At Toyota, Every Day is an Environment Day

Toyota Kirloskar Motor observes World Environment Month to promote eco-consciousness amongst stakeholders. TKM urges its employees to take eco pledge to contribute effectively towards eco conservation

India CSR News Network

BANGALORE: At Toyota, every day is an Environment Day and the little things add up, especially when almost 350,000 employees globally take proactive steps to protect our precious planet Earth. Till date, Toyota has partnered with local communities to plant over 11 million trees globally.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor reaffirms its commitment towards a greener tomorrow by launching a month long celebrations marking World Environment Day celebrated on June 5, 2017. Toyota’s manufacturing plant at Bidadi has organized a variety of activities and workshops aligned with this year’s theme of ‘Live in Harmony with Nature’.

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Specially designed to instill environmental consciousness and conservation practices amongst all stakeholders, the occasion will involve various competitions, seminars and awareness drives like ‘Hand Wash Challenge’, Zero CO2 Thinking’, Swachcha TKM, knowledge seminar on ‘Recent Trends in Environment and Conservation’, ‘Hasiru Santhe’, an exhibition to promote eco-friendly lifestyle among other activities.

Speaking on the occasion, Raju B Ketkale, Senior Vice President – Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “The recent report of World Economic Forum states that the Top 5 business risks are related to environment. This must be the wake-up call for the companies who do not prioritize environment as a board level agenda. WED (World Environment Day) is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment towards conserving our mother earth.

Environment month at TKM is a collaborated effort by our entire supply chain to create big change for the conservation of environment and biodiversity. We must ‘connect with nature’ by involving our children and family in small activities that can inculcate eco-consciousness among them, he added.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has always given utmost priority to environment management and is constantly committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all stages of vehicle life cycle, including development, design, production, logistics and sales as well as in all business areas. As part of the celebrations, Toyota has also urged its employees to take up a challenge to make an Eco-pledge & practice for six months, motivating them to be the fruitful contributors to bring a positive change in the environment.

The month-long celebration will also be highlighted by ‘Plantathon’ – a large-scale & sustainable plantation project which Toyota will undertake in the local community in partnership with Karnataka Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). This initiative will flag off the ‘Toyota Green Wave Project’, calling out to all of TKM employees to promote eco-consciousness. Community awareness campaigns and skit competitions on ‘Save wildlife’ theme will be organized at the event, that will see participation from 30 government schools of Ramanagara district in Karnataka, where Toyota’s Bidadi plant is located.

A social media contest is conducted by Toyota’s regional headquarter in Thailand, for all Toyota employees to post a picture and share their thoughts and ideas on ‘Biodiversity Conservation’.

Furthermore, unique initiatives to raise awareness were organized at the supplier base, dealership outlets as well as the logistics departments, thereby involving the entire value chain and inspiring all the company’s stakeholders to be agents of change. Activities will include eco-photography competitions, sapling distribution and afforestation activities, clean up drives in biodiversity reserve and wildlife sanctuaries with the theme: “Bring back Birds’, include Eco Drive training to drivers, drawing and quiz competitions will be organized as part of the Environment month celebrations.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has undertaken several unique environment friendly initiatives to preserve the Mother Nature. Last year the company organized a reforestation drive at the Bannerghatta National Park. They had also initiated a large scale afforestation drive in the year 2009 by planting 36000 saplings in a single day involving all its stakeholders to develop a greenbelt within its boundaries and presently houses a native forest with 2,65,000 saplings. The plant at Bidadi has been designed in line with the Eco factory concept at Toyota.

Many eco-initiatives is being implemented in the manufacturing operations like water based painting to reduce VOC emissions, low CO2 footprint technologies like servo machines, vermi-composting for waste minimization, biogas plant to reduce LPG usage and rain water harvesting to reduce fresh water consumption.  The water recycling & rainwater harvesting efforts at TKM manufacturing unit ensure least dependence on Freshwater/River water ensuring sustainable community.

The rain water harvesting structure with a storage capacity of 25000 m3 was constructed, which has helped in saving consumption of 60000 m3 of freshwater last year.  Moreover, through consistent efforts TKM has achieved a reduction of 8000 tons of CO2 compared to last year.

Toyota has decided to challenge itself to reduce vehicle CO₂ emissions to ZERO in comparison with 2010 levels, by 2050. From fuel efficient vehicle to developing ground breaking technology, TKM focuses on environmentally sustainable solutions in every business operation and every vehicle that is manufactured.

As makers of eco-cars that lead the way for a better tomorrow, Toyota has been a front runner by introducing the Camry Hybrid in 2013. Toyota’s strong hybrid technology not only aims at creating harmony between man, nature and machine but also positioned as the future of eco-mobility world over.

The Camry Hybrid is the strong hybrid and the only hybrid which is locally manufactured at Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s second plant located in Bidadi, near Bangalore in Karnataka contributing effectively to the environment through high fuel efficiency & low emissions. Toyota has sold over 10 million hybrids globally. The sale of the 10-millionth hybrid demonstrates the staying power of technology that is a mainstream solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. The company currently sells 33 hybrid models in more than 90 global markets.