Japanese Roots, Hungarian Commitment

Bridgestone’s plant in Tatabánya – being an integral part of the global company group – is operating in line with the principles of its Japanese founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, and also operates with great flexibility to quickly adapt to the challenges posed by the ever-changing world. And in recent decades, the road of adapting always lead towards sustainability. Taking responsibility for society and the environment has been an integral and prioritized part of the company’s operations since its foundation 90 years ago, and it continued to be even more significant today.

“Serving society with superior quality” – this mission has defined the operation of Bridgestone Tatabánya since its production started in 2007. This statement refers not only to the quality of its product and services, but also to its commitment for making the world around us even more livable.

Global approach, local implementation
Nowadays, organizational involvement in sustainability is even more important than ever before. Bridgestone is committed to these efforts: in 2022, it introduced the E8 Commitment with the values of Energy, Ecology, Economy, Efficiency, Extension, Ease, Empowerment and Emotion, supporting a sustainable society and mobility with direct actions, aligning its employees and partners.
“Following the principles of the company, sustainability efforts are manifested in various areas within Bridgestone Tatabánya – such as environmental protection, procurement sources, technological development, actions for our employees and also for the extended society,” says Kota Fujiyama, Lead Advisor of the Bridgestone Tatabánya factory.

Being a frontrunner in environmental protection
The Tatabánya plant supports the global ambition of Bridgestone to halve its carbon footprint by 2030 and to cover its entire energy consumption from sustainable sources by 2050. The Hungarian unit has been covering 100% of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources for four years, three heat pumps have been installed at the factory and more solar panels are planned.
In 2019, Bridgestone launched its sustainable global sourcing policy, undertaking to use only sustainably sourced raw materials during production from 2050 at the latest. The company also relies on their partners in this.
In line with the modern approach and innovative production technology of the Tatabánya factory, more than 60% of production processes use digital technologies. The transformation into a smart factory is also underway with artificial intelligence-based tire manufacturing equipment and solutions to reduce environmental impact.

Social responsibility as a crucial aspect
The road towards a sustainable future also includes the efforts to take care of our communities, our society. These endeavors are crucial to the company's objectives too. The Tatabánya plant pays special attention to community building, employee well-being and health promotion with its family friendly day-to-day operations, outstanding career development opportunities and trainings, and activities such as road safety related events for the employees, Health Weeks, community-building joint breakfast program, cancer disease preventing screenings and awareness programs – among many others.
Bridgestone Tatabánya is respectful and attentive to the customs of the Japanese parent company, which includes the adaptation of a corporate culture that is committed to the people living in its environment, thus making many activities supporting local communities. The company regularly supports the local hospital, the regional national park, many aid organizations and local disadvantaged families with financial and/or material support and donations. Also, many volunteer activities are organized by the colleagues in the plant throughout the years.

Recognition of continuous and hard work
The founder of Bridgestone, Shojiro Ishibashi believed that a company that does something good for society and the environment is able to prosper well – this is why acknowledging the contribution and efforts of the Tatabánya plant both environmental and social sustainability areas is significant.
“We can proudly say that our factory in Tatabánya received acknowledgement in various areas.
In 2019, the global headquarters of the group recognized its environmental efforts with the Gold Leaf Prize. In 2022, the company won the ‘Factory of the Year’ award on the competition of GyártásTrend and in 2023, the company won first place in the JVSZ ‘Companies for the Future Award’ Best Technology Investment category. In addition to this, we received the title of Family-Friendly Workplace from the Ministry of Human Resources both in 2019, 2020 and 2021,” adds Melinda Topolcsik, President, Managing Director of the Bridgestone Tatabánya factory.