Michelin’s expertise in inflatable structures enables it to develop wing sails designed to reduce carbon emissions from maritime travel.
The tyre manufacturer intends to maximise performance and efficiency by minimising tyre material usage, while reducing environmental impact
IN THE near future, freighters that ply the vast oceans could very well resemble carracks and galleons of the past, with tall masts and large sails.
That’s because in order to rely less on fossil fuels, ship building designers have reverted to the resource that drives ships across oceans in pre-industrial times: the wind.
Much like turbines that generate electricity, using wind as a sustainable, renewable energy source makes good ecological sense, as it is abundant and limitless.
Tyre manufacturer and innovator Michelin Group has recently upgraded this design with an innovation that involves an automated, inflatable and fully retractable wing that is fitted to the ship’s deck.
A collaboration between Michelin Recherches et Techniques in Switzerland and the Wisamo team, the design satisfies the group’s “All Sustainable” vision.
This is just one of the many innovations that the company has taken “on the road and beyond”, as it considers technological progress to be critical for a society that is committed towards caring for the environment.
For the French-based manufacturer with a worldwide reach, technology enables it to perpetuate a circular economy, reduce carbon emissions, conserve resources and help it support biodiversity.
It allows the company to quickly respond to the major environmental challenges and which helps make its all-sustainable ambitions a reality.
Corporate commitment
In fact, Michelin had laid out a new roadmap for its plans to become a more eco-friendly company during its first sustainability summit in Northern California, just March this year.
Held in Sonama, the manufacturer’s North America president and chief executive officer Alexis Garcin said, “Throughout our 135-year history, we at Michelin have proven that we are never satisfied in our pursuit of sustainable innovation.”
He added that Michelin’s message remains the same for both when new and when worn, that its products are made sustainably without compromise to high performance.
The company believes that a sustainable future cannot be imagined without a growth model that takes planetary limits into consideration – one that is based on real social and societal responsibility.
Due to that, in 2021 it introduced a new strategic plan called “Michelin in Motion” with objectives for 2030 that are based on three pillars: People, Profit and Planet.
Glancing at Michelin’s 2023 scorecard that lists these three pillars, for example, the company has improved its Inclusion and Diversity Management Index from 65 points in 2021 to 72 points in 2023, and aims to achieve 80 points by 2030.
Since 2019, it regularly gauges itself with the French government’s gender equality index in order to measure gaps in pay, promotion or increase rate between women and men.
In 2023, Michelin (MFPM) and SIMOREP (CSM) scored 99% and 89% respectively, however this index is not being calculated for Pneus Laurent (PLA) and IMECA.
Following the French Law as championed by Marie-Pierre Rixain, at least 30% of managerial positions in these companies, as well as 30% of the seats on these corporations’ governing bodies should be filled by women by 2027. This percentage will be raised to 40% by 2030.
As of last year, the Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin indicated that its group executive committee of 11 members consisted of four women and seven men, about 36% women beyond the expectations of the law.
It plans to be world class in employee safety with a Total Case Incident Rate of 1.29 in 2021 to 1.01 in 2023. It aims to lower this further to less than 0.5 by 2030.
Under the profit pillar, some of its plans extend to delivering continuous financial value creation over 10.5% by 2030, yet in 2023 it has already approached 11.4%.
While under the Planet pillar, one of Michelin’s aims is to reduce its net-zero CO2 emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 by 50% as compared to its 2010 figure and to increase its renewable and recycled materials rate by 40%.
More importantly, the company is committed to reaching its goal to make its tyres 100% sustainable by 2050, all through the expertise of engineers, researchers, chemists and developers within the group worldwide.
To fulfil this goal, the main ingredient for the product, which is natural rubber, must be responsibly produced.
Michelin aims to maximise performance and efficiency by minimising material usage in its tyres, while striving to reduce their environmental impact and improve the rolling resistance, all of which helps to decrease CO2 emissions.
Beyond the many different materials, the performance of its tyres is also down to complex assembly and unique manufacturing processes.
Towards greater knowledge base
Michelin has accumulated a repository of expertise over the decades and encourages a multi-disciplinary approach by harnessing synergies between polymers, chemistry, biochemistry, physico-chemistry, rheology, metallurgy and chemical engineering.
Its experts within each of these areas pool their knowledge and complement each other.
At the same time, it also makes use of open innovation – it works with the French National Center for Scientific Research in seven joint laboratories studying subjects such as biodegradability, synthesis and the modelling of new molecules.
In collaboration with these joint laboratories, the group shapes polymers that will be used within the next 30 or 40 years, possibly with new innovative characteristics.
This win-win partnership is also evident with other collaborations like the Wisamo wing sail, and other environmental saving activities, such as with tyre recycling cleantech company Scandinavian Enviro Systems or plastics circular economy and chemical recycling leader Pyrowave, indicating how serious the company is to speed up the emergence of breakthrough technologies.
Michelin is also stepping up its partnerships with innovative enterprises to develop new technology with a view to using more and more renewable or recycled materials.
For Michelin, composite materials and solutions are the key to tomorrow’s world.
They are essential for developing products with exceptional performance while reducing their environmental impact at every stage of their life cycle, thus reconciling operational excellence, sobriety and preservation of the planet.
