The State of Tennessee awarded Nokian Tyres’ production facility in Dayton, Tennessee, with an environmental award at a ceremony in Nashville. Nokian Tyres earned the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for Excellence in Sustainable Performance, the highest sustainability honor a Tennessee organization can receive, the company said. The Dayton Factory earned recognition for being the first in the tire industry to earn LEED v4 Silver certification, as well as for its solar power, energy efficiency and low waste and emissions.
The Dayton Factory’s production building is the first in the tire industry to earn LEED v4 Silver certification, a validation of its energy efficiency, zero-waste-to-landfill program and low emissions. Its solar-powered administration building is LEED v4 Gold-certified, Nokian said.
A bank of solar panels anchored in the parking lot provides power to the administration building and generates energy for a portion of the production process. The three-megawatt panels can generate approximately 4,000 megawatt-hours of solar energy each year, which would be enough to power more than 500 homes, according to the company.
Employees also enjoy more than two acres of freshly installed greenspace in front of the building. When workers walk to and from work each day, they stroll past trees, plants and a pond – a prime open space to collaborate with colleagues.
Nokian Tyres opened the Dayton Factory in 2019 and is ramping up production there, with full capacity of approximately four million tires per year expected once ramp-up is complete. The factory will decrease delivery lead times to North American customers and allow the company to tailor its product mix to the needs of drivers in the region.
