In addition to pursuing a 100-percent sustainable materials tire by 2050, Bridgestone also is committed to achieving carbon neutral operations by the same year.
And one of the keystones to achieving both aims is its development and innovation around the use of guayule as an alternative rubber source. To date, the tire maker has invested more than $100 million in the development, cultivation and testing of guayule—a desert shrub that thrives in hot, arid conditions.
Among its most recent guayule successes was the rollout of a Firestone Firehawk race tire in which Bridgestone was able to fully replace the hevea natural rubber in the tire's side wall with guayule-derived rubber.
"We are reimagining the ways we design and develop products that contribute to a more sustainable mobility future," Trigui said, "and that includes pioneering changes to the processes at our manufacturing facilities to support material circularity."