Lead to Zero

What is the challenge we are solving?

The tire industry plays a key role in the mitigation of climate change, since the manufacture and use of tires consume significant amounts of energy and generate greenhouse gas emissions. The vast majority – approximately 90 percent – of a tire’s carbon footprint is created during its use. Raw materials, manufacturing, and the transport of tires affect emissions across the entire chain.

What are we aiming for?

Nokian Tyres is an industry pioneer in climate change mitigation. In 2020, we were the first company in our industry to commit to the Science Based Targets initiative that supports the global targets of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Our goal is to have a fully climate-neutral tire – across the entire chain – available to customers in 2050. Our journey has milestones: We aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from tire manufacturing by 42 percent from the 2022 levels by the year 2030. We have faith in our success, since we are already the industry leader in cutting emissions from our own factories.

Our target is also supported by our participation in the Polestar 0 project that develops a fully climate-neutral car. The aim of the project, which was started by the electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar, is to eliminate any sources of CO2 emissions that are generated during the manufacture and decommissioning of the car. Nokian Tyres is involved in the project as the only tire manufacturer, and it is developing climate-neutral premium tires.

What will it take to meet the target?

Making our own factories carbon neutral

A zero-carbon tire cannot be manufactured without carbon-neutral factories. We are the industry leader in their development: In fall 2024, Nokian Tyres opened the world’s first -full-scale zero CO2 emission tire factory in Romania. This milestone is a good example of how we operate: We challenge ourselves to do something that may even feel impossible and work together to solve the problems that arise. The zero CO2 emission tire factory was completed in record time, in less than two years from the groundbreaking. Before the factory location was finally selected, a thorough site evaluation was conducted based on more than 30 criteria from a long list of 49 potential locations.

The factory in Romania exclusively uses electricity from zero CO2 sources. Steam used to cure the tires is generated by innovative electric boilers which use only zero CO2 emission free electricity instead of the usual fossil fuels such as coal or gas. Vulcanization, which is a key stage in tire manufacturing, requires a specific temperature and pressure that are typically achieved by using pressurized steam generated with fossil energy.

Other smart solutions, such as heat recovery, water recirculation, and energy-efficient lighting also play a key role in achieving the desired energy efficiency for the factory.

Our next step is to develop and implement sustainable solutions for our factories in Finland and the United States to make them fully carbon neutral as well.

Tires are manufactured using more than one hundred raw materials, such as rubber, carbon black, and oil. In terms of materials, the highest carbon dioxide emissions are usually generated by the manufacture of synthetic rubbers, since they are one of the key raw material categories in a tire.  Nokian Tyres does not manufacture the raw materials that it uses in tires, which means that our best way to influence the carbon dioxide emissions generated during raw material manufacturing is to focus on innovating new and recyclable materials by ourselves as well as together with our partners.

In the summer of 2024, our factory in Nokia received the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certificate, making it possible to use ISCC certified raw materials in tires. In addition, our factories in Dayton, USA and Oradea, Romania will follow. We regularly communicate on our own emissions targets to our existing partners and guide them to reduce their own emissions through our criteria for procurement.

Solutions for logistics

Our goal of a carbon neutral tire requires that we are able to transport our products to customers and retail outlets without emissions. This requires that our logistics partners commit to shared climate goals.

Most of our raw materials are transported by sea. The increased use of biodiesel, green ammonia, and bioethanol as marine fuels will also help Nokian Tyres mitigate the CO2 emissions from the tire delivery chain. We can also affect the emissions from transport by optimizing our logistics network and planning our transport routes efficiently.

Reducing rolling resistance

Fuel consumption while driving generates by far the largest environmental impacts during the life cycle of a tire. The tire industry alone cannot influence these emissions from traffic. In our role, the key action to take is to optimize the rolling resistance of tires to influence how much energy is required for the vehicle to move. For drivers, lower rolling resistance is visible as lower fuel bills or, for electric vehicles, as better range on a single charge. From an environmental point of view, lower rolling resistance generates lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Our long-lasting work on rolling resistance has given us good prerequisites to rise to the challenges brought about by new driving trends, such as a substantial increase in vehicle weights. Heavier cars require even larger tires, and larger tires also commonly have higher rolling resistance. We have done a lot of work to keep rolling resistance low as tire sizes grow. This would not have been possible without our pioneering approach.

We aim to have 60 different tire titles in the EU’s best rolling resistance category A by 2028

Already in 2014, we introduced the world’s first category A winter tire that revolutionized the concept of energy efficiency among winter tires – its rolling resistance was approximately 30 percent lower than in comparable products on the market. Our current non-studded Nokian Tyres Hakkapeliitta R5 is likely to be the world’s most energy efficient winter tire: According to our calculations, carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 900,000 metric tons if all passenger cars using premium tires in Finland, Sweden, and Norway switched to Nokian Tyres Hakkapeliitta R5.

In addition to product development, Nokian Tyres educates its customers on the significance of a smart tire choice, the correct tire pressure, and a sensible driving style. An economical driving style can result in fuel savings of 10 to 15 percent, whereas choosing tires with low rolling resistance and setting the correct tire pressure can save up to 0.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers as well as reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 12 grams per kilometer.