Our commitment to the environment
At Bridgestone, we believe it’s our responsibility to help ensure a healthy environment for current and future generations. We’re constantly striving to reduce the environmental impact of our products and manufacturing process.
Ecopia Tyres
We invest in products that are better for our environment, such as our Ecopia tyres. Ecopia tyres have a low rolling resistance, reducing fuel usage. They have been independently proven to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Our commitment to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is brought to life with Bandag retreads. Instead of disposing of tyres with worn out treads and good sidewalls, they can be remanufactured and put to work again and again. In addition to saving end of life tyres from ending up as waste, retreads have another important environmental benefit - requiring significantly less oil than production of a new tyre. In short, when hyou choose Bandag retreads you choose to make a real contribution to the sustainability of our environment.
Reusing tyres with Bandag Retreads
We reuse 400,000 truck tyres per year in Australia and New Zealand through our Bandag retread process. Instead of disposing of tyres with worn out treads, these can be remanufactured, and put back to work again and again. By reusing worn tyres and creating Bandag retreads, we reduce pollution, conserve oil and use less energy during the production process. The Bandag manufacturing plant also has a series of environmental features such as noise reduction of factory plant and machinery, solar panels at key sites, dust and emissions control measures, water harvesting, and recycling and monitoring of water usage. In addition to this, the rubber shavings from our Bandag factories across Australian and New Zealand which were once waste, are now recycled locally in Queensland and manufactured into residential and commercial flooring, sports surfaces, children’s playgrounds and waterparks, athletics tracks, and many other items.
Reaching beyond
As well as improving our own business practices, we understand the importance of supporting programs that foster innovation and ideas for young people. EVolocity is a fantastic initiative to drive interest in areas of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from high-school students.
Our environmental policy
We have a commitment to a pro-active approach for pollution prevention through our environmental policy. We continue to work towards effective environmental management and aim to consistently improve our environmental performance.
We plan to achieve this by:- Striving for a position of recognised responsible environmental management within our business operations.
- Aiming to implement the best environmental practices across our operations, in order to reduce our impact on the environment.
- Encouraging and communicating environmental awareness and responsibility amongst our employees, our supply chain, our dealers, our customers, shareholders and the wider community.
- Championing and supporting tyre stewardship through our association with Tyrewise
Sustainable Procurement
Our Global Sustainable Procurement policy helps to identify and evaluate qualified suppliers, promote best practices, and serve as a communication and improvement tool for the industry.
Our policy reflects our commitment to procurement that drives action towards long-term environmental, social, and economic benefits. It applies to all the materials and services we purchase, and all suppliers globally.
The policy addresses four major areas:
- Transparency: traceability and good governance.
- Compliance: adherence to laws and regulations in the countries and regions in which we conduct business.
- Quality, Cost and Delivery (QCD) & Innovation: pursuing innovations that support improvement across global communities, while also making sure that high quality services are delivered on time and at reasonable costs.
- Sustainable Procurement Practices: practicing environmentally responsible procurement. This includes compliance with environmental laws and regulations, respect for human rights, water use, land use and conservation, health and safety, disaster prevention and resilience.
Renewable Energy Product
We are proud to strengthen our environmental stewardship activity with a commitment to supporting renewable energy generation in New Zealand. From 2022, Bridgestone will utilise Meridian’s 100% Certified Renewable Energy product for its NZ operations.
Our move to Meridian’s Certified Renewable Energy product sees Bridgestone New Zealand purchase renewable energy certificates to verify that the amount of electricity used throughout the company’s operations is matched on an annual basis with electricity produced from Meridian’s certified hydro stations and wind farms.
The renewable energy certification process applies to Bridgestone’s company owned operations throughout New Zealand, including offices, stores, warehouses and Bandag retread factories.
This commitment to support renewable energy generation helps support our global target of 50% renewable energy by 2023, and our global goal of being a carbon neutral company by 2050.
