Bridgestone APAC bags 2 awards for sustainable mobility initiatives

MANILA: Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Bridgestone Asia Pacific), an affiliate of Bridgestone Corporation, regarded as an international leader in innovative solutions and sustainable mobility, announced recently that it brought home two awards at the 12^th Annual Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards 2020.

Out of more than 300 entries from over 120 firms, Bridgestone Asia Pacific received the Platinum Award, which is the highest recognition for CSR Leadership for its numerous ongoing programs across China and the Asia Pacific region.

Bridgestone Vietnam, a group subsidiary of Bridgestone Asia Pacific, also reaped the Gold Award for Best Community Program for its “Bridgestone Squad — Complete Safety for Children in 2019” campaign, which targets promotion of traffic safety through education.

The Global CSR Awards is regarded as one of the most prestigious awards that gives recognition to excellent and advanced CSR programs that showcase the dedication and leadership of the company towards promoting respect and ethics to the environment as well as to various communities and individuals.

A panel of judges, which consist of globally acclaimed professionals from different fields and industries, were chosen to guarantee an objective and impartial review procedure for all entries.

The program is a unified initiative of different group companies from China and the Asia Pacific region like Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Bridgestone Asia Pacific also coordinated the Regional Step Challenge 2019, in which more than 20,000 Bridgestone workers from its group companies in Vietnam, Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and China participated in the campaign.

One of the countries with the highest road traffic fatality rates in Southeast Asia is Vietnam, because of a perceived inadequacy in traffic and road safety education as well as proper road infrastructure.

In remote areas where there is a significant shortage of infrastructures such as bridges, community members have the tendency to use unsafe approaches to navigate through rapid waterways.

To address these concerns, Bridgestone Vietnam introduced “The Bridgestone Squad — Complete Safety for Children in 2019” initiative, consisting of two programs, the “Complete Safety for Kids” and the “Bridge to Knowledge.”

With the “Bridge to Knowledge” program, Bridgestone Vietnam agreed to construct and maintain 20 bridges in flood-prone areas around Vietnam over a 10-year timeframe.

The first two bridges constructed in Dak Lak and Dien Bien served a total of 3,900 community members and helped 335 children to safely attend school.

The traffic safety education program “Complete Safety for Kids” was able to reach out to over 3,000 grade school students in major cities through dynamic activities since September last year.

Photos from Bridgestone Asia Pacific

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