FINDLAY, Ohio—Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s plant in Tupelo, Miss. has earned the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's enHance Partnership Award for 2015.
The enHance program is a voluntary stewardship initiative that recognizes facilities and municipalities for putting in place environmental initiatives beyond those that are required, Cooper said.
The Cooper Tupelo plant has been a member of the program since 2011.
“Cooper's environmental policy commits our plant to using energy and natural resources efficiently, reducing waste, preventing pollution and acting as a good corporate citizen through the use of good environmental practices,” Cooper Tupelo's Environmental Coordinator John Swartzendruber said in a statement.
Cooper's Tupelo plant has achieved significant ongoing environmental improvements, the Findlay-based tire manufacturer said, including reducing the amount of waste going to landfills by 34 percent and reducing energy use by 5 percent from 2012 levels.
“This has been the practice at the Tupelo facility since we began operations in 1984, so it seemed a natural extension of this commitment to take up MDEQ's challenge to demonstrate our dedication to environmental excellence by seeking membership in the enHance environmental stewardship initiative,” Swartzendruber said.
“We are pleased to be recognized for our efforts with the 2015 enHance Partnership Award.”
The Tupelo facility reduced solvent use by 30 percent in the same time period. Additionally, Cooper Tupelo has minimized waste through reuse and recycling of materials, and its team has presented workshops at enHance annual training conferences. Cooper's presentations have been incorporated into enHance Resources for Manufacturing, available on the organization's website at www.enhance.ms.
Cooper Tupelo is certified to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001, which sets out criteria for an environmental management system and maps a framework that companies can follow to demonstrate that their environmental impact is being measured and improved, Cooper said.
Cooper added it was the first Mississippi company to carry out an E3—Economy, Energy, and Environment—assessment, with the company's Clarksdale facility serving as the pilot for the E3 program in the State of Mississippi. E3 is a coordinated federal and local technical assistance framework that helps communities work with their manufacturing base to adapt and thrive in a new business era focused on sustainability. E3 provides manufacturers with customized, hands on assessments of production processes to reduce energy consumption, minimize their carbon footprint, prevent pollution, increase productivity, and drive innovation.