Case studies

Bridgestone’s Joliette plant takes a leadership role in decarbonization

As part of Bridgestone Group’s global environmental objectives, the Bridgestone tire plant in Joliette, Quebec, has implemented a comprehensive decarbonization plan that made it possible to significantly reduce its CO₂ emissions, as well as its operating costs.

Working for better decarbonization

To ensure its success, the Bridgestone’s plant has partnered with Ecosystem—a company specializing in decarbonization and energy projects—and Énergir to support the project partners and ensure the maximum level of financial assistance.

Actions complementing each other

A series of energy optimization measures were implemented under this collaboration, with a primary focus on energy and heat recovery:

• Integration of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment into a centralized control platform to improve efficiency.

• Energy recovery from the energy released into the atmosphere by electrical rooms and through the cooling of administration facilities.

• Heat recovery from the three steam boilers in the manufacturing plant to preheat the air.

• Heat recovery from the water towers cooling system for rubber compounding processes and from the plant’s compressed air cooling system.

• Ventilation optimization based on the air balance report and the plant’s airflow dynamics.

A big step forward 

With these measures, Bridgestone’s plant in Joliette took an important step towards decarbonizing by reducing its annual natural gas consumption by 3,740,400 m³, or 7,060,000 tonnes of GHGs. This contributes directly to the Bridgestone Group’s overall CO₂ reduction targets (-35% by 2030 and -50% by 2050 compared to 2011 levels), in addition to achieving significant savings on energy bills. By rallying stakeholders around an initiative that took individual interests into consideration (financial, operational and environmental), Bridgestone leveraged interdepartmental collaboration at the plant to ensure the project’s success. 

A model for sustainability

Thanks to these efforts, the Joliette plant is now, among all Bridgestone plants on the American continent, the most efficient per unit of production and the one emitting the least amount of CO₂ – and it should keep getting better. “But our efforts to be carbon neutral, protect biodiversity and reduce resource use don’t end there. We’re already studying other projects to further reduce our natural gas consumption and migrate to sustainable energy sources, such as renewable natural gas, hydroelectricity or other new technologies,” said Alexandra Lemay, Director of Environment and OHS at the Bridgestone plant in Joliette.