FEATURE
Toyota’s Innovative Dealer Environmental Excellence Program
D.E.E.P. is a voluntary, easy-to-implement program designed to help dealerships reduce energy, water, waste, carbon emissions and operational costs. It provides technical assistance to Toyota and Lexus dealerships to measurably improve environmental performance and recognizes dealers that demonstrate significant reductions in energy and water use while engaging with their local communities.
The program began as a pilot in 2021 with 12 U.S. Toyota dealerships and launched nationwide for all Toyota and Lexus dealerships in 2023.
In April 2024, D.E.E.P. became the first dealership program to be recognized with a Department of Energy (DOE) Better Practice Award. DOE’s Better Project and Better Practice awards recognize partners for their innovative and industry-leading accomplishments implementing decarbonization, energy and water efficiency, or waste reduction initiatives.
There are now 75 Toyota and Lexus dealers participating in D.E.E.P. across the U.S., and we aim to have over 100 dealers participating by mid-2026. Toyota is actively inviting more North American dealerships to enter the program to help us deliver on our commitment to improve the environmental impacts of our dealer sales operations and drive positive impacts for society.
Participating Toyota and Lexus D.E.E.P. dealerships across the U.S.
Nationwide participation is growing with 70 Toyota and 5 Lexus dealerships currently enrolled in D.E.E.P.1 Cumulatively,2 these dealerships have:
- Saved 12,057 MWh of energy, which is equivalent to the annual energy use of 1,150 homes.3
- Avoided 8,815 metric tons of CO2e.
- Saved 122.2 million gallons of water.
In April 2022, Hansel Toyota in Petaluma, California, was the first dealership to be recognized by D.E.E.P. with a Bronze level award.
Santa Margarita Toyota in California was recognized by D.E.E.P. with a Bronze level award in April 2023.
Swope Toyota in Kentucky received a Bronze D.E.E.P. award in April 2024, becoming the fourth dealership to be recognized by the program.
Ventura Toyota in Ventura, California, was among the first ever group of dealerships to get certified under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR program.
1 As of March 2024
2 Cumulative data points are from April 2021 (when D.E.E.P. launched) to March 2024.
3 https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
