GOING GREEN Bridgestone goes eco-friendly with its tyres

By Derryn Wong

BRIDGESTONE IS THE latest participant of Formula One to jump on the green bandwagon.

The FIA, Formula One’s ruling body, has already mandated kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) for 2009, although whether the troublesome systems will debut in the first race at Melbourne is yet to be seen.

While the most infamous green campaign (Honda’s rather eye-catching ‘Earth cars’) is remembered less for its message and more for its appearance, Bridgestone’s approach is a little more low-key and widespread.

As seen in the Japanese Grand Prix last year, cars were marked with green lines on their soft option tyres instead of the usual white, as part of Bridgestone’s campaign, Make Cars Green.

This year, Bridgestone will supply ‘Make Cars Green Tyres’ (as they term it) to all teams for every race in the 2009 season in an effort to “popularize the circles of greener motoring internationally” and educate the public further about the campaign which reflects the numerous environment management initiatives by Bridgestone.

Green lines will now demarcate the soft option tyres on the tyre wall, while the softer of the rain tyre options (extreme wet) will have a green line in the middle.

For more information and tips on how to make your car greener, check out www.bridgestone.co.jp/english.eco/project/makecarsgreen which includes tips on how to be an environmentally-friendly motorist.