To support Continental’s sustainability goals, ContiTech is moving toward the transformation of its production facilities into sustainable factories with the successful installation of a new photovoltaic (PV) system at its facility in Timișoara, Romania, that produces hoses, belts and tires.
The PV system (below) is expected to produce approximately 930MWh annually of emission-free electricity. Continental has set itself specific targets when it comes to operational environmental management, and is targeting that by 2030 its energy consumption can be produced by 20%. Further targets include: increasing the recovery quota to 95%, decreasing waste generation by 2 %, annually; and decreasing its water withdrawal by 4 % in high-risk water regions and by 2 % in moderate-risk water regions.
Additional to Timișoara, locations in Subotica, Serbia; Szeged, Hungary; Wagrowiec, Poland; Weissbach, Germany; Changzhou China; Kalyani, India; and Chihuahua, Mexico, have already approved their own PV projects and will install their respective systems in the coming months.
ContiTech expects these installations to reach an annual electricity generation of 5,900MWh, which represents the electricity consumption of 2,950 households in Germany.
Pilot plants in Canada, Germany and China to reach CO2 neutrality by 2030
ContiTech has also defined three locations, Changzhou, China, Granby, Canada, and Dannenberg, Germany, as pilot sites for green operations. Claus-Peter Spille, senior VP of operations at ContiTech, said, “Each of our production facilities faces their own specific challenges in reaching green operations by 2040 at the latest. With the pilot projects, we provide our locations a comprehensive guidance on how to implement systematic operational environmental management at their site.”
Current plant success is based on concrete measures and activities, which Continental hopes will provide guidance to the other plants within ContiTech, on how to implement similar measures to operate carbon neutral in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2040, latest.
Philip Nelles, as a member of Continental’s executive Board for ContiTech, said, “Our recent steps toward greener operations prove that reducing the impact of climate change, together with our partners along the value chain, is a task to which we are strongly committed.”
