Toyota publishes its annual North American Environmental Report

Toyota recently published the 2018 North American Environmental Report, providing an overview of the automaker's strategy and performance focusing on four environmental areas: water, biodiversity, carbon and materials. 

The report also includes their outreach activities associated with these key four areas, which are aligned with the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050. That set six challenges to realize sustainable development and reach the goals by the year 2050.

Following are the highlights of the 2018 North American Environmental Report:

Materials – Reduction without compromising quality

The team in Toyota’s Princeton, Indiana plant worked together and found out that a Sienna required 0.16 fewer pounds of PVC spray; that’s a significant reduction as 150,000 Sienna minivans are assembled annually.

“We’re saving 24,000 pounds of material per year just on Sienna,” Terry Thewes, manager in TMMI Paint Engineering, said. “That’s a big win for this team.”

Water - Raising water conservation awareness

In 2012, Toyota together with the Wyland Foundation began a yearly National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation. Since then, the challenge addressing the increasing demand for raising conservation awareness has generated over 1.6 million pledges and encouraged the conservation of 12.3 billion gallons of water countrywide. 

This year “residents from 4,800 cities pledged 618,000 specific actions over the next year to change the way they use water in their homes, yards, and communities. By sticking to their commitments, the collective efforts of these residents would reduce national water waste by 3 billion gallons,” the report says.

Biodiversity – One with nature

Toyota also raises awareness of how human activities affect the environment. To educate the community and show how they value nature, they have preserved the Wetland Trail in their Woodstock plant in Ontario which meanders to the north of the assembly plant through 200 acres of woods and wetlands. The Wetland trail is a gift to the community celebrating the 30th year of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

Carbon – Reducing the carbon print

TMNA is constructing the world’s first megawatt-scale molten carbonate power generation, hydrogen fuel, and pure water-producing system. By 2020, Tri-Gen will generate roughly 2.35 megawatts of electricity and 1.2 tons of hydrogen daily, sufficient to power the equivalent of approximately 2,350 average-sized homes and meet the daily driving needs of almost 1,500 vehicles.

See the full 2018 North American Environmental report here.