Editor's note: Guided by the vision of "everything is sustainable", Michelin China will continue to promote green tires, intelligent services, and green factory construction in 2024, committed to providing environmentally friendly choices for green travel and leading the industry towards a sustainable future. Michelin China's innovative measures and spirit of cooperation demonstrate the company's social responsibility and contribute to the global sustainable development goals.
As the President and CEO of Michelin Greater China and Mongolia, Ye Fei leads Michelin China in accelerating the green transformation of the local market and promoting the widespread application of green products and technologies. Through optimizing products, deepening cooperation, and continuous innovation, Michelin China has achieved significant success in sustainable development, further consolidating the brand's influence in the Chinese market.
On January 11, 2025, the 8th Boao Enterprise Forum was grandly held in Hainan, attracting numerous global business leaders to discuss future opportunities and challenges together. Michelin China has once again become the focus of the industry and won the "2024 ESG Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Innovation Enterprise" award, in recognition of its outstanding contributions in the fields of environmental protection and sustainable development.
Michelin China cannot achieve this honor without Ye Fei's outstanding leadership. Since serving as the President and CEO of Michelin Greater China and Mongolia, Ye Fei has always adhered to the corporate vision of "everything is sustainable", committed to achieving a mutually beneficial coexistence between "people, profits, and the environment", and promoting a win-win situation between economic benefits and social responsibility. Under his leadership, Michelin China has not only continued to expand its traditional tire business, but also achieved significant results in the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) field, especially in breakthroughs in energy conservation, emission reduction, and green innovation.
Ye Fei's forward-looking strategic vision and excellent management ability have enabled Michelin China to achieve outstanding market performance in emerging fields such as digitalization, intelligent travel, and green sustainable development, and maintain a leading position in the industry. For this reason, Ye Fei has been named one of the "Top 10 Influential Figures of 2024", fully recognizing his outstanding contributions in promoting corporate green transformation and sustainable development.
Under the leadership of Ye Fei, Michelin China will continue to practice green innovation, promote the common progress of enterprises, the environment, and society, and make greater efforts for sustainable development.
Innovation driven, towards a sustainable future
The factory in China continues to promote photovoltaic projects, and green factories are rising from the ground; Promote green tire products and strive to reduce carbon footprint throughout the entire lifecycle; Build a green headquarters building and establish a benchmark for environmentally friendly architecture. At the same time, in order to accurately measure the effectiveness of sustainable development, Michelin also conducted a monetary valuation of its environmental impact
Ye Fei graduated from Beijing Foreign Affairs College and joined Michelin in 2000. In 2012, he went to Paris Business School in France for further studies and obtained a Master's degree in Business Administration, laying a solid foundation for his future advancement in strategic management and preparing him well for the position of President of Michelin Greater China and Mongolia in 2022.
Ye Fei pays special attention to green technology innovation, leading the company to increase investment in green technology and launch more environmentally friendly tires and travel services. These innovations have not only won high market recognition, but also further consolidated Michelin's leadership position in the Chinese market. Ye Fei believes that future competition will no longer be limited to the products themselves, but will depend on the ability of companies to respond to environmental challenges. Therefore, he always emphasizes providing customers with sustainable overall solutions.
Nowadays, Michelin is no longer just a leader in the global tire industry, but is committed to becoming a leading global manufacturer, providing people with life changing composites and extraordinary experiences. In China, Michelin is driving sustainable growth in four business areas: tires, connectivity solutions, polymer and composite solutions, and lifestyle.
In addition to business transformation, Ye Fei has also invested a lot of energy in Michelin's internal cultural construction and team innovation. He firmly believes that the core competitiveness of a company comes from talent, and therefore is committed to creating an open, inclusive, and efficient corporate culture. Under his leadership, Michelin China's new headquarters building in Shanghai not only meets strict global green building standards, but also has obtained LEED and WELL dual platinum certifications. This not only enhances the working environment for employees, but also demonstrates Michelin's firm commitment to the concept of sustainable development.
Green factory, improving quality and efficiency
With the increasing global emphasis on environmental protection and sustainable development, the role of enterprises in green transformation and fulfilling social responsibility is becoming increasingly crucial. As a leading brand in the field of transportation, Michelin actively promotes energy transformation through innovation and research and development in multiple factories in China, and contributes to achieving the global "dual carbon" goal.
Michelin believes that green development has become the core direction of global development, and Michelin's development strategy in China is also consistent with this. It aims to promote technological innovation while reducing carbon emissions, and strive to contribute to the achievement of the "dual carbon" goal.
Since Michelin established its first representative office in Beijing in 1989, the company has been deeply involved in the Chinese market. In 1995, the establishment of Shenyang Tire Factory marked Michelin's further expansion of its business in China. Since then, Michelin has continuously increased its investment in China and has established factories in Shanghai and Shenyang, with nearly 7000 employees and a sales network covering the whole country. At the same time, Michelin continues to explore green development paths, promote energy structure transformation, and implement environmental protection projects. Ye Fei always emphasized that enterprises should not only focus on immediate economic benefits, but also have a long-term sustainable development perspective to fulfill their social responsibilities.
Michelin has achieved significant green transformation results in its factories in Shenyang and Shanghai, especially in energy optimization and green production, leading the industry. Since its establishment in 1995, the Shenyang factory has developed into the Michelin Group's most invested, largest, and most advanced factory in the world. The Shenyang factory not only undertakes important production tasks, but also shoulders the responsibility of becoming Michelin's world's first "carbon neutral" production base. To this end, the Shenyang factory has launched the fourth and fifth phases of the solar energy project in September 2024, further increasing the proportion of green energy use and expected to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2028.
In addition, Michelin's Shanghai factory is undergoing a comprehensive upgrade and renovation. At the end of last year, the second phase expansion project of the Shanghai factory officially started. After the expansion, the annual production capacity of high-performance radial car tires will be increased from 8.5 million to 9.5 million. In the future, the Shanghai factory will focus on intelligence and digitization, and be built into a more flexible, green, and intelligent 'future factory'. Ye Fei stated that as China moves towards high-quality development, the demand for green and intelligent products from the transportation industry and consumers continues to increase, creating more opportunities for Michelin's further development in China. With the smooth implementation of this renovation and expansion project, the Shanghai factory will continue to meet the needs of Chinese market consumers with more high-quality and high-performance products in the future.
Since 2022, Michelin's factories and headquarters in China have achieved 100% use of renewable energy, taking an important step towards green production. In addition, each factory is constantly improving its intelligent manufacturing and digitalization level, using big data to conduct energy-saving analysis on production, equipment, and energy consumption, in order to enhance energy utilization efficiency, reduce pollutants and carbon emissions. This series of innovative measures not only improves production efficiency, but also lays a solid foundation for Michelin's green transformation.
Green travel protects a better life
Michelin's main business is to design, produce, and sell various types of high-quality tires, including passenger car, commercial vehicle, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, and airplane tires. From product design, production, transportation, use to recycling, Michelin fully considers the impact on the environment, takes various measures to save energy and reduce emissions, and launches innovative and more environmentally friendly products.
Michelin's green tires not only focus on environmental protection, but also have achieved significant improvements in performance. The company is committed to developing tires with low rolling resistance and high efficiency, aiming to reduce energy consumption during vehicle operation and thus lower carbon emissions. In 2021, Michelin was the first to launch electric vehicle tires in China to meet the demand for electric vehicles. Currently, in the high-end new energy vehicle market, the Michelin brand tires have an original installation rate of 30%. In addition, Michelin is not satisfied with having a tire suitable for new energy vehicles, but rather wants all Michelin tires to fully meet the requirements of fuel and new energy vehicles.
In addition to performance innovation, Michelin also places special emphasis on extending the service life of tires. By extending the service life, vehicles can reduce the frequency of tire replacement, which not only helps to reduce resource consumption but also reduces environmental pollution. In addition, Michelin continues to innovate in the digital management of tires, using advanced technology to monitor the running status of tires in real time, thereby reducing unnecessary energy waste while ensuring safety and performance.
While promoting green tires, Michelin also actively advocates for the green transformation of the entire industry. The company has played an important role in promoting tire recycling and resource reuse. Michelin adheres to the principle of "extended producer responsibility", promotes industry policy improvements, and ensures that tire recycling and reuse become the norm. At this year's CIIE, Michelin successfully launched race tires containing 71% sustainable materials, marking another breakthrough for the company in the field of sustainable materials. Looking ahead, Michelin plans to increase the proportion of sustainable raw materials in its tire products to 40% by 2030 and reach 100% by 2050.
In addition to tires, Michelin is also expanding its diversified business, and sustainability remains an important direction. In 2016, the Michelin Guide embarked on a taste journey in mainland China, continuously recommending high-quality restaurants to consumers. The Michelin Guide first established the "Green Star Award" in 2020 to encourage exemplary restaurants that promote sustainable dining. The restaurant that won the Green Star Award has made positive responses and actions in the use of environmentally friendly ingredients, reducing food waste, and reducing plastic waste. Currently, there are four Green Star restaurants in mainland China. Last year, Michelin also introduced its new business ResiCare to China through the CIIE. ResiCare develops and produces environmentally friendly, non-toxic, high-performance adhesives for the production and manufacturing of tires, conveyor belts, plywood, insulation materials, and other industries, meeting the personalized needs of different industrial customers.
Practice social responsibility and demonstrate corporate responsibility
Last year, Michelin China launched a new corporate social responsibility strategy: S.E.E.D. It is the abbreviation for safety, environment, equality, and development, and also a "seed" for Michelin to practice social responsibility. Michelin is responding to urgent social challenges by leveraging its core competitiveness and talent advantages, supporting sustainable development of the economy, society, and environment, and caring for those in need behind the scenes.
This year, the Michelin Alshan Biodiversity Conservation Campaign was officially launched in Alshan City, Inner Mongolia. Through the public welfare call of "every tire counts as a tree", Michelin has joined hands with the China Green Foundation to participate in the Daxing'anling Endangered Species Conservation Program public welfare project, aiming to actively promote environmental collaborative actions in the logistics field to help ecological restoration and sustainable development. From autumn 2024 to spring 2025, Michelin will plant approximately 20000 trees in the Altai Mountains region under the name of partners and users, to improve the habitat quality of wildlife rescue areas such as Mongolian antelopes and contribute to the construction of ecological security barriers.
In addition, Michelin's long-term social responsibility projects include road safety actions that have been ongoing for over 20 years, as well as educational programs in Sichuan, Yunnan, Shanghai, and other places. Michelin encourages every employee to independently propose solutions to fulfill corporate social responsibility, utilizing the company's core strengths to help solve social problems in an innovative, scalable, and sustainable manner.
Innovation and green transformation, leading future development
Michelin China's success stems from the company's profound understanding of market demand and technological innovation. The company not only focuses on the sustainable development of its core business, but also strives to bring consumers a more enjoyable experience through innovative solutions.
Michelin today started with tires, but not just tires. In the future, by providing innovative products, services, and solutions, Michelin looks forward to working with more individuals, businesses, and industries to bring a better life to Chinese consumers.
Author: Li Li
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