VMI progressing ‘platinum’ journey to sustainability

Epe, The Netherlands – Dutch-based VMI Group has been awarded an EcoVadis platinum medal, placing it among the top 1% of companies assessed worldwide for environmental stewardship, ethics, labour & human rights, and sustainable procurement.

Following a gold rating in 2025, the latest award reflects “our progress in integrating sustainability into every aspect of our business,” president and CEO Harm Voortman said of the tire & rubber machinery major's achievement.

“From designing machines together with our customers to working with our suppliers, we continue to improve the sustainability of our products and operations.” The platinum mark, he added, is a "milestone in our journey to build a sustainable future.”

Among the projects supporting VMI’s position at the top echelon of industrial sustainability are those focused on reducing materials-consumption, waste-generation, and energy-use during tire production.

Examples cited in VMI’s Sustainability Report 2025 include the UNIXX belt maker, designed to produce endless steel belts via an advanced controlled extrusion process that can handle a wide range of compounds.

Optimised for hands-off eyes-off production, the belt maker system reduces scrap and waste because of the limited width of the extruded strip, while the capability to produce thinner materials lowers material consumption and CO2 emissions.

Overall, VMI estimates that the system reduces waste by 100 tons/year, cuts annual materials usage per machine by 550 tons and delivers €1 million in cost savings per machine per year.

Also supporting tire makers’ sustainability efforts, VMI claims its Revolute machine significantly reduces energy consumption per bead in the bead apex production process, while also minimising waste.

Further benefits stem from the ability to “use [more] sustainable compounds, reducing rolling resistance and improving overall sustainability performance,” according to the report.

Looking ahead, VMI said it is targeting a series of ‘key actions’ to further enhance the sustainability of its tire & rubber machinery – and hence that of its customers’ production processes.

An important focus area is life cycle analysis (LCA): around 75% of the machines that VMI produces are now stated to be covered by LCAs, towards a goal of 90% by 2030 set by the group.

In 2025, for instance, an LCA for Revolute machines established "baselines for product-impact and informing targeted reduction and EcoDesign measures.”

And, this year, VMI aims to perform the analysis on its UNIXX beltmaker, as well as progressing improvement projects across multiple machines based on insights from existing LCAs.

Technology improvements are also in the pipeline, with enhancements such as ‘smart run empty’ and splice optimisation software solutions, being added to VMI's MAXX machines and ‘automatic BP splice and order change’ to its MILEXX system.

Meanwhile, improvements to Revolute – including leading-end scrap reduction and reduction in the number of extruders, from two to just one – are also expected to increase customers’ ability to produce more sustainable tires

Furthermore, 2026 will see VMI focus on the training of its engineers to use design software that provides them with direct feedback on the carbon impact of their design choices in their day-to-day work.

The group also aims to develop an internal dashboard to monitor and report on progress against targets such as CO2 savings, according to is sustainability report.