aim: zero emissions

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Here at Toyota, the environment is very important to us, it really is part of our Toyota DNA. Looking back, we get the sense of this from the Toyota Principles and Earth Charter which were adopted in 1992. We believe that environmental sustainability is the single biggest challenge facing our industry and our society this century. Our reaction to this belief affects not only our products but every aspect of our business and every person in it. In this blog, I will share with you the latest thoughts and ideas that we have, and the actions we are taking that are guided by our beliefs.

Planning to plant plants at the plants: stories from Tsutsumi

Posted by Colin Hensley on November 12, 2009 in sustainability

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There are sometimes stories that we don’t write about, that are actually of great interest to many people. This seems to have been the case with the plants that have been bred by TMC’s Biotechnology & Afforestation Business Division in Japan, and are used, amongst other places at the Prius plant. I have to admit I missed the significance of this when I visited Tsutsumi last June, but there has been a great buzz around the blogs about this.

What they have done is identified plants that have particular characteristics that can improve the environment. This includes absorbing pollutants, like NO2 or SO2 or emitting more water vapour to cool the air. Then through a breeding programme they were able to further improve the level of these characteristics.

Two types of plants that are used extensively around Tsutsumi are Salvias and Gardenias. The Kirsch Pink Salvia can control heat and absorb pollutants, while the Kirsch Red has fast early growth which fixes more CO2. These are used around the factory alongside the Gardenias that have similar properties, and can even grow in the dark!

There is also a special type of slow-growing grass that only needs mowing once a year and is planted on the roof, in between the solar panels, (I’d quite like that for my garden.)

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    [...] The end of 2009 saw some important milestones in the development of our Prius Plug-in Hybrids (PHV). We had the launch in Japan of the next phase of the PHV trials, and the handover of the first car for Europe to Mr Roland Ries, the Mayor of Strasbourg. The handover was organised by Etienne and Maria from the team here, in collaboration with colleagues from TMC. We had always planned to have the handover of the first PHV at the end of 2009, and by coincidence, the famous Christmas Market of Strasbourg had decided to “export” itself to Tokyo. This turned out to be a perfect match, and put the Mayor on location to receive the key for PHV that came literally straight from the plant! Though, knowing it’s from Tsutsumi, I should probably say “plants”. [...]

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