4 _205 2023 UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT_MICHELIN 4 NON-FINANCIAL STATEMENT Sustainable Development Report The REM educational outreach program helps young people in neighboring communities increase their awareness of environmental issues and encourages them to seek sustainable solutions for their communities. Today, REM is one of the best-protected areas of the Atlantic Forest. RLU, Indonesia A wholly owned Michelin Group subsidiary since 2022, RLU is committed to fostering sustainable natural rubber production on a vast 70,000 hectare site in the province of Jambi (Sumatra), as well as on an 18,000 hectare site in the province of East Kalimantan (Borneo). Both areas had been severely degraded and deforested prior to Michelin’s involvement in 2015, and are currently home to some 50,000 people. RLU is part of a long-term sustainable development strategy with a strong environmental focus: ● “zero deforestation” commitments; ● programs to safeguard and restore tropical forests, the natural habitat of the Sumatran elephants and tigers, hornbills and Bornean orangutans that live in and around RLU concessions. Of the total land area across three concessions, almost 30% is planted in rubber trees, 17% is virgin or restored rainforest and around 50% is used by the local communities for agroforestry production and food crops. In a spirit of outreach and transparency, RLU works with local and international biodiversity experts and ensures that all its operations comply with its sustainability commitments. The Group actively seeks out constructive opinions that could help it to secure a sustainable supply of natural rubber, while protecting the environment and supporting local communities. As of year-end 2023: ● An 11,764-hectare wildlife conservation area was protecting forests and providing critical habitats where elephants, tigers, orangutans, gibbons and tapirs have returned to live. ● A team of 28 forest rangers had patrolled a distance of 116,088 kilometers, in a commitment to preserving biodiversity and preventing poaching. ● Camera traps had documented 42 mammal species, some of which are critically endangered, and 238 bird species had been directly observed. ● 13,760 native trees had been planted over 88 hectares since 2018, with more than 80 species collected locally. ● Natural forest regeneration was underway on 334 hectares. 4.1.1.3 e) Preserving biodiversity around Group manufacturing and research facilities A commitment to pesticide-free groundskeeping As of end-2023, 22 Group facilities were maintaining their grounds without using any pesticides or herbicides, versus 12 the year before, while two others had phased out all but one product, under a maximum three-year waiver. Biodiversity management plans Biodiversity management plans are designed to explicitly embed biodiversity into each facility’s environmental management system. In 2023, the Group issued a standard template, based on the pilot project carried out in 2022 at the Technology Center in Ladoux, France, in partnership with the Auvergne Regional Nature Conservancy (CENA). These standardized plans call for a three-pronged action program aimed at: ● Improving knowledge, with studies, inventories and mapping; ● Leading and facilitating initiatives; ● Preserving and restoring biodiversity. To deliver outcomes and create synergies more quickly, two collaborative workshops were organized in 2023 at the plants in Greenville SC, United States in May and in Campo Grande, Brazil in December. The week-long events, which began with a Biodiversity Collage workshop, were attended by a number of environmental managers, who shared resources and worked together on management plans for ten facilities. Several other facilities completed their management plans during the year, under the supervision of their region’s Biodiversity Officer. By year-end, a total of 16 production or research facilities had prepared a management plan. Two new workshops are currently being organized in Asia and Europe. The initiatives undertaken by the facilities to address biodiversity exceed the scope of the act4nature objectives: ● For the past ten years, nearby areas classified as protected have been covered by each facility's environmental management system. ● For the past two years, a network of Biodiversity Champion Sites has been developed to drive faster progress. ● An employee awareness campaign has been launched, with even more ambitious programs undertaken at facilities with high biodiversity potential.
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