Released onto the market by Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI; President: Ikuji Ikeda) in 2013, our new eco-friendly tires, "ENASAVE 100"-the world's first* tires to be 100% free of fossil resources such as petroleum or coal-have received the prestigious "Environmental Achievement of the Year" award at the "Tire Technology Expo" held recently in Cologne, Germany.
*Since the use of synthetic rubber became common in tires (according to SRI's own investigation).

Held in Europe every year since its inception in 2001, the Tire Technology Expo is a technical conference and exhibition for the tire industry in which tire manufacturers, material suppliers, public research institutions and so on present the results of their latest research. Each year, awards are given for outstanding technical achievements in five separate categories: Tire Technology of the Year, Environmental Achievement of the Year, Tire anufacturing & Design Innovation of the Year and Manufacturer of the Year.
In order to benefit automotive society and protect the global environment, Sumitomo Rubber Industries has been working since 2001 to develop fossil resource-free tires that minimize our reliance on fossil resources such as petroleum and coal, which currently account for approximately 60% of all conventional tire materials, while also helping to reduce CO 2 emissions, a major causing factor behind global warming, by reducing tire rolling resistance. As a result of these efforts, we released our 70% fossil resource-free "ENASAVE ES801" tires in 2006. This was soon followed by the release of "ENASAVE 97," raising the percentage of fossil resource-free materials to 97%, in 2008. And now, with the announcement and release of our new "ENASAVE 100" in November of 2013, we have finally succeeded in replacing all fossil fuel-based tire materials with fossil resource-free materials-thanks to "Natural Replacement," the replacement of fossil fuel-based materials with natural materials; "Modification Replacement," the modification of natural materials to improve their performance while taking full advantage of their characteristic strengths; and "Creation Replacement," the creation of entirely new aterials that do not exist in nature through the application of biomass technology.
What's more, our "ENASAVE 100" tires not only replace all conventional fossil resource-based materials with natural materials; they also provide advanced performance in terms of fuel-efficiency, wet grip and tire wear, achieving the ultimate in eco-friendly tires with reduced environmental impact on all fronts-from "raw materials" to "fuel-efficiency" to "resource savings."
We believe that this Tire Technology Expo award recognizes both SRI's cutting-edge technical prowess and our forward-thinking efforts to reduce our environmental impact.


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