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| Bill Collins, CEO of Circol ELT, presents the Pakman Tyre Champion Award to Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres Ireland. |
Continental Tyres won the Tyre Champion award for 2022 at the recent Pakman national environmental and sustainability awards, writes Brian Byrne. The awards, organised by Repak, recognise excellence in recycling and waste management among businesses, organisations, community groups and initiatives in Ireland.
Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres Ireland expressed his delight at the winning of the award, saying it is a great recognition of the strides that the company has made in integrating sustainability as a key driver across all the levels of their organisation.
The citation noted how, in the past year, the company has achieved top performance in the International Sustainability Rating, with Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) honouring their efforts in climate change mitigation for the fourth year in a row. Also instrumental in Continental’s win was the fact that the company already consumes 55 percent less water and 17 percent less energy than the industry average per metric ton of tyres produced.
Continental Tyres Ireland prepared a detailed submission for the Pakman award that listed a range of sustainability-focussed initiatives which the company has implemented across Europe. An example is the company’s new ground-breaking ContiRe.Tex technology which makes Continental the first tyre manufacturer in the world to launch volume production of recycled polyester yarn obtained from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles into passenger car tyres.
Continental is a title sponsor of the all-electric Extreme E racing series, and for the championship's second season, which opened in February 2022, Continental has developed a tyre for participating vehicles which uses ContiRe.Tex. A third of this new tyre is now made from recycled and renewable raw materials, including silica obtained from the ashes of rice husks — a waste product from agriculture — alongside reprocessed steel and carbon black. The support vehicles for this year’s Tour de France were also equipped exclusively with ContiRe.Tex tyres.
