Pirelli has announced it will begin using Forest Stewardship Council natural rubber in its P Zero Race TLR RS tires, becoming the first bike brand to implement the global standard certifying that the material comes from forests managed to environmental, social, and economic standards
The World Tour team Lidl-Trek has used P Zero Race TLR RS prototypes since the beginning of the year and will also have them for the Tour de France starting this weekend. The tires, which are available globally from retailers, are made in Pirellil’s Milan-Bollate plant, and the P Zero Race TLR RS tires will be the first in a future range featuring the FSC certification. The rubber comes from plantations managed to preserve biodiversity and benefit the local communities and workers, Pirelli said.
“Choosing to increasingly use FSC-certified natural rubber in our products is in line with Pirelli’s attention towards nature and biodiversity, as well as with the will to help the populations and workers in the areas where natural rubber comes from,” said Piero Misani, Pirelli chief technical officer. “Environmental and social commitment combined with the pursuit of high performance that does not compromise on safety to meet the expectations of professional cyclists and the most demanding amateurs. Our Formula 1 experience, where starting from this year all tires contain FSC-certified natural rubber, is proof of this. Environmental awareness can and must be complemented with safety and top performance levels.”
The first FSC-certified natural rubber tire in the world was the Pirelli P Zero for the BMW X5 Plug-in Hybrid in 2021. Two years later, Pirelli unveiled the FSC-certified natural rubber tire range for the Formula 1 single-seat racing cars.
The certification also verifies that FSC-certified material is managed separately from the non-certified material throughout the supply chain. Because of this, a dedicated monitoring system is introduced in the entry and exit points of all materials used in the certified products at the Bollate plant. Pirelli said the plant was renovated and converted for the production of bike tires and is a “cutting-edge factory thanks to its highly automated production systems.
The P Zero Race TLR RS is a tubeless-ready tire and is the latest evolution of Pirelli’s road bicycle tires. Specifically developed for competitions, its focus is perfect grip in any weather condition, excellent road handling when braking, accelerating and turning, and very low rolling resistance. The thickness of the tread and the structure’s fabric layers have been modified to reduce the weight (-8%*) and contribute, together with the compound, to significantly reduce rolling resistance (-16%*)
For many years now, Pirelli has been devoted to responsibly managing the natural rubber supply chain, by training and sharing best practices in the material’s countries of origin, in line with the principles and values contained in the Sustainable Natural Rubber Policy launched by the company in 2017. This document is the result of discussions with the key stakeholders of the natural rubber value chain, including international NGOs, Pirelli’s main natural rubber suppliers, intermediaries and growers of the supply chain, automotive clients and multilateral international organizations. Moreover, Pirelli is one of the founding members of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber – GPSNR, a multi-stakeholder platform established in 2018 to support the sustainable development of the natural rubber business globally to benefit the entire value chain.
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