Bridgestone Outlines Plan to ‘Make Cars Green’

June 5 was World Environment Day, and Bridgestone chose the occasion to announce its action plan for “Make Cars Green”, an initiative that seeks to raise awareness of the need for greener motoring around the world. During a parliamentary conference in Wellington, New Zealand, host city for World Environment Day this year, Mr. Shoshi Arakawa, chairman of the Board, CEO and president of Bridgestone Corporation, and Mr. David Ward, director general of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Foundation, made the announcement that the Bridgestone Group will promote the initiative on a worldwide scale as a global partner of the FIA.

By working with automobile clubs in various countries, the “Make Cars Green” initiative aims to reduce the environmental impact of motoring by educating motorists about more environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient driving behaviour. The initiative will focus on “10 points for greener motoring” and will encourage drivers to “think green” when they drive. The ten points are as follows:

1) Buy Green
2) Plan your journey
3) Check tyre pressures frequently
4) Reduce loads and avoid the need for roof racks
5) Don’t warm up your engine before starting off
6) Use air conditioning only when necessary
7) Accelerate gently and keep your speed constant
8) Use engine braking
9) Don’t idle your engine
10) Offset your CO2 emissions

The Bridgestone Group says it will promote activities to increase awareness and understanding of green motoring to all employees within the Group. These environmental educational activities will then, says Bridgestone, be expanded to the families and friends through the employees.
Furthermore, in conjunction with automobile clubs, Bridgestone intends to deploy activities to increase environmental awareness and understanding through its sales network and various events.