Natural rubber is a key raw material and a vital renewable resource for tiremakers such as Bridgestone*, one of the holdings in the Green Century International Index Fund. The Japanese company is also exploring ways to reuse and recycle it products for a sustainable planet.
About 90 percent of the world’s natural rubber comes from a single source – the Hevea rubber trees in Southeast Asia. An estimated 6 million people cultivate natural rubber, mainly on small farms and large plantations.
The company recently gave training and technical support to about 5,600 small farmers to help increase their yields while protecting forests.
Bridgestone is exploring ways to operate sustainably. One example is by finding innovative sources, such as extracting rubber from guayule. This desert shrub is native to Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. and is being developed for use in various of Bridgestone’s commercial tire applications.
The company made its first tire from guayule-derived natural rubber in 2015 and considers this one of its key steps in expanding and diversifying the company’s use of renewable resources.
Bridgestone’s sustainability efforts include retreading tires. The company assumes a customer will use a tire three times; once as a new tire and then followed by two retreads. The company said retreads reduce the amount of raw materials used, as well as cut carbon emissions roughly in half.
The company also has far-reaching goals to cut its carbon emissions. While about 90 percent of the CO2 come from use of tires, Bridgestone has improved its tire technology to cut resistance. These efforts help combine environmental and driving performance, especially for fleets.
A few years ago, the company continued efforts to reduce tire rolling resistance and promote mobility – helping cut CO2 emissions on its entire value chain to about 3.4 million tons.
Bridgestone is one of the companies in Green Century Fund’s International Index and offers what may be viable solutions to help with our goals of protecting the planet.
A sustainable investment strategy that incorporates environmental, social and governance criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria.