Cooper Tire Tupelo Plant Wins 2015 enHance Partnership Award from Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality

May 13, 2015 | By Business Wire News

FINDLAY, Ohio

The Cooper Tire plant in Tupelo has earned the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s (MDEQ) enHance Partnership Award for 2015. The enHance program is a voluntary stewardship initiative that recognizes facilities and municipalities for putting in place environmental initiatives beyond those that are required. The Cooper Tupelo plant has been a member of the program since 2011, and earned the 2015 enHance Partnership Award for contributing most significantly to furthering the objectives of enHance and supporting the program.

Cooper’s Tupelo plant has achieved significant ongoing environmental improvements including reducing the amount of waste going to landfills by 34 percent and reducing energy use by 5 percent from 2012 levels. The facility has also reduced solvent use by 30 percent in the same time period. In addition, Cooper Tupelo has minimized waste through reuse and recycling of materials. Sharing knowledge and experience, the Cooper Tupelo team twice presented workshops at enHance annual training conferences and Cooper’s presentations have been incorporated into enHance Resources for Manufacturing, available on the organization’s website at www.enhance.ms.

“Cooper’s environmental policy commits our plant to using energy and natural resources efficiently, reducing waste, preventing pollution and acting as a good corporate citizen through the use of good environmental practices,” said Cooper Tupelo’s Environmental Coordinator John Swartzendruber. “This has been the practice at the Tupelo facility since we began operations in 1984, so it seemed a natural extension of this commitment to take up MDEQ’s challenge to demonstrate our dedication to environmental excellence by seeking membership in the enHance environmental stewardship initiative. We are pleased to be recognized for our efforts with the 2015 enHance Partnership Award,” he added.

Cooper Tupelo is certified to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001, which sets out the criteria for an environmental management system and maps a framework that companies can follow to demonstrate that their environmental impact is being measured and improved. The Tupelo plant has put in place strong, formal sustainability programs that have produced significant positive results.

Cooper was also the first Mississippi company to carry out an E3–Economy, Energy, and Environment–assessment, with the company’s Clarksdale facility serving as the pilot for the E3 program in the State of Mississippi. E3 is a coordinated federal and local technical assistance framework that helps communities work with their manufacturing base to adapt and thrive in a new business era focused on sustainability. E3 provides manufacturers with customized, hands on assessments of production processes to reduce energy consumption, minimize their carbon footprint, prevent pollution, increase productivity, and drive innovation.

About Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) is the parent company of a global family of companies that specialize in the design, manufacture, marketing and sale of passenger car and light truck tires. Cooper and its subsidiaries also sell medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. Cooper’s headquarters is in Findlay, Ohio, with manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design facilities within its family of companies located in 11 countries around the world. For more information on Cooper, visit www.coopertire.com, www.facebook.com/coopertire or www.twitter.com/coopertire.