Michelin commits to protecting biodiversity

Human activity is a key source of pressure on biodiversity. Corporate mobilization to protect natural capital is critical. As a responsible industrial company, Michelin has therefore set itself ambitious goals for 2030 and is committed to large-scale projects.

Michelin’s activity relies on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is therefore essential that the Group manages its impact starting with the product design phase, and throughout the life cycle of its products.

Michelin is thus taking action to ensure that the resources provided by nature are extracted and used responsibly, then recycled and reused. It also considers that a bio-based material is only sustainable if it is renewable over a human lifetime.

Equally important, the Group monitors the environmental impact of its production sites and seeks to develop a responsible natural rubber industry.

True to its values, particularly in terms of respect for the environment, Michelin formalized its commitment to biodiversity by joining act4nature international in 2018, an initiative launched by the French association Entreprises pour l'Environnement (EpE).

In 2021, Michelin strengthened its 2030 commitments with respect to R&D, raw materials and the land management of its production sites.

Michelin’s commitments for biodiversity by 2030

In 2003, the Group invested in Brazil through the Bahia Green Gold program, an ecological reserve, a research center for rubber cultivars and a pilot project to improve livelihoods of small farmers. Over the years, this program has become a tangible and remarkable example of Michelin's commitment to preserving biodiversity across 3,900 hectares.

As one of the world's leading buyers of natural rubber, the Group is aware that the increase in global demand can lead to poor practices that often harm forests and biodiversity. This is why Michelin is actively working for a more sustainable rubber industry^*, in particular through a zero-deforestation public commitment made in 2016, as well as principles for protecting and respecting at-risk lands, ecosystems, and communities.

Furthermore, the Group is involved in agronomic research and in several major projects to preserve and restore rainforests.

Since 2013, Michelin has been performing inventories of the protected areas and species surrounding its industrial and research sites. These inventories are updated every five years. The latest reported 196 protected zones within a five-kilometer radius.

^*The Group's commitment to sustainable natural rubber specifically defines the conditions under which this material is used, both in terms of environmental concerns (zero deforestation, sanctuary of HCV (High Conservation Value), HCS (High Carbon Stock) and peatland areas, and in social and human rights ones (working conditions, free, prior and informed consent of the local populations.

Michelin's Bahia Reserve: 20 Years of Forest Restoration

As a preferred partner of the rubber industry, the Group committed early on to making rubber production environmentally responsible and beneficial to all players in its value chain, not only to the plantations in which Michelin is a shareholder.

The natural rubber supply chain is extremely complex and fragmented, with up to 7 intermediaries between the small-scale producers - who account for almost 85% of world production and whose average farm size is around 2 ha - and the processing plants. In recent years, the Group has taken several key steps, such as publishing its sustainable natural rubber policy, assessing ESG practices of its suppliers, and collecting information on the social and environmental practices of its value chain with the RubberWay application. Michelin then leverages this information to map risks within this ecosystem and work on remedies.

Since 2015, through Royal Lestari Utama (RLU), which became its subsidiary in July 2022, Michelin has continued to develop an ambitious and long-term pilot project for sustainable rubber tree plantations in Sumatra and the East Kalimantan province in Indonesia.

The Group is also the organizer and a founding member of the multi-stakeholder Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), created in 2018, where it plays a leading role in advancing the entire value chain towards greater social, economic and environmental sustainability.

In 2022, Michelin was the first tire manufacturer to support the inclusion of natural rubber in the list of materials affected by the new European regulation on imported deforestation.

In addition, Michelin prohibits the use of pesticides on rubber plantations, with a target of zero herbicide use on 50% of planted areas by 2030.

Michelin, active member of the “Lab Capital Naturel”

Taking a systemic view of these challenges, in 2020, the Group joined the “Lab Capital Naturel”, a laboratory launched by WWF France, which provides the opportunity to explore in depth the Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) methodology. SBTN helps companies put natural capital at the heart of the economic model, by outlining a process for organizations to assess and prioritize the impacts their value chain has on nature, to define conservation goals aligned with scientific knowledge, and to implement action plans.

Preserving resources