Powered by sunshine: Bridgestone, Nokian turn to solar power for U.S. plants

For some, the solution for building smarter, more sustainable operations has been there all along. It was just a matter of capturing it.

That's true for U.S. tire makers, some of which are turning their attention skyward by using solar energy as one of the main renewable, reusable and sustainable energy sources for powering offices and—yes—even entire production plants. Both Bridgestone Americas Inc. and Nokian Tyres P.L.C. are among those companies harnessing the sun to power tire production.

The transition to solar energy was a natural one for Bridgestone in particular. The company's 23-year-old manufacturing plant in Aiken, S.C., turned to solar energy earlier this year, adding eight acres of solar panels to the facility grounds. Those panels, the company said, generate enough electricity to power 200 homes per year.

They also allow the tire maker to take a giant leap toward its biggest sustainability goals: reducing its total CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

"As a renewable CO2-free power source, solar power has a significantly smaller impact on the environment compared to other power-generation methods," Andrew Thompson, director of sustainability policy for Bridgestone Americas, said in an email interview. "The sun provides a limitless source of energy and, more importantly, is renewable."

The renewable energy generated by the solar panels has a significant impact overall, Thompson said, particularly when you consider the size of a facility as large as the Aiken plant. Solar panels can cut as much as 1,400 metric tons of CO2 emissions from the facility, which produces more than 37,000 passenger car and light truck tires per day.

"Our Aiken passenger tire plant is one of our largest manufacturing operations in the U.S., and we recognized the impact we could have by making this transition," Thompson said. "By making this initial investment in solar energy at our Aiken passenger tire plant we are demonstrating our long-term commitment to more sustainable manufacturing operations and taking an important first step to ensure our tires are made more sustainably."

Bridgestone may be among the latest tire makers to harness the power of the sun, but Nokian Tyres P.L.C. claims to be the first to use the sun's energy to power a U.S. tire manufacturing facility. The Nokia, Finland-based company turned to solar panels for its U.S. manufacturing and administrative buildings in Dayton, Tenn.

The panels at the Dayton plant have a 3-megawatt capacity and produce enough energy to power about 500 homes. The amount of energy generated powers 15-20 percent of the facility's production process, according to a Nokian spokesman.

"Essentially, the energy replacement is enough that we were able to earn that LEED v4 Silver, and we were the first in the tire industry to have a production building that achieved that standard," a Nokian spokesman said.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council to facilities that achieve some of the highest levels of efficiency and sustainability. According to the USGBC website, "LEED v4 is designed to up the ante with a more flexible, performance-based approach that calls for measurable results throughout a building's lifecycle."

To achieve the LEED v4 certification, facilities must hit benchmarks within a variety of categories including integrative thinking, energy, water, waste, materials and location.

"Impact categories developed for LEED v4 underscore how a project can benefit their local communities and our planet," USGBC's website said. "They incentivize pursuing higher-point valued credits and higher certification levels that achieve better environmental economic and social impacts. The result? Advanced strategies that teams can use to define and achieve their goals."

Nokian's $360 million manufacturing facility in Dayton produces passenger car and light truck all-season and all-weather tires for North American-specific vehicles. The facility, which has an annual capacity of 4 million tires, also has a distribution facility with enough warehouse space for 600,000 units.

The facility, the spokesman said, is large, which is why the tire maker's ability to secure a LEED v4 Silver certification was so impressive.

"When we began the LEED certification process, the company that was advising us told us that, as a production building, there are several categories of LEED of which you are not even really eligible because it's just not possible to achieve the level of efficiency that an office building would be able to achieve," the spokesman said. "What we are proud of is that we were able to meet all of the benchmarks (possible) to one degree or another, that we are able to hit (them) and get to the LEED v4 Silver level without being able to hit certain categories that weren't possible

"It's a testament to our team to be able to keep pushing forward and do what we can there."