Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reports its Texarkana, Ark., manufacturing facility has received the 2009 Arkansas Environmental Federation’s Diamond Award for Excellence in Environmental Leadership.
The award recognizes companies demonstrating initiative or leadership in managing their environmental affairs.
Among its many green initiatives, the plant has reduced landfill disposal by 35% during the last two years and saved more than $225,000 in disposal costs and marketing of recyclables.
Facility engineers undertook various waste minimization projects, including the reuse of carbon black dust and recycling of used hydraulic fluid. In addition, they reduced water usage by more than 16% during the last two years, the company reports. Other activities improved scrap generation by 20%, and overall plant energy savings in the last two years alone amounted to more than $1.6 million.
“Earning this award visibly demonstrates the strong commitment Cooper – and in particular, our Texarkana facility – has to maintaining the highest environmental standards,” says Cooper North American Tire Manufacturing Vice President John Bodart. “Our Texarkana plant has long been known for its environmentally friendly initiatives, and it’s gratifying to win outside recognition of those efforts.”
In May, the Texarkana plant had earned International Organization for Standardization 14001 environmental management system certification. The ISO 14001 standard specifies requirements for a facility’s environmental management system, helping to minimize its impact on the environment through standardized processes and continually auditing performance.
This marks the second time Cooper’s Texarkana facility has received an award from the Arkansas Environmental Federation. In 1994, the Texarkana plant was one of four Arkansas facilities to receive overall honors for waste minimization and pollution prevention.
On a related note, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy named Cooper Tire & Rubber Company as the first and only tire manufacturer to earn an Energy Star Partner designation.
