Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that its U.S. subsidiary SAS Rubber Company, in the state of Ohio, secured ISO 14001 certification in December 2007. ISO 14001 is an international standard for environmental management systems. SAS Rubber Company produces primarily air conditioning and power steering hoses for automobiles, as well as window gaskets for railway carriages and heavy-duty buses. Sales in 2006 were $15 million. There were 104 employees as of December 2007.

In April 2006, Yokohama Rubber released its New Management Plan: Grand Design 100 (GD100), including a policy of asserting world-class strengths in technologies for protecting the environment. As part of such efforts, all group companies have been working on acquiring ISO 14001 certification, and all eleven domestic production bases and the head office have already done so. Of the 13 overseas locations, nine, including SAS Rubber Company, have also been certified. The remainder are working to complete the process at the earliest possible time.