Social
Human Rights, Labor Practices

As part of its dedication to being a true global leader in all that it does, Bridgestone is committed to respecting human rights and advancing responsible labor practices throughout its worldwide operations. This commitment is the right thing to do and consistent with Bridgestone’s vision of providing social and customer value as a sustainable solutions company. It is also fundamental to fulfilling the “Bridgestone E8 Commitment” (one of the values of which is “Empowerment”), by contributing to a society that ensures accessibility and dignity for all. To achieve this aim, Bridgestone is committed to working collaboratively with stakeholders, including affected and potentially affected groups, to address and remedy adverse impacts from its operations, products or services.

Bridgestone continues to embed respect for human rights and the Global Human Rights Policy in its day-to-day operations. The policy articulates Bridgestone’s stance on internationally recognized human rights principles, and outlines the behaviors that all internal and external stakeholders around the globe can expect from Bridgestone and its business partners. The policy clearly states Bridgestone’s respect for diversity, equity and inclusion, prohibition of discrimination and harassment, focus on workplace health and safety, commitment to responsible labor practices, and protection of freedom of association and collective bargaining. The policy also guides the organization as it strives to uphold human rights principles through interactions with employees, consumers, customers, suppliers, contractors and community members wherever it conducts business. In further support of this policy, Bridgestone is committed to respecting and supporting the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) as well as the human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights (IBHR) and the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We also expect our business partners, including our suppliers, contractors, vendors and customers, to uphold the principles set out in this policy. These expectations are aligned with Bridgestone’s Code of Conduct and Global Sustainable Procurement Policy.

The Global Human Rights Policy is endorsed by the Global Executive Committee (Global EXCO) and upheld by the Global CEO, as reflected by his signature on the policy upon its revision in 2022. This demonstrates Bridgestone’s universal and consistent commitment to respecting the internationally recognized human rights principles laid out in the aforementioned international standards.

This mission is important to Bridgestone, as stakeholders and society increasingly hold businesses, and especially large global organizations, accountable for their specific human rights commitments and subsequent actions. Bridgestone proactively incorporates human rights initiatives into its business models and across its value chains, priorities, management policies, and business strategies. With these actions, Bridgestone is creating social and customer value and building trust with stakeholders.

Bridgestone’s commitment to respecting human rights is upheld and led by the Global EXCO, the highest-level committee overseeing its business strategy and execution. This committee is chaired by the Global CEO. Under the Global EXCO, with the leadership from the Global CAO and Global CSO, the Global Sustainability Committee (GSC) organizes the holistic Sustainability Framework, and designs and implements sustainability initiatives, including initiatives related to human rights and labor practices. By carrying out these activities, the Global CAO and Global CSO will fulfill cross-sectional and global optimization responsibility and report and advise on management issues to the Global EXCO.

As a part of the GSC, the Human Rights, Labor Practices Working Group (HRLP WG) is responsible for putting Bridgestone’s commitment to upholding the above internationally recognized human rights principles into practice in each Strategic Business Unit (SBU) and regional office. The HRLP WG is composed of senior human resources leaders from each SBU, supported by dedicated human rights functional resources based at Bridgestone’s Tokyo headquarters. The HRLP WG plans and manages human rights initiatives, such as the human rights due diligence process, implementing the Global Human Rights Policy, and assessing, preventing, mitigating and reporting human rights risks related to business conduct. The HRLP WG also collaborates with the Global Procurement Committee and the Environment Working Group to holistically address human rights issues across the value chain. The HRLP WG reports on its progress and plans to the GSC at least quarterly to ensure senior management is consistently informed of all significant human rights developments and initiatives.

To achieve its human rights and labor practices mission, Bridgestone has set the following goals and KPIs.:

Bridgestone’s progress in and improvements to its human rights due diligence processes were recognized in the form of significantly enhanced evaluations from external indices. Bridgestone will continue efforts to ensure it meets its commitment to respect human rights throughout its operations, and anticipates these efforts will in turn result in higher external evaluations in 2025 and beyond.

Human Rights Risk Management Approach

Bridgestone has consistently improved its human rights due diligence system and processes. Following the revision of the Global Human Rights Policy in 2022, Bridgestone established a foundational system to uphold its commitment to respecting human rights. In partnership with external human rights experts, SBU leaders, and local employees, Bridgestone has conducted a PDCA cycle through a balanced “glocal” approach and further enhanced its human rights due diligence system globally to effectively prevent and manage critical human rights risks. Since starting to build the foundation in 2021, Bridgestone has improved the system that enables Bridgestone to uphold its accountability as a global corporation. Going forward, Bridgestone will continue efforts to reinforce the due diligence system to prevent, mitigate, and control human rights risks across its operations, while foreseeing and adapting to evolving social conditions and business environments as well as to stakeholder expectations. Bridgestone believes that its human rights commitment and efforts will create good business quality and a more resilient value chain. Bridgestone’s efforts also underpin its sustainable value creation and business operations while contributing to market and business practices to ensure mainstream products are free of human rights risks. To be a Trusted Partner for society, customers, and all stakeholders involved in its business, Bridgestone will continue advancing its commitment to respecting human rights.

Human Rights Due Diligence Process

Bridgestone has established and regularly implements a human rights due diligence process throughout its operations and supply chain. Regarding its operational sites, in partnership with third-party experts and in alignment with the UNGPs, Bridgestone is significantly expanding and accelerating these efforts to ensure it is meeting and exceeding societal expectations, and continually strengthening its overall due diligence process. The process ensures engagement with internal and external stakeholders and that third-party experts are consulted throughout the following process.

* Sites that could be exposed to higher human rights risks due to geographic, political, social, industrial, and operational factors.

In 2021, as a first step in the enhanced and expanded human rights due diligence cycle, Bridgestone partnered with two third-party organizations, Verisk Maplecroft and Business for Social Responsibility™ (BSR), to evaluate global operational risk exposure and identify salient human rights risks throughout its global operations.

Based on the evaluations, Bridgestone has identified its salient human rights issues: working hours, nondiscrimination and equal opportunity, workplace harassment, forced labor, child labor, and occupational health and safety. These are the human rights domains Bridgestone believes, based on a combination of geographical, regulatory, industrial, and operational factors, require the highest priority throughout its operations and are the primary focus of the human rights due diligence process at Bridgestone's operational sites.

The evaluations carried out with Verisk Maplecroft and BSR are described in detail below.

Identification of human rights risk exposure through a holistic, risk-scoping project with third-party risk analytics provider Verisk Maplecroft

A desktop assessment of the human rights risk exposure across a subset of Bridgestone’s own operational sites was conducted by Verisk Maplecroft. The list of risk indices assessed included: child labor, decent wages, decent working time, discrimination in the workplace, freedom of association and collective bargaining, indigenous peoples’ rights, migrant workers, modern slavery, occupational health and safety, and right to privacy. Additionally, geographic, political, social, industrial, and operational factors were considered in identifying the operational sites that could be exposed to higher human rights risks. This assessment was carried out to prioritize Bridgestone’s due diligence activities based on independently validated risk exposure at its locations around the world.

Evaluation of its human right risks and management system through a risk assessment conducted by third-party BSR, a leading global organization on sustainability

Internal document reviews and interviews with internal stakeholders were conducted by BSR to evaluate Bridgestone’s global human rights risk management system. The methodology of this assessment was aligned with the UNGPs and entailed:

1. Desktop review of internal documents and external sources to clarify potential impacts of operations; human rights context in relevant geographies; relevant industry standards; and key rightsholders and stakeholders
2. Interviews with relevant company staff across functions and a systematic review against the list of human rights risks based on international standards
3. Assessment of severity and likelihood of impacts
4. Overall assessment of the management system

Based on the 2021 evaluation results, Bridgestone prioritized locations and developed data-driven plans for human rights risk assessments at its operational sites. In 2022, Bridgestone conducted two types of human rights risk assessments in cooperation with BSR. The first type of assessment was a deep-dive online investigation into salient issues at priority locations based on the outcomes of the 2021 evaluation. Three in-depth assessments at representative sites across the Group’s geographic footprint were conducted to identify the existence of any actual and potential risks, examine the current risk management system, and clarify gaps between the current management system and international standards laid out in the UNGPs. The three representative sites were 1) a diversified products plant in Saitama, Japan, 2) a tire plant in Indore, India, and 3) a natural rubber farm in Harbel, Liberia. These assessments covered holistic human rights domains from diversified perspectives such as gender, religion, and culture. In order to take into account the potential vulnerable populations among rightsholders in the assessments, the interviews were conducted with a diverse representation of employees including but not limited to female employees, employees belonging to known religious minority groups, and migrant employees.

The second type of assessment was a Human Rights Risk Assessment Survey (HRRAS). This survey was utilized to enable Bridgestone to very broadly assess potential risks and management processes throughout the Group’s operations for two highly impactful human rights risk domains: child labor and forced labor. The assessment covered 100% of Bridgestone’s operations around the world. The HRRAS was composed of two different surveys: 1) a survey to identify human rights risk, and 2) a survey to evaluate the human rights risk management system against international human rights standards, with the specific focus on child labor and forced labor.

While the 2022 assessments did not identify any apparent human rights violations, opportunities for further improvement to enhance risk management and its processes were identified. Bridgestone also identified the need to support employees on the ground to raise their awareness for embedding Bridgestone’s human rights commitment in their daily operations.

With the aim of reinforcing human rights management and its processes, Bridgestone developed an Implementation Guideline for the Global Human Rights Policy. The Guideline helps to ensure its Global Human Rights Policy commitments, stance, and standards, including specific and actionable steps that Bridgestone’s operations can implement in day-to-day activities to achieve its goals. Version 1.0 of the Guideline, which focuses on preventing child labor and forced labor, was developed and distributed covering 100% of Group operations in April 2023.

As a global initiative, Bridgestone also conducted multiple types of training for different target employees including 1) human rights training sessions hosted by BSR for human resources management teams from all regional headquarters, 2) orientation for implementing Guideline Ver. 1.0 for human resources teams on the ground, and 3) Global Human Rights Policy training for general employees. These opportunities led to the development and reinforcement of company rules and regulations to prevent child labor and forced labor in compliance with Guideline Ver. 1.0, based on engagement with human resources and labor practice teams at Group operational sites.

In 2023, Bridgestone conducted two types of human rights risk assessments throughout its own operations in cooperation with third-party experts. In 2024, Bridgestone implemented measures to address the improvement opportunities identified in the 2023 assessments.

Deep-dive human rights issue- and site-specific assessments
Based on the holistic risk analysis, including discussions among internal and third-party experts, previous assessment results, and human rights risk data provided by Verisk Maplecroft, Bridgestone chose the following three locations for assessment in 2023: a natural rubber farm in Liberia, a tire plant in Indonesia, and the headquarters and its facilities in Japan.