Toyota Environmental Record

Environmental Record
The Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) implemented its Fourth Environmental Action Plan in 2005. The plan contains four major themes involving the environment and the corporation’s development, design, production, and sales. The five-year plan is directed at the, “arrival of a revitalized recycling-based society.” Toyota had previously released its Eco-Vehicle Assessment System (Eco-VAS) which is a systematic life cycle assessment of the effect a vehicle will have on the environment including production, usage, and disposal. The assessment includes, “… fuel efficiency, emissions and noise during vehicle use, the disposal recovery rate, the reduction of substances of environmental concern, and CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle of the vehicle from production to disposal.” 2008 marks the ninth year for Toyota’s Environmental Activities Grant Program which has been implemented every year since 2000. Themes of the 2008 program consist of “Global Warming Countermeasures” and “Biodiversity Conservation.”

Since October 2006, Toyota’s new Japanese-market vehicle models with automatic transmissions are equipped with an Eco Drive Indicator. The system takes into consideration rate of acceleration, engine and transmission efficiency, and speed. When the vehicle is operated in a fuel-efficient manner, the Eco Drive Indicator on the instrument panel lights up. Individual results vary depending on traffic issues, starting and stopping the vehicle, and total distance traveled, but the Eco Drive Indicator may improve fuel efficiency by as much as 4%. Along with Toyota’s eco-friendly objectives on production and use, the company plans to donate $1 million and five vehicles to the Everglades National Park. The money will be used to fund environmental programs at the park. This donation is part of a program which provides $5 million and 23 vehicles for five national parks and the National Parks Foundation.

Despite its many environmental advances, corporate watchdog Corporate Accountability International (CAI) selected the Toyota Motor Corporation as one of its nominees (along with Archer Daniels Midland, Countrywide, Mattel, Nestle, Blackwater, Wal-Mart, and Wendy?s) for its 2008 ?Corporate Hall of Shame? elections. CAI states that Toyota is contributing to inaction on global warming. The watchdog group claims that “the company has hypocritically crafted an image as a corporate ally in the fight against climate change while working behind the scenes to stop greenhouse gas mandates from becoming law.” The group points out that Toyota, has opposed ?clean cars? legislation in many U.S. states, and is employing “aggressive lobbying efforts” to prevent legislation to limit gas-guzzling vehicles by 2020.

According to CAI, despite the green image surrounding the Prius, the company’s hybrid sales are only part of its story. Toyota also produces the 14-mile-per-gallon (mpg) Tundra pickup truck and other ?gas guzzlers? which lower the company?s fleet-wide fuel efficiency to “levels below what they were several decades ago.”

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