Green future for Bridgestone and Bandag

Bridgestone has marked the 60th anniversary of local manufacturing of its truck retread subsidiary Bandag by reiterating its commitment to slashing emissions by 2030, on the way to reaching total sustainability and carbon neutrality 20 years later.

The Bridgestone ‘E8 Commitment’ program was announced in March 2022, outlining the multinational’s pledge for achieving carbon neutrality and the use of 100 per cent sustainable materials by 2050.

The E8 values span Energy, Ecology, Efficiency, Extension, Economy, Emotion, Ease and Empowerment. Step one in the E8 path is a 50 per cent reduction in C02 emissions (scope 1 and 2) from 2011’s benchmark and the uptake of 40 per cent use of recycled and renewable resources by 2030.

Bridgestone brought some ‘heavies’ to Australia for the September 12, Bandag 60th Anniversary of Australian local retread manufacturing.

“Toward 2050, Bridgestone’s vision is to continue to provide social value and customer value as a sustainable solutions company,” said Bridgestone China Asia Pacific’s Vice President of Sustainability and CSR, Dr Sreepad Karanam.

“Bandag plays a significant role … because it is an excellent example of how we are recapturing the value of the products that we produce and giving them a new life.”

Related reading:
Bandag celebrates 60th anniversary
Bridgestone awarded for having 'Most Satisfied Customers'
Bridgestone awarded 'Most Trusted' tyre

Another key Bridgestone employee in the E8 strategy is Solutions Director, Stefano Parisi, who has 25 years of tyre industry and solutions experience. Prior to joining Bridgestone ANZ, Mr Parisi was the Managing Director for the Southern Region of Bridgestone Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa.

In his role as Solutions Director, Mr Parisi is overseeing the integration and streamlining of Bridgestone ANZ’s mobility solutions strategy, focussing on the areas of fleet business, consumer, mobile maintenance and retreading and recycling.

“Bridgestone has a range of offerings to support various sectors of the market,” he said.

“We offer mobile servicing for consumers and passenger vehicle fleets through Lube Mobile; data and telematics through Webfleet Solutions; and sustainable tyre solutions through the Bandag retread business.”

According to Bridgestone Australia & New Zealand Managing Director, Heath Barclay, Bandag is supporting its customers’ ambitions for a more sustainable future.

“Environmental and social factors have always been a consideration for our customers, but these have increasingly becoming top of mind in recent years,” said Mr Barclay.

“No longer is our company selling only products to our customers: we are committed to working with them on long-term solutions that contribute not only to economic, but also to environmental and social performance indicators.”

The Bandag retread process exemplifies product circularity and a working circular economy within the tyre industry. The local manufacturing process re-captures the value of old truck tyre casings and retreads them to give them additional working life as high-quality Bandag products, before being recycled into other products.

With a growing interest in the tangible benefits of retreads, Bridgestone and Bandag recently released Retreading for a Better World – product information that highlights how the manufacture of each retread sees a 34 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, a 46 per cent reduction of waste and 70 per cent less oil input, compared with the production of a new tyre.

Of course, those reductions compound if the casing is retreaded multiple times.

In addition to casing reuse, waste material throughout the retread process is captured and reused in the manufacturing process or recycled into other products such as rubber flooring.

Bridgestone Australia & New Zealand continues to invest in the Bandag facility in Wacol, Brisbane, to bolster the site’s energy efficiency and reduce reliance on town water.

The site's solar array area and water storage capacity are being increased in 2023. Solar capacity is receiving a 140kW upgrade and the current two million litres of rainwater storage is being increased by additional 400,000 litre tanks.

Bandag's waste reduction efforts also extend to logistics, using recyclable slip sheets for exports instead of wooden pallets. Dr Karanam said that Bandag was making a direct contribution to Bridgestone's global efforts towards carbon neutrality and a circular economy.

“The efforts being undertaken by Bridgestone Australia & New Zealand and the Bandag team strongly support our Bridgestone E8 Commitment, particularly in the values of Efficiency, Extension, Economy and Ecology,” he said.