Bridgestone Americas announced that its Warren County, Tenn., tire manufacturing plant has earned LEED V3 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) recertification at the Silver level by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The Warren County facility, which began operations in 1990, first earned LEED V2 certification in 2008 and was the first tire plant globally to do so. The Bridgestone plant in Warren County joins an elite group as it is one of only three manufacturing projects in the world to achieve LEED certification for “Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance 2009.”

To achieve recertification under the more stringent LEED v3 program, the Warren County facility implemented many sustainable initiatives that yielded significant results, including:

• Installing plumbing fixtures and potable water efficiency measures, reducing plant personnel water use by 42.7 percent vs. baseline*.

• Planting water-efficient, native species landscaping, reducing irrigation water consumption by 93 percent vs. baseline while improving wildlife habitat.

• Optimizing energy efficiency, achieving a 31 percent more efficient operation compared to the median performance of similar Bridgestone tire manufacturing facilities.

• Protecting and restoring wildlife habitats; seventy-nine percent of the plant site is covered by vegetation and 75 percent is a certified wildlife habitat area.

• Use of sustainable cleaning products throughout the plant, exceeding the LEED requirement by 19 percent. 

The plant manufactures 9,000 Bridgestone and Firestone truck and bus tires per day and employs 990 people. The facility also has been recognized as an OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star site, meaning it has excellent safety and health management systems and injury rates that are below the industry's national average.

For additional information about Bridgestone’s One Team, One Planet environmental activities, or the company’s environmental mission, visit BridgestoneAmericas.com.