Climate change is the biggest environmental crisis facing humanity today, and Toyota believes a collective response across society is urgently needed.

Toyota globally measures the carbon and other GHG emissions of its production and non-production sites. It employs energy conservation, production efficiency, and the purchase of renewable power to reduce the contribution of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Toyota has also led the way in NZ’s automotive industry with a company-wide strategy to measure and reduce our carbon emissions. We seek to address direct and indirect emissions using four themes:

Efficiency, Renewables, Offsetting and Awareness

Our Activities include:

• Energy audit of our head office and Signature Class plant. These identified a number of opportunities to reduce building power use, with a working group set up to implement improvements.

• Our Signature Class plant has achieved a 28% reduction in gas and 18% less electricity, compared to 2006. And a kWh per vehicle unit has  improved by 24%.

• Our head office has reduced gas by 35% and electricity by 17% compared to 2006, despite a 40% increase in the size of our warehouse (a reduction of 51% in kWh per m²).

• On-going replacement of lighting with energy efficient alternatives, sensors for low use locations, reviews of running hours and increased use of natural lighting.

• More efficient operation of air conditioning and heating operating hours and systems, using outside air for cooling when possible.

• Adoption of energy star electrical equipment.

We also encourage all staff to take everyday actions to reduce energy use. Staff focus on these issues has been highlighted by linking part of the end of year bonus to an emissions reduction target. Examples of initiatives include:

• Introducing on-line used vehicle auctions for our dealers to reduce business air travel;

• Combining meetings and utilising video conferencing to reduce air travel;

• Turning off lights and computers when not in use;

• Instructing cleaning staff to turn off lights after hours;

• Providing information and tips on how to save energy and drive in a more fuel efficient manner.

As a final measure, we offset all remaining emissions from our operations under the CarboNZero programme. We were an early adopter of this scheme in 2005 and were certified carbon neutral in 2008. Under this scheme, organisations must measure and manage their GHG emissions, and offset remaining emissions by purchasing carbon credits to fund native forest regeneration and renewable energy projects.

The programme is underpinned by extensive scientific research and procedures for handling and cancelling carbon credits, to the highest international standards.