Mr. Laurent Ladroyes, Personnel Director - India, Michelin India

“In the Michelin of tomorrow, everything will be sustainable.”

The “All-Sustainable” vision of the Michelin Group strives for balanced development between People, Profit and Planet. The “All Sustainable” mindset is embraced in Michelin and translated in concrete actions at every level across regions.

Because Michelin is aware of the need to preserve natural resources and earth systems to conduct its business sustainably, we take into account the environmental impacts of our operations and products, starting from the design phase including the full life cycle. In India, as well, we continuously strive to meet this approach through Innovation in our R&D center and business operations in Pune and our factory near Chennai. Michelin India has led numerous green projects as part of the Michelin Group’s global green mission on reaching climate targets, and commitment to becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

In 2019, as part of All in Action for Environment towards our group transformation, Michelin India Chennai factory started shifting the facility from fossil fuel-based energy to renewable energy. Later in 2020, it installed a roof-top plant covering around 45% of the roof area, delivering 11% of the factory’s energy demands and helping to reduce 9,856 tons of CO2 emissions until January 2023. Recently, we also signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd for supply of green energy. The agreement marks Michelin’s Chennai factory, first long-term open access PPA, that will increase the total contribution of renewable energy to 37% from current 11% and account for a reduction of 11,712 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

As HR Department, we play a key role in accompanying the business in this All-Sustainable roadmap. We ensure mapping skilled competencies to our Group strategy and managing our general affairs optimally to limit resource consumption. Our goal is to create a culture of sustainability within the organization by encouraging active involvement, inspiring collective action, and reducing CO2 emissions through eco-conscious practices. We prioritize engaging our employees in sustainability efforts and implement policies that have a positive impact on Planet.

20 diverse high potential talents across the Region are empowered to steer our Planet initiatives and implement actions such as Environmental Awareness, Climate Fresk, Carbon Neutrality, Circular Economy, Water & Biodiversity and Environmental Footprint in all locations. Our Human Resource teams are involved for the selection, follow up, mentoring and coaching of these key talents.

We have also put in place a flexible hybrid working model that limits daily commutation. We also provide common transportation facilities to our employees which reduces individual commuting to office/factory. Moreover, we have implemented our ambition of “Travel Less, Travel Better” that promotes reduction of business trips and more usage of online collaborative tool, thereby reducing our environmental impact.

Last but not the least, there are many internal events and CSR initiatives organized supporting the Planet ambition. We have dedicated CSR teams actively working on activities such as recycling, plastic elimination, waste reduction, tree plantation and other environment initiatives. Michelin in India have often been recognized for our efforts and won recognition for “BEST ESG PRACTICE” by Indian ESG Network in collaboration with Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Govt. of India, G20 and Indian School of Business. Michelin India has also won the “CSR Award 2022 in the Healthcare Category” from Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI).

Finally, extending our efforts, we have chosen a common thread in our IFCCI HR Committee for the year 2023-24, “Reinventing HR – HR as a True Business Partner” that is also well connected to our theme of 'India-France Partnership: Building a Green Future'.