16
January
2020
|
14:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Toyota Motor Europe used 100% renewable electricity in all its European operations in 2019

Summary
  • 100% renewable electricity in all European operations for the total annual use from 1st of January 2019
  • Covering 100% of the European Toyota network, including 9 manufacturing plants, 29 distributors, 4 offices, 1 R&D centre and 21 logistic hubs
  • 1 year ahead of the internal target for manufacturing operations
  • A significant step towards the ‘Life Cycle Zero CO2 Emissions’ target of the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050

Brussels, January 16, 2020 – Toyota Motor Europe (TME) announced it reached 100% renewable electricity use across all its European operations and facilities in 2019.

Toyota’s European operations include 9 manufacturing plants, 14 Parts Depots Centres, 7 Vehicle Logistics Centres, 29 National Marketing & Sales companies (NMSCs), TME Head Office & its branch offices, and Toyota Technical Centre, which jointly had a total electricity demand of around 500 GWh.

Switching to 100% renewable electricity to run our entire European operations is a significant step towards our Environmental Challenge 2050. Having sustainable operations in Europe is very important if we want citizens and consumers to continue supporting Toyota. Thanks to the market success of our hybrid electric vehicles, we are well on track to meet our European CO2 emissions targets for new vehicles – but when it comes to the environment, we take a 360-degree approach and aim to go beyond just vehicle emissions.
Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe

The 100% renewable electricity usage could be achieved across all operations through a mix of:

The achievement to decarbonise the electricity demand are in addition to Toyota’s on-going efforts to reduce overall energy consumption in its operations. For example, in our manufacturing plants, since 2013 (baseline year for Challenge 2050), the energy per car built has been reduced by 18%. In comparison to the EU28 industry average of 2.3 MWh energy per vehicle produced, Toyota required 48% less energy per vehicle produced.

Environmental sustainability has always been a priority for Toyota. Environmental matters have been discussed by Toyota top-management since 1963 when the Environmental Committee was established. Since 1973 the company promoted environmental awareness of its employees through Environmental Month. The company established a 5-Year action planning in 1992 to reduce its environmental footprint and conserve valuable resources for the planet; not only by reducing the environmental impact of automobiles, but also focusing on all related operations.

The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 was announced in 2015. It comprises 6 challenges* and is the foundation of Toyota’s long-term strategy, covering the most important environmental impacts of the company.

Achieving 100% renewable electricity is contributing to the company’s targets for Challenge 2 (Lifecycle Zero CO2 Emissions) and Challenge 3 (Manufacturing Plant Zero CO2 Emissions), which aim to eliminate CO2 emissions of the entire vehicle lifecycle, including supporting operations and manufacturing plants.

Boilerplate

*Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 : In October 2015, Toyota launched the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050. Building on previous environmental initiatives, it is the foundation of our long-term environmental targets. With six challenges covering every aspect of our business, we move beyond cars only. We commit to new and bold steps in the coming decades to go beyond zero environmental impact towards delivering positive environmental benefits in areas such as life cycle emissions, emissions from our manufacturing plants, water usage and many more