Bridgestone EMEA Awarded Third Consecutive Platinum Rating In 2023 Ecovadis Sustainability Assessment

(MENAFN- Mid-East) The ranking puts Bridgestone EMEA in the top 1 percent of the 130,000 companies assessed by EcoVadis globally.

• Evolving from an initial Silver rating in 2015, Bridgestone EMEA has maintained its Platinum ranking since 2021 – against an increasingly complex, rigorous and intense assessment process.
• EcoVadis is a world-leading third-party sustainability assessment platform.

Bridgestone EMEA has once again received the Platinum rating by renowned sustainability assessment platform, EcoVadis. This is the third consecutive time the organisation has been awarded EcoVadis' top ranking since 2021, putting Bridgestone EMEA in the top 1 percent of the 130,000 companies assessed by EcoVadis globally across 220 industry sectors.

Bridgestone EMEA was given a Silver rating and ranked in the top 12 percent of businesses globally when first assessed by EcoVadis in 2015 – which scores organisations against four core areas: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. By the following year, Bridgestone EMEA had climbed to the top 7 percent, and then the top 4 percent in 2018. The organisation received Gold status in 2019, before attaining Platinum status for the first time in 2021.

Guided by its global corporate sustainability framework, and the Bridgestone E8 Commitment, Bridgestone is evolving into a sustainable solutions company toward 2050. The Platinum EcoVadis rating for 2023 coincided with a year of sustainability highlights for Bridgestone EMEA, which included:

• The installation of 21,000 solar panels at Bridgestone's Burgos plant in Spain (one of the company's most advanced in terms of energy transition), now obtaining electricity directly from the sun accounting for 10-14 percent of the plant's electricity consumption
• Continuing to drive sustainability through the company's supply chain, thanks to – amongst other measures – Bridgestone EMEA's innovative and award-winning Sustainable Supply Chain Financing initiative, which provides suppliers with financing based on their EcoVadis sustainability rating. Since joining the programme, 20 percent of enrolled suppliers have improved their own EcoVadis scores and 36 percent have reached an advanced level.
• Publication of Bridgestone EMEA's inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Report, setting out the company's ambitions and actions to make Bridgestone more fully representative of the society it serves in the coming years
• Multiple projects and initiatives under the Bridgestone Global Road Safety Program, which aims to make the world's roads safer and support the United Nations goal of halving road deaths and injuries by 2030. EMEA activities included tyre check events, road safety trainings and education programmes reaching over 20,000 beneficiaries.

“In the increasingly regulated and complex world of corporate sustainability, this is a great achievement,” said Laurent Dartoux, Group President, Bridgestone EMEA.“We have huge respect for the importance of independent verification – especially in sustainability – and the EcoVadis assessment has only become more and more rigorous as we've progressed over the years. Today, the process involves people representing all corners of our business, from HR to IT, and from Environment and Health & Safety to Procurement and Finance; and all led by our dedicated Sustainability Office team”.

“Maintaining our Platinum EcoVadis rating reflects our ongoing commitment to all areas of sustainability and the progress we're making as an evolving company, guided by the Bridgestone E8 Commitment. We may be among the top EcoVadis performers globally, but as ever, there are still a lot of positive steps that need to be made on the road to 2050.”

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