Tread Trends: GM Switches to Artisan Tires Using Sustainable 'Green Rubber'

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

General Motors has announced it will choose “sustainable natural rubber” for the 49 million tires it buys each year. The automaker claims it is establishing a set of buying principals to ensure sustainably harvested materials and is encouraging other automakers to follow suit in a bid to reduce deforestation.

It won’t suddenly make driving your Chevrolet good for the environment, but it should give drivers bragging rights — allowing them to claim their tires killed fewer critters before even getting the opportunity to run any over.

However, environmental smugness is occasionally warranted. With tire manufactures representing 75 percent of the natural rubber market (according to the World Wildlife Fund), an overall shift toward sustainability would provide a measurable impact on deforestation. But what is General Motors getting out of this move and what will the price of environmental awareness be?

GM says it doesn’t know the cost of adopting more sustainable farming practices, though it hopes it will be more-or-less equal in the short term (with opportunities to save some dough in the future). Since rubber trees need a particular climate in which to grow, GM hopes it can reduce future costs by ensuring crop yields on a longer timeline. Even if it doesn’t, this still gives the automaker an opportunity to promote itself as environmentally responsible. This carries its own benefits.

The majority of materials used in modern tires are synthetic, but most contain some amount of natural rubber — with performance tires using more. While going overboard with natural rubber would be detrimental to the longevity of any tire, the market share of synthetic rubber has declined rather dramatically over the last two decades. Your wheels are likely to be wrapped in something more organic today than they were in 2001. As a result, Bridgestone has begun looking toward American-sourced natural alternatives — like the shrub guayule — over man-made and natural rubber.

In the interim, automakers and suppliers are trying to find a way to ensure Southeast Asia’s military coups and deforestation doesn’t obliterate the rubber tree crop. Helping small businesses, farmers, and the environment is just a happy coincidence.

“Our supplier partners are an extension of our company,” said Steve Kiefer, GM’s senior vice president of global purchasing and supply. “We want to encourage affordable, safer and cleaner options for our customers that drive value to both our organization and the communities in which we work.”

Of GM’s suppliers, Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, and Michelin have all expressed a desire to improve the transparency of their rubber supply chain. GM plans to meet with stakeholders in June to set the official criteria for rubber purchasing and develop an industry initiative for automakers before 2018.

[Image: General Motors]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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