Photo: Toyota Canada
Toyota has opened a new eco-friendly distribution center in Clarington, Ontario, that will help provide parts to customers across Eastern Canada. Spanning 350,000 square feet on a 30-acre parcel of land in Bowmanville, the distribution center boasts an impressive level of eco-friendly sustainability and accessibility, with a special focus on employee safety and wellness.
Future Sustainability: What Toyota has in store for 2021
Environmental sustainability
Photo: Toyota Canada
Earlier this month, Toyota released its 2020 North American Environmental Report that shows how it is progressing toward its global 2050 Environmental Challenge. The new distribution center was built with this in mind and features all sorts of cool tech to enhance sustainability. For example, it uses geothermal heating and dynamic self-dimming glass to reduce cooling needs. Additionally, water from the roof is collected into a 6,600-gallon cistern to supply toilets and urinals. Toyota estimates it will save more than 86,000 gallons of water per year and that the center is “one of the most environmentally sustainable buildings of its kind in Canada.”
Inclusive accessibility
Photo: Toyota Canada
For years, “mobility for all” has been Toyota’s core global message. At the new distribution center, it has been taking that slogan seriously with extra-wide hallways, bathroom stalls, and parking spaces; motion-controlled lighting and push-button doors; desks and podiums you can adjust telescopically; and specially designed stairwells and elevators that anyone can use, including visually impaired individuals. Thanks to these efforts, the center received “Gold” level accessibility certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation.
Photo: Toyota Canada
About 150 employees work at Toyota’s new distribution center in Ontario. The automaker has gone at length to ensure their wellness, health, and safety. The facility features a rooftop garden and park area, a fully equipped gym, a wellness room, and, for truck drivers, a private lounge with shower facilities. Massive air turnover units help maintain air quality and temperature while strategically placed barriers and key organization guidelines ensure employees are not put at a risk of injury when handling items or equipment.
Winter Wellness: Keep warm in your car with these accessories
The new eco-friendly distribution center’s primary role is to help better serve Toyota’s parts customers in Eastern Canada. But from the sound of it, it also provides about 150 people a nice place to work.
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.
