Michelin launches major water-saving project at French tire plant

Clermont-Ferrand, France – Michelin Group is investing €3 million in a water-conservation project at its tire manufacturing plant in Gravanches, the group has announced.

The operation near Clermont-Ferrand aims to reduce water extraction from the environment by 60%, through the introduction of an adiabatic tower, Michelin said 20 Oct.

The ‘closed circuit and reduced water extraction’ system, it added, can save up 10,000 cubic metres of water or an equivalent amount of four Olympic-sized pools each year.

The Gravanches site, where among other products Michelin produces ‘high-end motorsport tires’, is claimed to be “the first tire factory in the world with a zero net CO? emission rate”.

The French site also manufactures Michelin’s 63% sustainable tires, using renewable and recycled materials.

With the new water-cooling tower, Michelin said Gravanches plant will become the group’s “most virtuous production site in terms of water management.”

The French group said that over the 15 years to the end of 2019, it had reduced water extraction of its industrial sites by 43%, against a 2005 baseline.

Michelin factories, it added, have thereby saved nearly 178 million cubic metres of water from being extracted from the environment – equivalent to the annual domestic consumption of 3.3 million people in France.