industry by-product, directly replacing crude oil-derived SBR feedstock in its tyre compounds.
- All six European Continental tyre plants achieved ISCC PLUS certification by June 2025, with the Hefei (China) and Mount Vernon (U.S.) plants certified through 2025, establishing the broadest ISCC PLUS-certified tyre manufacturing network among all major manufacturers.
Global Partnerships and Advocacy
Continental is a member of the RE100 initiative, the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), the Tire Industry Project (TIP), and a formal EUDR advocate supporting the regulation’s extension to the natural rubber commodity.
- Continental-GIZ partnership, extended in April 2025, is the most operationally specific public-private smallholder NR development project in the European tyre industry, combining German government development finance with Continental’s supply chain expertise in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
- Continental’s Taraxagum dandelion rubber project operates in formal partnership with research institutions and agricultural co-development partners across Europe, targeting the first EU-cultivated natural rubber alternative to Hevea with zero deforestation risk by origin.
- Continental explicitly supports EUDR implementation and advocates for uniform application of deforestation-free supply chain requirements across all NR market participants, using its digital traceability infrastructure as both an operational and advocacy resource.
Source
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/sustainability/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20260217-cdp/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250605-more-sustainable-materials/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20240730-pyrum-10-years/
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/sustainability/carbon-neutrality/
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/sustainability/activities-and-initiatives/design-and-sourcing/naturalrubber/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250415-project-extended-giz/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250626-all-european-plants/
https://www.tyre-trends.com/materials/continental-steps-up-shift-to-renewable-recycled-materials-in-tyres
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/stories/contire-tex-technology/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20251022-rsteelcokoonpet/
https://www.yushengmax.com/continental-uses-pyrum-innovations-recovered-carbon-black-in-its-super-elastic-solid-tires.html
https://www.tyre-trends.com/news/continental-boosts-sustainability-in-tyre-production-with-recycled-materials
Progress vs. Target Tracker
Source
https://www.continental.com/en/sustainability/
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/sustainability/carbon-neutrality/
https://tracenable.com/company/continental/ghg-emissions
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250626-all-european-plants/
Key Sustainability Innovations and Technologies
- ContiRe.Tex recycled PET polyester technology: Co-developed with OTIZ, ContiRe.Tex converts recycled PET bottles from regions with no closed-loop bottle recycling into high-performance polyester yarn for tyre carcasses without intermediate chemical steps. Each standard passenger car tyre set uses material from approximately 40 recycled PET bottles, and SGS-verified LCA confirms 28% CO2 reduction in PET cord fabric compared to fossil-based alternatives. Deployed at Lousado, Otrokovice, Korbach, and Sarreguemines as of 2025, with global scaling underway.
- Pyrum rCB 10-year supply agreement: Continental’s July 2024 long-term purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations is the tyre industry’s longest-term procurement commitment for ELT-derived recovered carbon black. All newly produced forklift tyres at Korbach contain Pyrum rCB, and Continental and Pyrum are jointly optimising the pyrolysis process for passenger car tyre tread and sidewall qualification, targeting a future closed-loop ELT recycling concept.
- Rice husk ash silica via Solvay: Continental uses rice husk ash silica from Solvay across its entire tyre portfolio, a deployment confirmed as group-wide in July 2025, replacing quartz-derived conventional silica and reducing coal consumption in silica production by approximately 80% and CO2 by 92% per tonne. This is the broadest confirmed deployment of rice husk silica across a single manufacturer’s full product range among all major tyre producers.
- Taraxagum dandelion rubber project: Continental’s dandelion rubber programme, running since 2011, is the longest-standing continuous alternative rubber R&D investment in the European tyre industry. Conducted in partnership with European research institutions and agricultural co-development partners, it targets commercial European-cultivated natural rubber production that eliminates tropical sourcing dependency and deforestation risk for a defined share of NR. Prototype tyre production has been confirmed; commercial volume supply has not yet been announced.
- Conti Urban HA 5 NXT city bus tyre: Launched October 2025, this commercial vehicle tyre achieves up to 60% material content from renewable, recycled, and ISCC PLUS mass-balance-certified sources, with an externally certified LCA confirming 11% lower GHG emissions than the predecessor product. It is the highest sustainable material content commercial tyre with a third-party LCA certification currently in the Continental product range.
Source
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/stories/contire-tex-technology/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20240730-pyrum-10-years/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20251022-rsteelcokoonpet/
https://www.yushengmax.com/continental-uses-pyrum-innovations-recovered-carbon-black-in-its-super-elastic-solid-tires.html
https://www.ertico.com/continental-launches-city-bus-tire-made-with-sustainable-materials
Measurable Impacts
Continental’s most verifiable and externally confirmed impacts are in Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction, water efficiency, and ISCC PLUS certification coverage. Combined Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2 emissions fell to 0.83 million tCO2e in 2024, a 6.7% year-on-year reduction from 0.89 million in 2023. Total Scope 3 fell 3.21% to 99.4 million tCO2e in 2024 versus 2023, with full 15-category GHG Protocol disclosure providing the most complete Scope 3 reporting among major tyre manufacturers.
- Water withdrawal per metric ton of product fell by more than 10% across all production sites between 2020 and 2025, saving 197 million litres in total.
- All six European tyre plants and two non-European flagship sites achieved ISCC PLUS certification by June 2025, creating the broadest certified sustainable material supply chain documentation network in the tyre industry.
- ContiRe.Tex deployment at four European production sites uses the material from approximately 40 recycled PET bottles per standard passenger car tyre set, with SGS verification confirming 28% CO2 reduction in PET cord fabric versus fossil-based alternatives.
- The Conti Urban HA 5 NXT achieves 11% lower GHG emissions confirmed by external LCA versus its predecessor, establishing a product-level lifecycle carbon benchmark within the Continental commercial tyre range.
- Continental already consumes 22% less energy and 55% less water per metric ton of tyres than the industry average, establishing the deepest operational efficiency baseline in the global tyre manufacturing sector.
Source
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20260217-cdp/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250626-all-european-plants/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20251022-rsteelcokoonpet/
https://www.ertico.com/continental-launches-city-bus-tire-made-with-sustainable-materials
Challenges and Areas for Improvement
Scope 3 emissions represent Continental’s most structurally significant gap, accounting for approximately 98% of total GHG footprint at 99.4 million tCO2e in 2024. The 3.21% year-on-year reduction in 2023 to 2024 is encouraging but mathematically insufficient to reach value chain climate neutrality by 2050 if sustained at current rates, particularly given that product use phase emissions, the dominant Scope 3 category for tyre manufacturers, cannot be reduced by material substitution alone and require fleet electrification and tyre rolling resistance improvement at scale.
The waste recycling rate of 87% in both 2023 and 2024 is flat against a 95% target for 2030. Closing the 8 percentage point gap in six years requires a pace of waste diversion improvement that the 2023 to 2024 data series does not yet reflect. The absolute waste volume reduction target of 20% by 2030 has not been separately confirmed as tracking in published sources reviewed as of March 2026, creating additional uncertainty about whether both waste metrics are on trajectory.
The water targets present a two-speed risk. The group-wide 10% per-tonne reduction from 2020 to 2025 tracks the 20% absolute reduction target for 2030 only if the pace accelerates. The 50% reduction at high water stress sites by 2030 is the more demanding commitment, and site-specific performance data for stress-area facilities has not been separately confirmed in sources reviewed, making it impossible to independently assess progress against this specific sub-target from publicly available information.
Source
https://tracenable.com/company/continental/ghg-emissions
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/sustainability/
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20260217-cdp/
Future Plans and Long-Term Goals
Continental’s sustainability roadmap through 2050 is the most explicitly staged among major tyre manufacturers, with binding milestones at 2030, 2040, and 2050 covering materials, production decarbonisation, and full value chain neutrality as distinct and sequenced goals. The 2030 material milestone targets over 40% renewable and recycled materials in all tyres and 60% in flagship products, with all passenger car PET cords transitioning to rPET and full ISCC PLUS documentation across all production regions.
The 2040 production carbon-neutrality target is the most commercially specific mid-century milestone in the tyre industry, requiring all Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions at all 29 tyre plants to be eliminated within 14 years of March 2026. Continental’s current 0.83 million tCO2e Scope 1 and 2 combined position and the 100% renewable electricity certification achieved since 2020 confirm that the Scope 2 portion of the 2040 target is already structurally addressed. The remaining challenge is Scope 1 process heat, curing energy, and on-site combustion, which will require electrification and green hydrogen adoption in manufacturing across all geographies.
Source
https://www.continental-tires.com/in/en/about-us/stories/sustainable-future/
https://www.continental-tires.com/about-us/sustainability/carbon-neutrality/
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
Comparisons to Industry Competitors
Competitor reports:
https://www.michelin.com/en/sustainability/company/planet/climate-action
https://www.bridgestone.com/responsibilities/esgdata/
https://corporate.goodyear.com/content/dam/goodyear-corp/documents/responsibility/goodyear-crr-2024-final.pdf
What to Watch: 12 to 18 Month Indicators
Three specific signals through mid-2027 will determine whether Continental’s sustainability standing consolidates its leadership position in European tyre manufacturing or whether execution gaps emerge against the 2030 material and waste targets:
- Pyrum rCB qualification for passenger car tyre series production: Continental’s 10-year supply agreement with Pyrum Innovations, signed July 2024, is the most structurally significant rCB procurement commitment in the industry. Qualification of Pyrum rCB for passenger car tyre tread and sidewall compounds, announced in 2026 or 2027, would enable the 26% by-mass carbon black input across the world’s largest tyre volume segment to begin drawing from recycled ELT sources, converting the supply agreement from a strategic commitment into a measurable circular economy output. Continental’s ability to confirm a qualification milestone in 2026 will be the most watched development in the tyre industry’s circular material transition.
- Waste recycling rate trajectory toward 95% by 2030: Continental published identical waste recovery rates of 87% in both 2023 and 2024, showing zero improvement over the year against a 95% target for 2030. The 2025 Sustainability Report, integrated into the 2025 Annual Report and due in March 2027, will confirm whether any improvement has been made. Flat performance in 2025 against a 95% target with five years remaining would signal structural difficulty in the recycling rate trajectory, requiring explanation and a remediation plan in the sustainability disclosure.
- Sustainable materials share in 2025 and first confirmation of 2030 flagship trajectory: Continental projected a 2 to 3 percentage point increase in sustainable materials share for 2025 from a 26% base, reaching 28 to 29% group-wide. The 2025 Annual Report will confirm whether the projection was achieved. More critically, the flagship product trajectory toward 60% by 2030 rests on the Conti Urban HA 5 NXT and SC20+ at approximately 60% already and the passenger car flagship portfolio below that level. A confirmed flagship passenger car tyre at 60% or above in 2026 to 2027 would confirm that both the volume and the quality dimensions of the 2030 materials target are simultaneously achievable.
Source
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20240730-pyrum-10-years/
https://annualreport.continental.com/2024/en/report/sustainability-report.php
https://www.continental.com/en/press/press-releases/20250605-more-sustainable-materials/
Continental’s sustainability profile is the most operationally layered of the four major tyre manufacturers covered in this series. No other manufacturer combines 100% renewable electricity certification since 2020, the deepest energy and water efficiency advantage versus industry average (22% and 55% respectively), the broadest ISCC PLUS manufacturing certification network (eight plants across three continents by late 2025), full 15-category Scope 3 disclosure, CSRD-compliant double materiality reporting, and a confirmed 10-year rCB supply agreement all within a single sustainability portfolio.
The two material gaps are the waste recycling rate plateau at 87% against a 95% target, and the sustainable materials volume share at 26% in 2024 against a 40% target for 2030. Neither is a failed commitment, and neither has been static over a longer timeframe. The waste rate requires acceleration from a zero-improvement year in 2023 to 2024. The materials share requires consistent 2 to 3 percentage point annual gains through 2030, a pace Continental has publicly projected for 2025 but not yet confirmed. Both are executable, but both require the 2025 data to confirm resumed improvement.
Three strategic takeaways for practitioners benchmarking or replicating Continental’s approach:
- Use Continental’s energy and water efficiency data as the tyre manufacturing operational sustainability benchmark: Continental consumed 22% less energy and 55% less water per metric ton of product than the industry average in 2019, before the current decade’s reduction programmes began. This is not an aspirational target but a confirmed historical performance differential. Sustainability procurement assessments of tyre suppliers should include energy and water intensity per tonne as standard metrics, using Continental’s baseline as the reference point for what best-in-class operational efficiency looks like.
- Treat the ContiRe.Tex and Pyrum rCB programmes as procurement-ready circular material standards: ContiRe.Tex rPET in tyre carcass is SGS-verified, deployed at four European plants, and confirmed at 28% CO2 reduction versus fossil cord fabric. Pyrum rCB is in commercial production for Continental forklift tyres with passenger car qualification ongoing. Both are procurement-ready in 2026 for fleet operators and OEM sustainability teams that want to specify verifiable circular material content in commercial vehicle tyre contracts.
- Monitor Continental’s CSRD double materiality report as the European regulatory disclosure model for the tyre industry: Continental’s 2024 sustainability report is the first fully CSRD-ESRS-compliant tyre manufacturer disclosure, covering double materiality, value chain impacts, and EU Taxonomy alignment in a single integrated document. Sustainability teams at companies that procure tyres at scale in the EU should use this report as the reference standard for what supplier sustainability disclosure will look like under CSRD from 2026 onward, and begin requiring equivalent disclosure depth from all Tier 1 tyre suppliers in EU procurement contracts renewed from 2026.
