FORT MILL, S.C. — Continental Tire North America claims it has officially exceeded its goal of complying with the EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership program in its first year of participating.

Continental first signed onto the SmartWay program as a shipper partner in June, 2008, committing to use mostly SmartWay member carriers to transport its tires. After one year of taking part in the program, Continental says it has shipped more than 24 million tires across North America, mostly with SmartWay-certified carriers. It has reached a score of 1.14 out of a maximum of 1.25 in this department, exceeding its initial goal of 0.95.

“Exceeding our compliance goal with the SmartWay Transport Partnership means that Continental is doing its part to reduce air pollution and the environmental impacts from our supply chain operations,” said Dominique Lacroix, director of supply chain operations. “We made it a consideration of the carrier selection process that fleets operate as SmartWay Transport Carriers when considering bids, and encouraged carriers within our existing base who were not already a part of the SmartWay program to join. In doing so, we have achieved our goal to have the majority of our tire products shipped within these environmentally sensitive guidelines.”

Meanwhile, Continental says it also participates in the SmartWay Transport Partnership by providing fuel-efficient tires. Its HSL2 steer tire, HDL Eco Plus drive tire and HTL Eco Plus trailer tire are SmartWay-certified and the HTL1 super-single trailer tire is awaiting SmartWay approval, Continental says.

“When you combine Continental’s commitments to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions within our own supply chain with our advances in engineering that produce our low rolling resistance tires, we are truly proud of our achievements in reducing our environmental footprint,” said Clif Armstrong, director of commercial vehicle tire marketing for Continental – the Americas.