We are working continuously on gradually reducing the environmental impact of our production facilities.

Our goals are ambitious ones: We want to reduce CO₂ emissions from our manufacturing processes by a total of about 15% by the year 2015. In addition, we intend to further reduce our energy and water consumption, as well as the amount of waste generated, with the goal of achieving annual reductions of 3% in each of these areas, plus an annual 2% increase in our waste recycling and reuse rate. This will enable us to further reduce the raw materials we consume and the energy required for waste recycling.

Emissions

The increase in CO₂ emissions is mainly attributable to a broader scope of base data within the corporation and to the significant improvement in sales in 2010. Our energy efficiency measures are leading to a considerable reduction of specific CO₂ emissions per ton of the product. Various activities conducted at our plants, such as sharpening our employees’ awareness of this issue, are aimed at reducing our specific CO₂ emissions by about another 15% between now and 2015.

Energy Consumption

Specific energy consumption was higher in 2007 and 2008 due to company acquisitions and the effects of the downturn in the economy in 2009.  The economic recovery that followed after that is reflected in the 2010 rise in energy consumption back to the level of 2008. At the same time, however, energy efficiency improved substantially, leading to a considerable reduction of the specific energy consumption compared with 2008. With the help of Continental’s environmental goals, we are striving towards a further reduction of energy consumption by about 15% by 2015.

Water Consumption

The trend in specific water consumption has been fairly positive since 2006, despite various company acquisitions. The increased use of closed cooling water circuits and the augmented training of employees will also help us sustain the trend to reduce consumption in the future, and bring us closer to our target for 2015.

Waste Production

Despite a slight increase in waste, we were able in 2010 to also notably reduce the amount of specific waste generated while at the same time improving our waste recycling rate. This is a particularly remarkable achievement when comparing levels to 2008, a year where similar economic conditions prevailed. Our goal remains to increase the recycling rate by 2% each year.