How Pirelli Tire North America is Driving Lower Emissions

Italian Giovanni Battista Pirelli started Pirelli Tire in the 1800s in Milan to produce elastic rubber items. It has come a long way since it launched its first tires for velocipedes, an early form of bicycle, back in 1894.

Today, the 150-year-old company is a global manufacturer with 18 production facilities in 12 countries. It provides premium, high-performance tires for cars, motorcycles, and bicycles, and boasts 5.3 billion euros in annual revenue.

You’re most likely to recognize the brand from the Formula 1 cars that can often be seen sporting them.

But while Formula 1 race car tires and environmental sustainability may seem unlikely bedfellows, tires have a significant role to play in reducing carbon emissions of cars, according to Maureen Kline, Pirelli’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Sustainability North America.

Pirelli aims to boost the sustainability of its tires through sourcing sustainable materials and by powering its manufacturing plants with renewable electricity. However, says Kline, the most impactful gains come from improving the performance of tires to reduce “rolling resistance.”

That’s because how easily the tires roll over surfaces is an important part of a car’s fuel efficiency.

In this interview, Kline discusses how Pirelli North America is addressing sustainability and the opportunities and challenges of decarbonization in the tire industry.

Diana Davis, IX Network: We're seeing politicians and regulators push for decarbonization in the industrial sector. How is that affecting your business?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: Decarbonization is big on everyone's agenda. One of the drivers for the tire business is the drive for decarbonization in the automobile industry. As part of the automotive supply chain, we have been getting a number of requests for sustainable products.

One thing that is interesting about the tire industry is that we are not the most carbon intensive sector out there. And at Pirelli North America we are aiming to have all the electricity we use powered by renewable sources by 2025. We are looking at different types of solutions to achieve carbon neutrality.

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Diana Davis, IX Network: I understand that one thing you've been experimenting with is the use of new materials in your tire: FSC® certified natural rubber and rayon. I wondered if you could tell me more about this and other sustainability solutions you're working on?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: In terms of sustainability, it’s important to distinguish between the product footprint and the manufacturing footprint.

On the product side: our factory in Rome, Georgia was the first tire factory anywhere in the world to be Forest Stewardship Council® - certified for sustainable natural rubber and rayon. Our Rome factory is a highly automated small factory dealing in very high-end tires.

The process of getting FSC certified is quite complicated. It requires a chain of custody certification where rubber – most of it sourced from Southeast Asia – is certified at the farm. Then, the rubber needs to be followed through the chain of custody until it arrives at our production facilities when the FSC logo is stamped on the tire.

It is difficult to find suppliers that have mastered the complexity of following that rubber through the whole supply chain.

We’re also looking into innovative materials to increase product sustainability. We plan to increase our renewable materials and decrease our fossil-based materials. Renewable materials include rice husk silica, which is a waste product from rice. It’s a substitute for silica that works well.

We’re also at looking at lignin as a biopolymer. We can source lignin from pulp and paper mills where it is a waste product and use it as an antioxidant instead of fossil-derived products.

There’s been evolution in pyrolysis technology - a process where you take tires at the end of their life and transform them to raw materials again - and the process is much cleaner now.  In 2021 Pirelli made big strides in sustainable materials and produced a concept tire with 94% renewable and recycled materials, such as silica from rice husks, recycled carbon black and bio-resins.

Pirelli is in the high end of the tire market so we are working hard on getting recycled materials to perform as well as virgin materials because we can't compromise the safety and the performance of the tires.

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Diana Davis, IX Network: Where do you think is the biggest gain for your business for carbon reduction? Is it in the product design or is it in manufacturing operations where you'll be able to decarbonize the greatest amount?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: As far as our carbon footprint is concerned, we must work to decarbonize our factories and our supply chain. At the same time, our tires contribute to the emission reduction of cars through innovation on materials and design aimed at reducing their rolling resistance, which makes the cars more fuel efficient and gives you more miles to the gallon and thus less CO2 from cars.

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Diana Davis, IX Network:  So effectively, by enhancing your tires to make cars more efficient, you can contribute to reducing the amount of carbon going up into the atmosphere?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: Exactly. We have a goal to have 70% of our tires in categories A&B by 2025. This is a European classification system that indicates rolling resistance and helps consumers determine how efficient their tires are. A&B are the highest levels of efficiency.

All the car companies are asking for low rolling resistance, high-performance, and safe tires. So that’s what we’re focusing on.

Diana Davis, IX Network: How do Electric Vehicles (EVs) factor in?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: We are focusing heavily on developing tires for the EV market. For EV's, you need low rolling resistance to improve the range of the car. If it’s an internal combustion engine car, you're talking about miles to the gallon. If it's an EV, you're talking about miles in the range.

EV tires are a bit different by design but we’re still aiming for low rolling resistance.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  What have been some of the big challenges that you've had in the last couple of years in bringing these sustainable solutions to fruition?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: On the product side, a challenge has been sourcing new materials that have the same or better performance. We will not compromise on the performance or safety of our tires.

We spend a lot of R&D to bring the material to the same quality level as another material that we have been using.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  Earlier you also mentioned switching to renewable electricity for your manufacturing operations? How far along are you in that process?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: More than half of our electricity at a global level comes from renewable sources at the moment. At our manufacturing site in Rome, Georgia, we have partnered with a solar energy company to produce renewable energy on our property.

But it’s a challenge as renewable energy is a sizeable investment and we want to make sure that we adopt the best solution, especially as the cost curve is coming down.

We have given ourselves the deadline of 2025 for our electricity to be 100% renewably sourced.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  There are so many technological innovations in this space. Much of it still early stage and unproven. How do you filter through all that noise and determine the best solutions?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: Our R&D and procurement departments are becoming very specialized in evaluating the different innovations. We have local procurement people who are tasked with looking at all of the possibilities and comparing them. We also have people in the headquarters evaluating the whole scenario globally.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  What role do you see America's industrial sector playing on the national and international stage on the road to net zero?

Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tire North America: Industrial decarbonization is expensive. If we really - as a country, and as a planet - want to take this decarbonization transition seriously, we need to pull together and use different levers to achieve it.

These include partnership with government, regulations, and incentives.

Interested in learning more about this topic?

Maureen Kline will be speaking at our upcoming Decarbonizing America’s Industrial Sector. Join her and over 200 of your industry peers to advance clean manufacturing and help reinvigorate America's industrial sector September 13-15, 2022 in Palm Springs. Download the agenda for more information.