Toyota: Greening or Green-washing?
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK 
on 07.23.07
Relatively speaking, as far as car companies go, Toyota is pretty green. Admittedly it does still make some big, gas-guzzling cars, but the Prius pushed hybrid technology into mass production, and the technology is slowly spreading through to their other models. They have recently announced some measures that aim to improve the sustainability of their factories, but whether this is green-washing or true greening is open to debate. According to their press release, the move has three main targets;
1. Reducing CO2 by using renewable energy, including biomass and natural energy sources, such as solar power and wind power
2. Contributing to the local community and conserving the environment by planting trees at plant
3. Achieving groundbreaking environmental performance by introducing innovative technology and kaizen (improvement) activities
Fittingly, the first plant to benefit from these changes will be the Tsutsumi Plant which makes the Prius. A 2,000kW photovoltaic generation system will be installed in order to reduce the amount of non-sustainable power used, which Toyota claim will be the largest installed in a car factory worldwide. As well as reducing emissions, the company is also aiming to actually remove some from the atmosphere, with photo-catalytic paint - this breaks down some greenhouse gasses to less harmful materials. Other measures include planting native trees, and building an environmental education facility which will be open to the public.
It would be easy to look at these changes cynically, but Toyota has made more of an effort to protect the environment than many other car manufacturers. In the same way that Toyota managers improve the efficiency of their plants gradually, with incremental changes, they can lessen the impact of their operations move by move. However, these moves are still in the planning stage, and we would be far more enthusiastic if this press release was documenting the success of the project, rather than explaining what will happen in the future. Needless to say, TreeHugger will be keeping an eye on the project. ::Toyota via ::Green Car Congress
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The green and health factors. Where does Toyota mine the minerals for their batteries? Is the mining good for that environment? How far are th e minerals shipped to be processed? Do the electric motors in hybrids emit harmful EMF's? If so, how much?
Good on Toyota for at least manufacturing a hybrid but, gawdang, if they don't make a LOT of large 4WDs (SUVs). You might see one Prius to aboot 50 Prados, Landcruisers, HiLuxes etc, etc in the city. Can't help but think their hybrid is a tad tokenistic. ;)
i drive an 8 year old Toyota Corrolla and my husband drives a slightly older rav 4 and those are two of the best cars we have ever had. There starting to look a little rough, but I don't care, I'm going to keep driving them until the engine falls out. that could be 300,000 miles, lol
What about honda? I always wonder why they get overlooked in this whole hybrid/greencar debate. The insight beat the Prius to production and fuel economy but consumers ignored it. From what I understand honda is a company that is relatively green all around and I'd like to hear if it is true or not.
General Motors already has a One MW (5x that of the proposed toyota plant) photovoltaic generation system in place in Ranco Cucamonga Service Parts Operation Distribtion Center. Albiet that it is not a full on manufacturing plant i feel that toyota gets way to much credit for being a green company when some of are own american companies have been making strides in the "green" field for years the just don t know how to market it or advertise it as well as Toyota. I know i might recieve back lash on this but i myself have been suprised by some of my findings about general motors and ford. I am an employee of general motors and have had years of guilt for being associated with the big blue and have recently started delving into our corporate innitiatives and looking into what is going on within the company. I found a great document that GM has been releasing for the past decade regarding our enviromental responsiblity as well as social and economic. you can read it here in PDF or check out www.gmresponsibility.com . Either way i feel it is important to support local first be it vegitables, t shirts, or cars hence why i have stayed at GM and have tried to make it a more responsible company from the inside as far as my enviromental ideals and concerns can reach. My apologize for the rant but i feel that gm is on the right path much more then the public realizes . This is partially do to the fact that gm doesn t make the small car that the "enviromental" crowd looks for when purchasing a vehicle they have focused on making the bigger more gas guzzling vehicles better by putting more recycled and recyclable materials into vehicles, Active Fuel Management, and hybridization of the SUVs in it portfolio. (I also feel that they are light years away from being perfect, as much as this sounds pro GM i am still a major critic and can debate both sides of the coin). again sorry for the rant.
I'll follow Dennis; post by adding that I toured the Ford F150 plant. It has a green roof, they capture storm water for their visitor center washrooms and had several other green features on the property.
Myself, I am not really impressed by Toyota. They may make good engines, but they don't seem to make anything I would want to be seen driving.
They do not make any creative or interesting vehicles. Their vehicles are void of art (if Scion is ignored). , history, or warmth.
Basically, you are buying a Toyota for the quality of the engine. I can find Cummins or VW/Audi engines that I would rather put my investment into.
Until Toyota can come up with Lithium batteries that won't start on fire to enable longer electric distances, they can keep their overrated Prius. I can stop my diesel engine at lights myself just as easily as this overpriced piece of plastic. My 50mpg TDI is the best investment I have ever made. Plus 200K miles is expected, I don't see a prius lasting that long.
ah actually the array proposed is 2000kw ie 2 MW
I second Dennis, GM has made great strides in turning into a green company. I think most American's suffer from the grass is "greener" on the other side syndrom. Sure GM has is faults and did past blunders like killing the ev car but in recent times it has made a serious attempt to fix its past. If Volt makes it to market it would be the first new generation car that could run close to 100% of the time without fossil fuels, take that Enron and Middle East.