Archive for January, 2009
How to use less water, and influence people!
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 30, 2009 in Green Technologies
Last week I was in the United Kingdom, at meetings with my colleagues from the operations there, including some from TMUK, our UK manufacturing operation. During lunch we were talking about the various activities that they have been busy with as part of their Sustainable Plant institutive.
One of the ones I found most interesting was to do with the reduction in water use at the plant. Over the past few years they have done a number of different things to use less, and re-use more. What impressed me is the way of thinking, it’s not just aiming for big wins, but consistently and continuously looking for every possible improvement. That’s the real kaizen mind, that is at its best in the plant.
There are some ‘big’ activities, one of which is the reverse osmosis plant, which takes the wastewater from the painting process and cleans it up to allow it to be used as feed water for steam boilers and cooling for compressors. This in itself represents a saving of 50000 tonnes per year!
As a result TMUK has reduced water consumption by 72% compared with 1993 levels.
Perhaps the icing on the cake is that this activity has been recognised by the community, with TMUK receiving a Big Tick Eco-efficiency Award from the NGO Business In The Community in 2007 and 2008.
Please have a look at our TV commercial if you are interested in seeing many of the Sustainable Plant activities in one 60 second spot.
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Comments(0)Moving on with Hybrids
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 22, 2009 in 360° approach, Eco-driving tips, Green Technologies
I have to confess I am now jealous of my colleagues in North America, at TMS, who have already had the opportunity to “show-off” the new Prius at NAIAS in Detroit. I’ve followed the buzz with great interest, and I should add, quite some pride.
I’ve spent a lot of hours talking to people about hybrids, at conferences, press launches and many times during dinner or at parties with friends.
I’ve always been enthusiastic about hybrid technology, it’s one of those wonderful feats of science, where the holistic result is more than the sum of the parts, even somehow seeming to defeat logic.
This is where the new Prius shines too. The engine is now bigger than the current Prius, 1.8l vs 1.5l, but this results in enhanced efficiency! This links back to what I said in my last blog about eco-driving, that you should keep the revs as low as possible, for better fuel efficiency. With the 1.8l engine, when driving at higher speeds, the Prius does this bit for you, and engine turns at fewer rpm, hence the result.
But, in the end, the thing that really makes me happy about Prius, is that it makes the owners happy. Some people accuse Prius owners of being ‘smug’, well, wouldn’t you have the right to be if you had the car which won the J.D. Power and Associates award after emerging as the highest scoring individual model in the 2008 Customer Satisfaction Index Study in both the UK and France. I’m also struck by how Prius owners feel like they’re part of something special. They have even set up quite active online communities and forums such as Priuspoint and Priuschat.
Whether you’re a Prius driver or not, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on our hybrids – or anybody else’s.
Greener driving
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 19, 2009 in 360° approach, Eco-driving tips, Green Technologies
Day-by-day, we are all made aware of the environmental impact of our daily life and more and more of us change our routines for the better. Things like recycling bins and low voltage lightbulbs are part of my family’s daily life, .and I’ve even got used to taking my bags and boxes with me when I go to the shops.
We could all be more environmentally aware on the road too. At Toyota we know the best way to encourage ‘greener’ driving or as we like to call it Eco-driving is to work closely with drivers. Through the Toyota fund for Europe, we’ve commissioned specially developed simulators so new techniques can be tried and tested. On the simluator’s we’ve set a challenge to drive as far as you can on 0.1 litres of petrol. At the recent IUCN World Conservation in Barcelona, the champion was 12 year old McKenzy Haber, who is already a great advocate for eco-driving.
Next time you’re behind the wheel, why not try these simple Eco-driving hints?
Starting
• Travel as light as you can, extra weight means you use more energy
(10% for a ski box, up to 30% for a cycle rack)
• Don’t use your car for short journeys
• Plan your route
Checking/Maintaining
• Have your car serviced regularly
• Check your tyre pressures at least every month
Driving
• Change up to a higher gear early: it means lower engine speed and lower fuel consumption
• Only use the air conditioning, rear screen heater etc. when you really need it
• Drive at a constant speed
• If possible, switch off your engine if you’re in a traffic jam or whenever you have to wait longer than 30 seconds
• Keep your windows closed and use the ventilation system
• Use cruise control or a display showing your current consumption and save up to 10%
Any other suggestions?
Towards the ultimate eco-car
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 16, 2009 in Eco-driving tips
Every day I’m reminded how leaps in technology have become an accepted part of everyday life. With a lightweight laptop and a wireless connection I can take my whole office just about anywhere, I can fit my entire music collection into my shirt pocket, well, I could if it wasn’t already full of my Blackberry, which takes e-mail to places you never knew you needed it.. It wasn’t so long ago that things like these were just the stuff of Doctor Who!
When it comes to cars, according to sci-fi, we should, by now, probably be getting ready for flying cars. Even though we won’t be doing that today, it shouldn’t be said that there hasn’t been innovation in our industry. There have been huge changes in things like safety and in-car entertainment, but also critically in the vehicle’s powertrain.
It’s the improvements in powertrain technology that let us make more efficient use of the energy source we use. There is no single engine technology or fuel that can deliver the whole solution to efficiency or emissions challenge. Consequently hera at Toyota we are simultaneously exploring further development with a whole range of cleaner and greener innovations: clean diesel, biofuels, PHV, hydrogen fuel-cells, all with hybrid as a common thread to the future, and all leading up towards the ultimate eco-car.
In fact, we even aspire to go further – as said our President Katsuaki Watanabe - “by producing a car that makes the air cleaner the more it is driven and improves people’s health the more they ride it”.
It’s a big ambition, but as we see how fast technology is advancing on so many fronts, we believe we do have a chance!
So here’s a question to get you thinking: What should the new car in year 2020 be able to do?
Welcome to our new blog!
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 12, 2009 in 360° approach
Dear Reader,
Welcome to our new blog. My name is Colin Hensley and I am responsible for Corporate Affairs and Planning at Toyota Motor Europe. I’ll be posting here regularly from now. I’ve been a great believer in the internet for a long time, and I am very excited that we’ll finally be able to share our thoughts with you here and keep you up to date with what’s happening at Toyota in Europe. I’m especially keen to share with you our environmental initiatives, and our commitment to local society.
It will take a bit of time to get this ‘right’, but please bear with me. Based on your feedback I’ll try to apply kaizen (or continuous improvement) and write about the things you would like to know about.
In time, I plan to invite other colleagues to become involved, so that this will be a real team effort on our part, giving you some things to think about, some to talk about and some, well, some that I hope will inspire you.
So, here’s my first post, after reading it please take a minute and let me know what you think.
Best regards,
Colin
