TOYOTA'S
GUIDING PRINCIPLES put communities and the environment at the heart of what we
do. We aim for growth that is in harmony with the environment throughout all
areas of our business. We strive to build close and cooperative relationships
with a wide spectrum of individuals and organizations involved in environmental
preservation. Wherever we do business, we actively promote and participate in philanthropic
activities, both individually and with partners, that help strengthen
communities and enrich society.
Cooperating with society
means contributing to sustainable development efforts through environmental
philanthropy and research support, communicating our environmental plans and
activities to our stakeholders, and contributing to a recycling-based society
by supporting recycling efforts both internally and with our business partners. Our targets in these areas are described in this chapter.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS
Our corporate philanthropy focuses our environmental
commitment to the community in two principal areas: environmental education and
environmental stewardship. We partner with nonprofit and community
organizations, schools, universities and other businesses to support programs
that help make our world a better place. (Target 15.1) We believe in supporting programs with
long-term sustainable results. Our contributions take many forms, including
vehicle donations, funding, consulting and volunteer time.
In
Canada
,
more than 25% of our philanthropy in 2007 was focused on environmental
programs. (Target 15.2)
Environmental Education
We aim to provide greater opportunity for students and
teachers at all levels, as well as to further the development of environmental
literacy. A number of our environmental education programs are described here.
Support for the
Donald
Bren
School
of Environmental Science and Management
Toyota is supporting the Donald Bren School of Environmental
Science and Management at the University of California in Santa Barbara with a
$400,000 grant to provide student fellowships and internships, and a
professor-in-residence program, all in the interest of forwarding environmental
research, teaching and education. The gift reflects
Toyota's
commitment to providing the best education and training for the environmental
leaders and teachers of tomorrow, and its desire to apply cutting edge research
performed at leading academic institutions to the environmental issues that
face
Toyota
today. The professor-in-residence component will enable Bren faculty to
accompany secondary teachers on study trips as part of the Toyota International
Teachers Program (described in more detail below).
Toyota
Earth Day Scholarship Program
Toyota and Earth Day Canada
established the Toyota Earth Day Scholarship Program in 2003 to help cultivate
and nurture environmental leadership among students studying in
Canada
.
Each year, the program awards 15 high school students who have distinguished
themselves through environmental community service, extracurricular and
volunteer activities, and academic excellence with scholarships.
In 2008, that National Winner was Keleigh Annau. In addition to the scholarship, she also
received a notebook computer and a donation to her alma mater. One of Keleigh's most notable environmental contributions is
Lights Out, an effort for schools to turn off their lights and spend one day
learning about global warming. In the first year of this program, over 50,000
Canadian students participated. In the second year, the program went
international, with over 90,000 students participating. Her dedication to this
project exemplifies that small changes can add up to make a big difference.
The Lexus Eco Challenge
The Lexus Eco Challenge, a partnership with Scholastic, is a
nationwide program where middle and high school students participate in three
team challenges addressing land, water and climate issues. For each of the
challenges, teams define an environmental issue that is important to them,
develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan and report on
the results for a chance to win $10,000. The winning team
from the initial challenges are invited to participate in the Final
Challenge, where two grand prize-winning teams are awarded $50,000, while the
14 first place teams receive $30,000. In total, more than $1 million in
scholarships and grants will be awarded to students, teachers and schools.
The 2007-2008 grand prize middle school winner was a team
from
New Jersey called the
Climate
Academy.
They took on the challenge of educating
Jersey
City about storm drain pollution and its effects on
ocean health and marine life. The Dream Team from
Hawaii took home the high school grand prize
for generating awareness of clean and renewable energy sources.
National 4-H Council's Exploring Your Environment Program
In April 2008,
Toyota
presented the National 4-H Council with a $1.48 million grant to help 4-H
introduce Exploring Your Environment, a new environmental curriculum
specifically focused on promoting the organization's water conservation
programs. In addition, 4-H will develop and launch 4-H2Online, an interactive
online learning experience that will connect youth to water conservation issues
and environmental engagement.
Finally, the award will expand the 4-H2O water conservation
program nationally through community grants in
California,
Kentucky,
Michigan,
Mississippi and
West Virginia. The community programs,
launched in June 2008, address local water quality, water conservation and
watershed issues. Information gathered during these one-year programs will be
used to develop a local action plan and shared with local elected officials,
schools and industry partners to educate and inform the public.
Toyota
International Teacher Program
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Toyota International
Teacher Program sends
U.S.
secondary teachers abroad each year to study global conservation issues.
Aligned with
Toyota's
Global Earth Charter, the program seeks to inspire environmental stewardship
through one of our best resources - educators. This competitive, merit-based
program is administered by the
Institute
of
International Education in
Washington,
D.C.,
a nonprofit international exchange organization.
The two-week study takes teachers to either
Costa Rica
or the
Galapágos Islands. To date, over 500 teachers
have taken part in this program. Their activities have touched hundreds of
communities and thousands of students across the country through classroom
lessons and service projects. A teacher in
California
who went on a study tour to the Galapágos in 2007 is
planning with his students and school to create a solar-heated minigreenhouse to be placed in the
Inyo
Mountains.
A
New Jersey
teacher who went on the same trip is planning a virtual field trip to the
islands that the entire school community is invited to join.
Toyota has worked in the
Galapágos Islands since 2001
with the World Wildlife Fund on projects ranging from recycling and waste
management to renewable energy workshops for Galapagueño teachers. This past year,
Toyota
worked with the municipality to create an environmental department.
National Park Environmental Education Grants
In 2008,
Toyota announced a
$5 million National Parks grant program (Toyota LEAF) to enhance environmental
leadership and educational programs at
Everglades
National Park,
Great
Smoky Mountains
National Park,
Yellowstone
National
Park,
Yosemite
National Park,
Grand Canyon
National Park
and multiple national parks through the National Park Foundation.
Toyota made its first park announcement at the
Everglades
National Park, and held an event to
highlight its contribution of five vehicles and over $1 million. The
contribution will support educational initiatives in the park over the next
three years such as day program field trips and camping trips for grade school
students, the K-12 Miccosukee Indian School program, in-park teacher workshops
for day and camping programs, in-park special programs for other school groups
and student organizations, and in-school teacher workshops. Similar programs
are being implemented at the other parks.
Environmental Stewardship
We aim to protect, preserve and improve the natural
environment, and to establish systems by which people in the community will
carry this work forward to coming generations. We partner with the following
organizations to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity through funding
and volunteering our time.
Arbor Day Foundation
In March 2008, the Arbor Day Foundation and
Toyota partnered to create
a new Facebook application called Tree Planter. Using
Tree Planter, users gift virtual trees to their friends. For every gift sent to
a friend, the Arbor Day Foundation plants a tree in one of 11 needy forests,
including
Custer
National
Forest,
Hoosier
National Forest and
Huron-Manistee
National
Forests. Many of these forests have suffered
devastating effects from recent forest fires.
The cost of sending a tree to a friend is $1. The Arbor Day
Foundation has a goal of planting one million trees in the first year of the
application.
Toyota
supported the effort by purchasing $50,000 worth of trees, so the first 50,000
users could send one tree to a friend for free.
Evergreen
In 2000,
Toyota
partnered with Evergreen Canada, an organization with a mission to bring both
nature and communities together, to create the Toyota Evergreen Learning
Grounds program. Now in its eighth year, this program is designed to transform
Canadian school grounds into inviting play spaces and natural learning
environments. Through our partnership with Evergreen,
Toyota and its dealerships have contributed
over $5.2 million toward the realization of our shared goals.
In 2007, the program awarded over $265,000 in grants to 132
schools and day care centers. The funds provide access to an online native
plant database and project registry; grants ranging from $500 to $2,000 to
assist in acquiring native plants, heritage vegetables and berries; and expert
assistance through Evergreen and its Learning Ground Associates.
Friends of the Rouge Watershed
For the past eight years
Toyota
has sponsored the Friends of the Rouge Watershed, a community-based
conservation group in
Ontario,
Canada
, which serves to rehabilitate the
environmentally sensitive
Rouge
Valley located within the
Greater Toronto area. Since 2001, Friends of the Rouge Watershed, with assistance
from
Toyota
Canada
,
have planted over 300,000 trees, shrubs and wildflowers on 1.3 million square
meters of
Rouge
Park restoration sites.
National Audubon Society
In March 2008,
Toyota
donated $20 million to the National Audubon Society to fund a new program
called TogetherGreen for five years, enabling Audubon
to expand the scope and reach of its internationally-known conservation
programs. TogetherGreen will include three program
components:
- Innovation Grants to fund dozens of on-the-ground projects
each year that help achieve measurable land, water and/or energy conservation
results;
- Conservation Fellowships to train and foster up to 200
promising environmental leaders who can serve as role models, expert guides and
organizers for engaging new and diverse audiences in effective conservation
action; and
- Volunteer Days to be offered at
Audubon
Centers
and other locations nationwide, providing hands-on opportunities to address
environmental problems and take part in restoration activities.
TogetherGreen will also reach a
diverse array of audiences through www.TogetherGreen.org. This site helps
visitors discover dozens of individual conservation actions to help them
independently "green" their lives. It also provides opportunities to challenge
friends to take conservation actions of their own.
Take Pride in
America
Building on the success of National Public Lands Day,
Toyota partners with Take
Pride in America®, a national organization established by the U.S. Department
of the Interior that aims to engage, support and recognize volunteers who work
to improve public lands. Through this partnership, Toyota supports the Take
Pride in America school campaign called Creating a New Generation of
Volunteers, which offers K-12 teachers a Take Pride School Kit to enhance
service-learning nationwide. In addition,
Toyota
sponsors the Take Pride "VolunTour Across America," a nationwide trip promoting volunteerism on public lands.
National Wildlife Refuge Association
The winner of the National Wildlife Refuge Association's
2008 Refuge Photo Contest is Mack Barham, M.D., for
his photo of egrets taking flight in the morning fog at Black Bayou Lake
National Wildlife Refuge in
Louisiana.
The contest showcases
America
's
national wildlife refuges and the diverse wildlife that depend on them.
Toyota donated the top
prize, a 2009 Highlander Hybrid.
Environmental Research Partnerships
In addition to our philanthropy efforts,
Toyota collaborates on research projects that
promote sustainable development. In particular, we work with academia and other
companies on technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Target
15.3) This research expands beyond
automobiles because the car of the future requires a safe and reliable global
energy system that supports mobility-friendly roads and cities.
One example of such a research partnership is the Global
Climate and Energy Program (GCEP).
Toyota
is a co-sponsor, along with ExxonMobil, General Electric and Schlumberger, in
this $225 million, 10 year project to fund cutting edge clean-energy research.
In its first five years, GCEP has funded 44 projects at 24 institutions around
the world involving 70 Principle Investigators and over 300 graduate and postdoctorate students. In addition to six patent
applications, researchers have published over 200 papers on GCEP-funded
research.
GCEP's mission is to conduct
fundamental research on technologies that will permit the development of global
energy systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. To accomplish
this mission, GCEP activities are separated into two areas, research and
analysis. In the research area, GCEP is building a diverse portfolio of
innovative, step-out technologies that could lead to cleaner, more sustainable
energy systems. In the analysis area, GCEP assesses the potential of processes
and technologies to deliver useful energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Toyota is proud to be part
of the GCEP team and looks forward to continuing this groundbreaking energy
research.
COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS
Toyota
communicates its environmental plans, activities and performance through this
annual environmental report. (Target 16.1) This report is available as an interactive publication on the Web at
www.toyota.com/environment/2008report. The report is distributed to the media,
environmental NGOs and dealerships in the
U.S.
and
Canada
,
in addition to government officials at the federal, provincial and local level.
We also provide information about our hybrid vehicles through hybrid tours and
green living shows (these are discussed in the Energy and Climate Change
chapter).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A RECYCLING-BASED SOCIETY
Participating in the creation of a recycling-based society
is one of the action guidelines in the Toyota Earth Charter. In
North America, we see this participation as a key to
being a good neighbor in the communities where we live and work. We use the
knowledge we have gained from best practices implemented at our own facilities
to teach others how and what to recycle, how to make raw material choices and
how to set up recycling programs in their own organizations. To further
encourage recycling in our society, we expand our lineup of remanufactured
parts, increase the availability of environmentally preferable paper, and
encourage the appropriate disposal of tires.
Remanufactured Parts
Toyota
continues to support customer needs by expanding our lineup of remanufactured
service parts. Remanufactured parts require fewer resources than new parts,
decreasing the overall impact on the environment. The number of remanufactured
parts launched each year may fluctuate, based on which vehicle applications are
still outstanding. In several product lines, we are very close to up-to-date
coverage. In FY2008, we launched 96 remanufactured parts applications. (Target
17.1)
Remanufactured parts are highlighted on the Toyota Wholesale
Parts Web site at www.toyotapartsandservice.com. Part of this Web site is
dedicated to remanufactured products - specifically to ordering, benefits and
features, core return policies, program launches, promotions, technical
information, and available resources.
Environmentally Preferable Paper
Toyota, through its participation
in the Paper Working Group, is expanding the availability of environmentally
preferable paper in our
U.S.
sales and marketing operations. The Paper Working Group is a
collaboration among 11 leading companies and the nonprofit metaFore with the shared goal of making environmentally
preferable paper products more widely available and affordable. The
Environmental Paper Assessment Tool® (EPAT), a project of the Paper Working
Group, allows for the consideration of major environmental impacts over the life
cycle of paper products.
With the help of the EPAT, our
U.S.
sales headquarters campus, which includes sales, marketing and financial services functions,
consolidated paper purchasing into two contracts. Beginning in the fall
of 2007, all fine paper has a minimum postconsumer waste (PCW) content of 10%,
and office paper has a minimum of 30%. (Target 17.2) Certain pieces of Scion collateral are
printed on paper containing 30% PCW. Before this improvement, most of the fine
and office paper purchased at headquarters contained no postconsumer waste.
Dealers and Tires
In the
U.S.
,
Toyota
encourages its dealers to dispose of tires in a safe and environmentally
appropriate way through the Tire Shark® tire disposal program. (Target 17.3)
The program seeks to improve scrap tire collection service,
and promotes the use of only authorized and licensed scrap tire haulers to help
ensure compliance with environmental requirements.
A Tire Shark machine from Oakleaf Waste Management compresses a tire and puts four nails into it so that it
cannot be resold or reused. "Sharked" tires are then recycled and converted to
crumbs for playgrounds and playing fields, as well as tire-derived aggregate
and energy sources. The service was extended to an additional six dealers, with
plans to shift as many dealers as possible to Tire Shark in the coming year.
LOOKING AHEAD
Over the next three years, one of the biggest challenges we
face in meeting our action plan targets is to improve coordination of our
efforts and communication with our stakeholders, so that our contributions to
society are most effective.
