Get the latest delivered to your inbox
Privacy Policy

Now Reading

Highlights of Toyota's Environmental Progress

Highlights of Toyota's Environmental Progress

Published 08-02-04

Submitted by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Our goal is to keep you informed about our worldwide progress on environmental matters. Thank you for your interest in Toyota's efforts to become a greener automaker.

    --Irv Miller, Group Vice President, Corporate
    Communications Department, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
More about Toyota's environmental efforts can be found at www.toyota.com/environment

Prius wins industrial design gold medal and Engine of the Year Award

The Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive powertrain won recognition as International Engine of the Year at the International Engine of the Year Awards 2004 in Stuttgart, Germany. Prius also won Best Engine in its displacement category, Best Fuel Economy, and Best New Engine.
This October, Prius will receive a Gold Award at the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition, presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and sponsored by BusinessWeek. Judged by non-affiliated designers, the award criteria include design innovation, benefit to the user, benefit to the client/business, ecological responsibility, aesthetics, and appeal.

Toyota's achievements in "green building"

  • Toyota's South Campus development at its Torrance, California, U.S. headquarters won Sustainable/Green non-Residential Project of the Year at the Gold Nugget Awards. The award ceremony took place at the PCBC (formerly Pacific Coast Builders Conference) architecture and building trade show in San Francisco in honor of creative achievement in architecture, design, and land use.
  • North America's largest commercial solar electric system, atop the South Campus complex, has exceeded energy performance expectations in its first year of operation. The 536kW system operated at one hundred percent availability and produced more energy than had been expected, enough to power 500 homes.
  • Toyota Australia's new headquarters was recognized by the City of Port Phillip's Design and Development Awards, winning Best Contribution to Sustainable Development--Large Scale. The development features storm water recycling, external solar shades, a 90-meter glazed atrium, and an air reticulation system designed to reduce energy usage.
Yellowstone Park receives donation of four Prius from Toyota

Toyota has entered into a partnership with the nonprofit Yellowstone Park Foundation, donating four Prius hybrid cars in recognition and support of the Park's commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability. Use of the vehicles will help educate many of Yellowstone's three million annual visitors about hybrid technology and the Park's commitment to explore new and innovative technologies to protect, manage, and preserve its natural resources. The cars will be highly visible, wrapped in striking photographic images portraying Yellowstone's extraordinary animal species.

Toyota helps plant trees in Michigan

Toyota Technical Center, USA, (TTC) and Toyota affiliate Calty Design Research, are donating $10,000 to help finance a Rotary Club-led community service campaign to replace thousands of ash trees devastated by the Emerald Ash Borer in Ann Arbor, MI. The donation will be presented in conjunction with the grand opening of Calty's new Satellite Design Studio on TTC's campus in Ann Arbor.

Toyota HQ recycling involves Associates, municipalities, community groups

On Earth Day 2004, Associates at Toyota's Torrance, California headquarters saved unused cell phones from landfills by donating them to family crisis centers. Other campus recycling programs include drop-off boxes for dead batteries at all reception desks, an extensive office paper recycling program, and widely distributed receptacles for plastic, aluminum, and glass beverage containers. Earlier this year, Toyota Associates and the community at large collected three large dumpsters of tires for safe disposal. Most recently, Toyota hosted a round up of electronic items such as computers, monitors, printers, and televisions for recycling and disposal in partnership with the City of Torrance. Since 1999, more than 1.4 million pounds of computers have been recycled by Toyota at its headquarters campus.

For questions or information, contact Cindy Knight at (310) 381-4851 or by e-mail at cindy_knight@toyota.com. Produced by Robert Oberhand & Assoc., Chatsworth, CA, in conjunction with Toyota Corporate Communications Department

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. logo

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion in the United States, marketing products and services through a network of 1,427 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers in 49 states. Established in 1957, TMS and its subsidiaries also are involved in distribution logistics, motorsports, and research and development.

More from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Join today and get the latest delivered to your inbox