Sustainability Business Model
Guided by its mission of “Serving Society with Superior Quality”, positioning 2020 as our “third foundation”, Bridgestone Group is accelerating its transformation by placing sustainability at the core of our management and business, and promotes business activities with the aim of achieving sustainable growth as a company while contributing to the realization of a sustainable society. In order to realize its vision of “Toward 2050, Bridgestone continues to provide social value and customer value as a sustainable solutions company,” the Group is taking on various challenges and initiatives to build a foundation for sustainable value creation.
By incorporating into the corporate strategy and the Mid Term Business Plan, Bridgestone is working to establish its unique Sustainability Business Model that links its business with realization of carbon neutrality and a circular economy across the entire value chain, from “produce and sell” and “use” to “renewal” of tires to raw materials.
* It means halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity and natural capital in order to put nature on the path to recovery. The intent behind is to reduce the impact of business activities on biodiversity and natural capital, maintain and restore nature’s bounty, and transform socio-economic activities for sustainable use of natural capital.
Over the years, the Group has shown a commitment to living in harmony with nature, based on its Environmental Mission Statement, which was refined in 2011. The Group has been implementing initiative to achieve its vision of “living in harmony with nature” in order to reduce CO2 emission and tackle the urgent issue of global warming through technology development aimed at valuing natural resources. The Group set its long-term environmental vision toward 2050 in 2012, and Milestone 2030, its mid-term environmental targets toward 2030 to realize this vision, was announced in 2020.
In the 2021 Mid Term Business Plan, we promoted activities that form the foundation of our Sustainability Business Model and achieved results that exceeded the goals. We are enhancing our actions further by setting new interim targets. In its pursuit of carbon neutrality, the Group has made substantial progress in increasing the ratio of renewable energy (electricity) and resulted in a 57% reduction in CO2 emissions (Scope1, 2) compared to 2011 levels by 2023. In its efforts to realize a circular economy, the Group achieved a 39.6% use of recycled and renewable resources, surpassing its target of 37% set for 2023. This accomplishment has led to a reduction of 557,000 tons equivalent of newly input raw materials.
Sustainable Value Creation Linked to Business Shaping Scenario
In the 2024 Mid Term Business Plan, we will promote the integration of sustainability into our business scenario for the sustainable growth stage, interconnecting our business activities with sustainability initiatives and creating synergies from the perspective of value creation, thereby promoting our evolution into a sustainable solutions company as stated in our vision. The carbon neutral, circular economy, and nature positive initiatives are linked to the value creation of the core, growth, and exploratory businesses in the business shaping scenario. We will support sustainable activities and strengthen our sustainable culture and foundation by reinforcing business quality through new and true glocal portfolio management.
For example, in our core business of premium tires, we will improve the various performance required of tires, such as wear resistance, long life, and low rolling resistance, while also improving resource productivity and energy intensity through “ultimate customization” by expanding ENLITEN, our base technology for product design, creating value through BCMA, and promoting green and smart factories. At the same time, we will improve resource productivity and energy consumption rate. In this way, we will promote manufacturing that both improves customer value and reduces business costs and environmental impact, thereby contributing to the achievement of our sustainability targets. In the solutions business, we will increase the ratio of recycled and renewable materials by expanding the TB retread tires business, and also expand our contribution to CO2 reduction in Scope 3 through efficient real x digital driving and vehicle operation support.
Through these efforts, we aim to link business and sustainability, creating synergistic effects as two wheels, and promote the sustainable value creation, while reinforcing our sustainable structure and foundation.
