Hideyuki Takeda, Managing Director of Thai Bridgestone said: “We want people to have better health and a quality of life and one way to do this is to encourage people to do more physical activity. We believe that when the local community is strong, the society will also become strong.”
Mr. Takeda added: “We want to provide a better and safer workout space for the community because we believe that we are all influenced by
the environments that we operate in and quality of the environment plays a big role in our physical activity.”
B-Active park is a multipurpose public park located outside Wat Isan, a temple in Buriram. This park was renovated by Bridgestone with support from Buriram municipality, Cockpit Buriram Seree and the local community. What makes B-Active park a better and safer space is that it uses recycled rubber from Bridgestone recycled tires as ground cover. Compared with hard surfaces like concrete or cement, rubber surfaces are softer and safer. It reduces risk of people’s injuries while they are doing their workout or other activities.
“B-Active park is a multipurpose park that was created to meet the needs of the local community. As we don’t yet have the budget for; Bridgestone step in means we can really act upon the demands and satisfy the needs of the people. It provides many benefits, not only as a workout space but also for other activities such as community events and small gathering.” said Yuttachai Pongpanich, Deputy Mayor of Buriram.
Bridgestone has also organized training sessions, led by expert in sports science from the College of Sports Science and Technology Mahidol University, to provide better knowledge to the community about how to exercise correctly and safely. Furthermore, the program drove awareness and promoted sustainability through community exercises both on the field and online through sharing stories from the B-Active program on various social media platforms to the community.