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 approximately 18% by the year 2012. In addition, we want to further reduce our energy and water consumption and waste production, with the goal of achieving annual reductions of 5% in each of these areas, plus an annual 2% increase in our waste recycling and reuse rate. This will enable us to further reduce our raw material consumption and our energy requirement for waste recycling.

Emissions

Global climate change can only be halted by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Since 2004 we have been able reduce the specific CO₂ emissions in our plants by approximately 20% thanks to various measures such as using more efficient boiler systems, implementing energy management in the factories and increasing the awareness of our employees.

Energy Consumption

Since 2004, the specific energy consumption had dropped slightly, going up in 2007 and 2008 as a result of company acquisitions. With the help of Continental's environmental goals, we are striving towards a substantial reduction in energy consumption.

Water Consumption

The specific water consumption rose approximately 40% due to company acquisitions. The increased use of closed cooling water circuits and the augmented training of employees will contribute to an improvement in this situation in the future and bring us closer to our target for 2012.

Waste Production

Despite a slight increase in waste, we were able to increase our recycling rate superproportionally. The goal is to increase the recycling rate by 2% each year.