Environment
Environmental management

The Bridgestone Group’s Total Environmental Advanced Management System (TEAMS) serves as the foundation for the Group’s environmental activities. To acquire and maintain ISO 14001 certification at its manufacturing sites, the Group has implemented its Environmental Management System (EMS) framework across the Group. TEAMS was developed by adding the following two concepts to EMS:

Total: the participation of all business units, facility functions and employees throughout the Group
Advanced: the commitment to active disclosure and advanced, world-class activities

Under the TEAMS concept, each Group strategic business unit (SBU) and facility prepares and adopts an EMS using ISO 14001 methodologies. Environmental activities are then improved through the use of the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle at three levels: individual facilities, SBUs, and globally.

To support TEAMS activities, the Group is also working to provide and consolidate shared global information systems, for use in improvements across the Group’s PDCA cycle based on analysis of each SBU’s environmental activities and data. It reinforces various infrastructure and human resource developments to ensure environmental management at SBUs and business locations.

For example, all non-production sites, including distribution centers and retail shops, conduct environmental self-assessments, grading each location’s environmental management against one of three levels (I, II, or III), with the information used for further improvement using the PDCA cycle.

In addition, the Group holds conferences for environmental managers to enhance environmental education and cooperation across the entire Group. The training includes on-site lectures and group discussions aimed at enhancing the capabilities of environmental managers and strengthening regional cooperation.

TEAMS serves to enhance the environmental audit system of the Group’s manufacturing facilities by regularly conducting system audits (mainly organizational audits) and performance audits (mainly based on performance data). The Group also conducts internal audits based on the ISO 14001 standard and undergoes external audits, as well as regular training for internal environmental auditors.

The Group requires all manufacturing sites with 50 employees or more to acquire ISO 14001: 2015 environmental management certification. Achieving this certification shows that operations are continuously working to minimize their impact and comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations. At the end of 2023, all 98 required sites had obtained ISO 14001 certification.

Bridgestone’s ratio of sites with ISO 14001 certification is verified by LRQA Limited, a third-party institution promoting information transparency.

Independent Assurance Statement (241KB)

For details of ISO 50001, please see “CO₂ emissions reduction across our operations.”

The Group’s organization structure comprises of three meeting bodies: the Global Sustainability Committee, the Global Environment Working Group (WG) and strategic business units (SBUs), who coordinate and cooperate with each other to enhance TEAMS activities in line with the mid-term plan. The Global Environment WG and the GSC are supervised by the Global Executive Committee (G-EXCO), and work to develop global environment strategies and policies for the entire Group. These bodies periodically report the progress of their strategies and actions to the G-EXCO. Once strategies and policies are approved, the SBUs implement them through their EMS.

The Group established the Global Environment WG, which consists of members representing the environmental departments from each region, to strengthen coordination of global and regional environmental activities.

Global Management Structure (As of June 2024)

The Group has adopted a proprietary factory production qualification system based on the ISO 14001 standard to rapidly identify and minimize environmental risks at new factories and production lines.

It is a four-stage system for checking and certifying the environmental management systems at new factories. These stages are: formulate an environmental plan, perform a preliminary environmental review when building a new factory or production lines, prepare environmental policies, ensure legal compliance, and conduct environmental training programs.

Each of the Group’s manufacturing facilities carries out environmental activities based on the ISO 14001 standard using the PDCA cycle under the leadership of senior management. The Group also works to reduce the environmental footprint of each facility by reducing and controlling pollutant emissions into the water and air. This is achieved by designing processes to minimize waste generation, and properly managing the waste that is generated. To do so, it secures the necessary number of personnel tasked with reducing these environmental risks and properly managing the relevant facilities. As one of the measures, the Group has established Global Environmental Standards which are the necessary requirements for facilities to minimize environmental impacts.

In addition, the Group has prepared emergency response procedures based on the ISO 14001 standard and conducts scheduled drills to verify their effectiveness. It regularly reviews these procedures to make sure that plant production can be stopped and restarted without causing environmental problems in the event of disasters, such as a major earthquake.

The Group has established a Global Environmental Standard for EMS that stipulates the minimum EMS elements that should be followed to achieve the intended outcome. The Group will apply this standard to all Bridgestone Group sites that have not obtained ISO 14001 certification.

For the details of the Group’s efforts to minimize environmental footprint, see “Minimizing footprint.”

Working together with suppliers, the Group developed its Global Sustainable Procurement Policy to promote environmentally responsible business throughout the supply chain.

The Group is monitoring and rating the environmental and social performance and governance (ESG) of its suppliers using third-party assessments as a tool to encourage suppliers to enhance their ESG commitment. The ESG issues, which are assessed and linked to the Sustainable Procurement Policy, include environmental aspects such as energy consumption, water, biodiversity, pollution and waste. The Group holds sustainable procurement seminars and provides on-site support based on the assessment results and is working together with suppliers in their environmental activities.

Bridgestone is an active member of the Japan Business Initiative for Biodiversity, which promotes environmental conservation. As a member of its working group (consisting of various businesses), the Company is involved in researching effective ways to implement business-led policy measures to conserve biodiversity by reducing the impacts of the supply chain, and to visualize environmental impacts.

For more information on the Group’s commitment to sustainable supply chain procurement, see “Procurement.”

The Group requires all of its raw materials and component suppliers to comply with their respective national and regional regulations on the use of hazardous substances and materials. The Group also requires suppliers to eliminate the use of chemical products from the early stages if any hazardous substances are suspected in such products.

Prior to purchasing major components from suppliers, the Group conducts an environmental management review of suppliers based on its outsourcing authorization system. In this review, the Group examines suppliers’ overall environmental management and programs. In addition to checking suppliers’ management systems for chemical products, the Group also checks their systems for managing air, water, noise, vibration, odor and industrial waste. If any item requiring improvement is identified, it notifies the supplier of the issue and asks them to make the needed improvements. Additionally, prior to purchasing new production equipment, the Group requests suppliers to include information on the use of any hazardous substances in the equipment in their quotation.

Read more about the Group’s Global Sustainable Procurement Policy