Sustainability Priority Items
Priority items (sustainability aspects) to continue to create both social and customer value

Bridgestone believes it is essential to create both social value and customer value continuously, contribute to the realization of a sustainable society, and achieve sustainable growth as a company. By aligning social sustainability with corporate sustainability, we have identified sustainability priorities as key focus areas for achieving sustainable enhancement of corporate value, and are advancing our initiatives accordingly.

Bridgestone believes that it is essential to build a deeper relationship of trust with our stakeholders while continuing to promote initiatives that form an indispensable foundation for a responsible company to create new value for society and our customers, and to achieve sustainable growth together with our customers and partners. We have categorized and systematized our approach to sustainability into a Sustainability Framework. Based on this framework, we will clarify our priority items and create value for society and our customers through its business, social contribution and co-creation activities with all our partners.

The first layer: Sustainability Business

We believe that we can gain a competitive advantage by linking sustainability and business and creating both social and customer value. We seek to create social and customer value by contributing to the realization of a circular economy and carbon neutrality through its Sustainability Business that includes the tire and rubber, solutions and recycle businesses. The area in the red arrow extending to the left indicates the intention to further expand our business opportunities to develop the competitive advantage based on the Mid-Long Term Business Strategy.

The second layer: Build trust to propagate value co-creation

We believe that co-creation of value with customers and partners is essential to realize our Sustainability Business, and a deeper relationship of trust is important for value co-creation. By fostering trust as a preferred partner for society, partners and customers, we will co-create innovations and values, and create opportunities for the Sustainability Business that provides social and customer value. We believe the depth of our sustainability efforts contributes greatly to fostering trust in us and is actively involved in social contributions and other activities that help foster that trust with local communities.

The third layer: Management Fundamentals for value creation

As a responsible company, Bridgestone is fulfilling its social responsibility by proactively responding to society’s expectations to accelerate its sustainability journey. These efforts go beyond risk avoidance to finding innovative ways to transform risk into growth opportunity to establish Management Fundamentals for value creation. We will strive to create value by enhancing community and stakeholder engagements, respecting business and human rights and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), enhancing talent creativity and strengthening corporate resilience.

Through dialogue with a diverse range of stakeholders, including institutional investors, NGOs, and employees, Bridgestone recognizes their expectations and the challenges we face. We promote stakeholder engagement based on integrated reporting, and also closely link it to the process of prioritizing sustainability issues and integrating them into the business strategy while ensuring alignment. As shown in the figure, the two processes are being rotated as two wheels, and continuous improvement of both processes is being pursued.

As part of the process of identifying priority issues, Bridgestone conducted a materiality assessment. Bridgestone collects information through extensive desktop research and interviews with internal and external stakeholders, including investors, customers, partners, NGOs, industry associations and experts. Bridgestone then analyzes risks and opportunities and their impacts, including social expectations and requirements, the level of importance of each issue and the impact of our corporate activities on the environment and society to confirm their importance. Based on the assessment, Bridgestone identified the following 26 issues.

The 26 material issues identified through the process are then reorganized from a business perspective of creating social value and customer value in line with the sustainability framework mentioned earlier. These reorganized issues are reviewed by global management, including the Global CEO, and set as sustainability priorities. These sustainability priorities are shared and reported to the Board of Directors along with updates on the progress of sustainability initiatives, social trends and customer demands, etc.

In identifying sustainability priorities, we recognized both the impact that changes in society and the business environment have on our company, as well as the contributions and impact that our business activities have on society. In terms of management challenges to create value, we set priorities that emphasize the magnitude of the value and impact created through our business activities, as well as themes that directly contribute to strengthening our competitiveness and business foundation.

We regularly review our sustainability priorities through the PDCA cycle, which involves identifying issues, planning, implementing, reviewing and reassessing. We constantly monitor and sense social trends such as laws and regulations, industry and competitor trends, as well as customer expectations and requests, and by analyzing risks, opportunities, and their impact. We also identify and confirm any gaps between the level of our activities and information disclosure and the expectations of society and customers by analyzing the results of major external evaluations. Management, including the Global CEO, reviews the identified priorities and they are reported to the Board of Directors in an ongoing PDCA cycle. Furthermore, we proactively disclose the results of our activities, and feedback from stakeholders, such as their expectations and suggestions for improvement obtained through dialogue based on the integrated report, is shared with management and reflected in the identification of issues and our management strategy. This process is not only for integrated reporting, but also for the entire process of identifying issues and promoting management strategies, including raising the level of our sustainability initiatives. (Opportunities for dialogue with stakeholders include ESG interviews with institutional investors, dialogue with NGOs, customers, etc., and ESG small meetings.)

The following sustainability priorities have been identified for FY2026.

• Establishment and evolution of the Sustainability Business Model: develop readiness toward carbon neutrality, expand circular economy business activities, and promote a nature-positive world (focusing on “initiatives for sustainable use of natural rubber and water resources”)
• Fostering trust with customers, partners and local communities: contribute to solving issues in local communities, and promote road safety education around the world
• Respect for human rights: promote initiatives in line with the Global Human Rights Policy and continue reinforcement of activity levels
• TRWP (tire and road wear particles)/6PPD (an antioxidant and antiozonant commonly used in the tire industry): in collaboration with other industry players and academic institutions, investigate the environmental impacts of tires throughout their lifecycle as an industry leader. Continue to promote initiatives to reduce TRWP across the value chain from “produce and sell” to “use” of tires, including expansion of long-life products and collaboration with the solutions business. Promote initiatives to develop 6PPD alternatives based on the basic premise that it is possible to ensure tire safety and security.

Bridgestone has established metrics and targets in relation to priority items to be addressed in seeking to continue to create both social and customer value. We appropriately track progress of our activities for resolving issues under the Company’s corporate governance system of aiming to realize the Mid-Long Term Business Strategy based on these metrics and targets.
Progress made on initiatives toward establishing a unique Sustainability Business Model that links our business with achieving carbon neutrality across the entire value chain, realizing a circular economy, and promoting a nature-positive world is as follows.

1. Within total material weight for tire products including tire casing for retreading
2. Cumulative total from 2023

Bridgestone continues to integrate sustainability culturally, strategically and operationally across the organization as part of its Mid-Long Term Business Strategy.

We incorporate Bridgestone’s mission, the Corporate Commitment and the Sustainability Framework into our business, values and brand every day to ensure that it becomes an integral part of teammates’ lives, in all that we do.

With sustainability as its core, Bridgestone is working toward the Mid-Long Term Business Strategy and Mid Term Business Plan, aligned with the Sustainability Framework.

For the details of the Mid-Long Term Business Strategy and the Mid Term Business Plan, see “IR Library.”

The Global Sustainability Committee (GSC) that reports to the Global Executive Committee (Global EXCO), the highest-level committee overseeing our business strategy and execution, is responsible for holistically leading our Sustainability Framework.

For details of the management structure, see “Management Structure.”