Toyota has released its 2019 North American Environmental Report, showing some of the progress it has made in its effort to achieve the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, which involves eliminating all manufacturing-based CO2 emissions and cutting vehicle CO2 emissions by 90 percent compared to its 2010 levels.
“Our actions today are setting a foundation for the future. Achieving Challenge 2050 will not be easy, but with the help of team members, suppliers and other partners, we are already reducing our impacts and creating positive change,” said Toyota Motor North America Director of Environmental Sustainability, Kevin Butt.
The Toyota 2019 Environmental Report is split into six main goals. Three are focused on reducing CO2 emissions that cause climate change, one on improving materials flow, one on conserving water, and one on protecting diversity.
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In 2019, Toyota’s North American manufacturing plants reused or recycled 565 million gallons of water, equivalent to the annual water use of over 5,000 average American families. The company also developed a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement program with MIT to help it reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 percent over the next three years.
Furthermore, Toyota developed a new cleaning process at its Cambridge, Ontario plant that saves 11,300 gallons of solvents and halves material waste, and even set up 17 pollinator garden sites across North American to support monarch butterflies as they migrate.
A final notable highlight is that Toyota managed to recycle, reuse or compost an impressive 93 percent of waste at all of its North American facilities, in addition to launching the first phase of a Zero-and-Near-Zero Emission Freight Facilities Project in California that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 500 tons.
Meeting its 2050 goals is certainly not going to be easy for Toyota, and arguably 2050 is too late a target given the irreversible damage we have already done to our planet’s climate. Still, Toyota is no doubt one of the automakers taking climate change the most seriously.
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Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.