While playing a leading role in the global tyre manufacturing industry, Bridgestone displays a palpable commitment to operating in harmony with nature and working towards a more sustainable future for the planet. The tyre technology maestros behind Bridgestone South Africa’s local operations have been working alongside Greenpop for some time now and have gradually grown into one of our most proactive partners. 

Setting the Example

Bridgestone was founded in Japan in 1931 and is a multinational tyre manufacturing company. The group specialises in all things tyre technology, ensuring that cars, trucks, buses, construction vehicles, motorcycles and even aircraft are equipped with sufficient traction and durability to navigate any tricky terrain that they may encounter. Bridgestone’s South African division has been setting the bar high since 1981, leading the automotive industry when it comes to quality tyre production and serving as the parent company to beloved household names such as Supa Quick. 

Since 2007, Bridgestone has set forth numerous sustainability initiatives and environmental conservation goals in an attempt to rectify the toll that the production of rubber-heavy products has taken on our natural world. While the use of natural rubber for tyre production is considered an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic rubber, the harvesting of natural rubber does not come without consequences and when overharvested can lead to a variety of harmful environmental implications. 

Rubbed the Wrong Way

With 70% of natural rubber being harvested for the sake of tyre production, tyre manufacturing is responsible for the majority of the excessive deforestation, biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change that occurs as a result of the harvesting process (find out more here). During the production process, pollutive chemicals are used in abundance to achieve the desired final product, resulting in the release of harmful toxins into the environment upon wear and tear. An astronomical figure of 2.5 billion tyres are produced annually, and as the automotive industry expands at a steady rate this figure is only expected to increase throughout the course of the coming years (read more here). 

The sheer scale and prosperity of tyre manufacturing, and the automotive industry as a whole, can be accounted for by the considerable level of dependency we have developed on modern transportation as a society. Our lives would simply not be the same without the convenience and efficiency of being able to hop in the car, ride the bus, or book a flight, and get to our destination in almost no time. With tyres being so inherently essential to our current lifestyles yet so closely tied to environmental degradation and poor production practices, it warms our hearts to see the second largest tyre manufacturing conglomerate in the world prioritising sustainability and stepping in the right direction. 

Bridging the Gap

Greenpop welcomed Supa Quick to the Treevolution in 2021, and our partnership was kicked off with a generous initial donation of 1000 trees! This was followed up by Supa Quick’s ongoing Tree O’clock Initiative. The pledge entails that one tree is planted with Greenpop for every single hour that Supa Quick is open for business. In 2022 and 2023 Supa Quick contributed 2609 trees each year, amounting to a total of 5218 trees from the Tree O’clock initiative alone, which have since gone on to be planted in our reforestation sites across Southern Africa. 

Our partnership, however, goes deeper than the massive tree total which has accumulated to a grand figure of 6218 as of July 2024, with our mechanic-savvy friends helping us get where we need to be in more ways than one. Coming to our aid in times of need, Supa Quick have graciously provided the Greenpop fieldwork team with some very necessary roadside assistance and fresh tyres when things have gone awry in between commuting to our widespread project sites. Truly going the extra mile, we couldn’t be happier to be partnered with such a kind-hearted and selfless team.

Hope on the Horizon

Supa Quick’s awareness of their industry’s impact on the environment and their dedication to compensating for their own carbon footprint is something that we truly admire, a remarkably rare initiative to bear witness to in a corporate ecosystem suffering from abundant greenwashing. It takes the gumption, intact ethical standards and effective implementation of one such organisation to set the record straight, and we believe that Supa Quick is leading by example. 

Particular industries and production methods are characterised by more negative and severe environmental impacts than others. We are still far from a world that we can call sincerely carbon neutral, however, we can all take a page out of Supa Quick’s book and do what is in our capacity to compensate, conserve and sustain. Even when it comes to picking out a new tyre after suffering a puncture on that dirt road which, in hindsight, might have been a bit too much for the family hatchback to handle, we can still remain conscious of our consumption and use the influence of our choice to support those whose hearts lie where ours do. 

A Massive Thank you

We would like to extend a massive thank you to Bridgestone and Supa Quick for their ongoing support of the Treevolution and for helping us make the world a greener place, one tree at a time! We are so grateful to have such wonderful partners by our side whose values we so deeply resonate with, and we couldn’t be more excited to plant more trees with them in the future.