Environment | Value natural resources
Long-term environmental vision (2050 and beyond):Towards 100% sustainable materials

An increase in population and the number of automobiles will likely further boost tire demand in the future. The Bridgestone Group is working toward its goal to minimize resource depletion by implementing sustainable resource use through promoting technological innovation and business innovation. The Group has set the goal of using “100% sustainable materials” in its products as the long-term environmental vision for 2050 and beyond.

The Bridgestone Group defines sustainable materials as those that:

(1) come from resources with a continual supply;
(2) can be used as part of the Group's business over the long term; and
(3) have a low environmental and social impact over their lifecycle from procurement to disposal.

The Group has established three main actions throughout its value chain to reduce, circulate (reuse, and recycle) resource and to widen and diversify renewable resources.

1. Reduce raw material consumption
   (Examples)
   ・Weight-savings technologies
   ・Durability improving technologies
   ・Reduction of manufacturing process losses
2. Recycle resources and use effectively
   (Examples)
   ・Retread technologies and solutions
   ・Recycled rubber and recovered carbon black
3. Expand and diversify renewable resources
   (Examples)
   ・Natural rubber productivity improvement technologies
   ・Diversified natural rubber supply sources (guayule)
   ・Development of bio-derived raw materials

Economic growth is expected to increase resource consumption and demand, thereby restricting resource supply and deepening issues of natural resource depletion and soring resource prices. Smarter, more sustainable use of resources is important not only for addressing environmental issues, but also for society and the Group’s businesses. A circular economy^*1 not only helps mitigate pressures on the environment, but it also provides an opportunity to transform the Group’s business model to increase the business value of its tires and gain competitive advantage by using resources more wisely and sustainably. To this end, the Group is integrating circular economy concepts into its Sustainability Business Model. It is also making comprehensive efforts to contribute to the attainment of four important social and customer values: safety, environment, economy and productivity.

The Group contributes to the creation of a circular economy by designing and developing products and business models with high resource efficiency, using recycled and renewable resources (material circularity^*2) and accelerating comprehensive initiatives in the effective use of used tires (product circularity^*3).

To promote its contribution to a circular economy, the Group has set a target to increase its ratio of recycled and renewable material to 40% by 2030. It is accelerating various initiatives throughout the entire product lifecycle, such as long-life design, expansion and diversification of renewable resources, retreading, recycling, repairing, sharing, etc. The Group achieved a 39.6% use of recycled and renewable resources, surpassing its target of 37% set for 2023.

Bridgestone Group's approach to the circular economy

In order to achieve “100% sustainable materials” in our products, we are accelerating our efforts to use sustainable materials in specific products.

In May 2023, we launched Turanza EV, a tire for electric vehicles that uses 50% renewable and recycled materials in North America. The 50% consists of 20% natural rubber, 18% recycled (circular) synthetic rubber, and the rest recycled (circular) carbon black. ISCC^*-certified circular butadiene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber and carbon black are allocated using the ISCC mass balance approach.
In February 2024, we launched REGNO GR-XIII in Japan, which also uses synthetic rubber using the ISCC mass balance approach, contributing to the realization of a circular economy.

In motorsports, we supplied tires with a higher ratio of renewable and recycled materials for the 107th Indianapolis 500 (held in May 2023) and the 2023 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC, held in October 2023), the world's most prestigious solar car race.

At the Indianapolis 500, all race tires were produced using ISCC PLUS certified recycled butadiene, which is made from hard-to-recycle used plastic shopping bags, film, stretch wrap and other flexible polymer packaging.

At BWSC, by utilizing reinforcement material using recycled steel, recycled organic fiber, recycled rubber chemicals, recycled oil, rice husk silica and carbon black recovered through pyrolysis of used tires, we supplied ENLITEN technology tires with a recycled and renewable material ratio (MCN - Material Circularity Number) of 63%, which is an increase of approximately 33% over the tires supplied for the 2019 BWSC event.