Bridgestone’s first carbon neutral tyre plant

The Bridgestone plant at Chakan in Pune, India is the company’s first tyre manufacturing site to be verified as carbon neutral (scopes 1 and 2). Global assurance partner audited the facility in May and June 2023 and subsequently verified it according to the international PAS 2060:2014 standard for the year 2022.

According to Bridgestone, the certification marks an important milestone in the company’s efforts to decarbonise its manufacturing capacity, towards the global target of carbon neutrality (Scope 1 and 2) by 2050 and a 50 per cent reduction of CO2 emissions from its operations by 2030 versus the 2011 benchmark.

Bridgestone’s Pune manufacturing facility produces more than 4 million tyres annually. Over the years, the site has reduced its total carbon footprint by 94 per cent through a number of measures. These include solar panels at the plant and a carbon neutral biomass-based boiler plant which uses carbon neutral biomass briquettes made from agricultural waste. Bridgestone India also offsets 2,974t CO2 emissions at the site through the purchase of Verified Carbon Standard credits from a bundled solar photovoltaic project by Acme, India.

“The carbon neutral certification of one of our two tyre plants in India is a historic landmark in the company’s commitment towards sustainability more so as Bridgestone has set a goal to become carbon neutral by 2050, in line with the Paris climate agreement,” says Koji Takagi, chief sustainability officer, Bridgestone EMIA.

As part of the PAS 2060 verification, the site has committed to a further CO2 reduction plan for the next three years. “Our future plans include further increasing the use of green energy, reducing carbon emissions in our overall operations and tracking scope 3 emissions,” says Stefano Sanchini, managing director Bridgestone India.