A focus on environmental sustainability has always been central to Pirelli’s strategy and is fully integrated into the company’s business model. As Robert Reid, the FIA’s Deputy President for Sport (who is also responsible for sustainability) pointed out, Pirelli is the first and only tyre maker in the world to have scored three stars in the FIA’s Environmental Accreditation Programme: a prestigious recognition for the company’s efforts with regard to sustainability in motorsport.
Among the measures that Pirelli has undertaken to gain this accolade in Formula 1 is the increased use of renewable materials, the elimination of single-use plastics from on-track activities, and a supply chain that is entirely managed according to environmental and social sustainability practices. Furthermore, Pirelli’s motorsport activity has successfully passed a series of rigorous sustainability audits that take into account several different elements to help reduce environmental impact, starting with carbon emissions.
Examples of Pirelli’s environmental sustainability objectives, both in business and manufacturing, include a reduction of overall CO2 emissions by 25% by 2025 (compared to 2015 levels) and a quota equivalent to 100% of electrical energy acquired from renewable sources: an objective that has already been reached for Pirelli’s European factories, which includes the motorsport factories in Slatina (Romania) and Izmit (Turkey).
When it comes to logistics, Pirelli uses a fleet of the most recent Euro 6D trucks to transport tyres and chooses to send as much freight as possible by sea, which is much less polluting than air freight. In future, Pirelli’s environmental strategy will enable the company – including the motorsport division – to become entirely carbon neutral by 2030, thanks to aggressive plans to replace fossil fuel with 100% renewable energy.
Pirelli is also engaged in research projects to recover valuable materials from motorsport tyres at the end of their lives, and the company is evaluating innovative ideas to extract primary materials from used tyres as they are recycled. To increase the number of tyres involved in this process, Pirelli has started a campaign within the wider world of motorsport to recover all the tyres used internationally throughout a variety of motorsport competitions.
