Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.'s environmental efforts have been rewarded. Or should we say, "awarded."
The company's "BluEarth" eco tire concept and its new studless tire for trucks and buses, the Zen 903ZW, each received a 2011 Good Design Award recently.
BluEarth is Yokohama's concept for new eco tires with "good environmental performance combined with the universal design of being environmentally, human and socially friendly," according to the company. Yokohama develops its replacement and original equipment tires based on this concept.
The Zen 903ZW embodies the three themes of environmental performance common to all tires in the Zen series:
1. promotion of recycling via retreading through improved casings (basic structure and circulation and regeneration of natural resources);
2. long life through improved wear resistance (resource conservation); and
3. fuel efficiency through reduced rolling resistance (resource conservation plus preventing the worsening of global warming).
Beginning with the Ecology Design Prize awarded to the Eco Tire DNA series in 2002, Yokohama Rubber has received the Good Design Award for its premium comfort tire, the Advan dB (2009) and for the BluEarth AE-01, the first tire incorporating the BluEarth concept (2010).
There were 3,162 Good Design Award entries to the Japan Institute of Design Promotion this year. The award-winning products are entitled to bear the "G Mark" as a symbol of excellent design.
