SANTA ANA, Calif. – Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia LLC (YTMV) has received the 2015 Environmental Warrior Award from the Virginia Water Environment Association (VWEA). The award was bestowed upon the Salem, Va., and facility as part of VWEA’s 2015 Industrial Waste and Pretreatment Environmental Excellence Awards Program.
The Environmental Warrior Award, presented for the first time in 2015, recognizes the company that has made the greatest improvement in its environmental compliance program, according to the VWEA. The award was presented to Tetsuro “Tex” Murakami, YTMV president, at a ceremony held in Charlottesville, Va., on March 3.
“It is a great honor for YTMV to be the first recipient of the VWEA’s new Environmental Warrior Award,” said Murakami. “Going forward, all of us at the company will not rest on this laurel but will relentlessly endeavor to protect and improve the local environment in our business and other activities.”
The VWEA is a nonprofit organization established in 1947 to protect the water resources of the State of Virginia. Its members include citizens, environmentalists and state government employees.
YTMV earned the Environmental Warrior Award due to its achievement in complying with industrial water treatment regulations, as well as its environmental conservation efforts over the years. YTMV succeeded in lowering its industrial waste emissions by 45 percent from 2012 to 2014, and as of the end of December 2014, it had lowered the percent of waste sent to landfills to 2.5 percent.
YTMV is targeting a zero-percent landfill ratio in 2015. Also in 2014, YTMV was accepted into the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) with an E4 status, the highest status rating awarded by the program.
Murakami said YTMV will continue its efforts to improve energy efficiency, water resource management, chemical management and environmental awareness among its employees.
