Toyota Acclaimed As Europe’s Number One Green Manufacturer

“Lean, Clean and Green” principles secure top industry award

Toyota has won the 2011 Green Manufacturing Award in recognition of the outstanding achievements of its European operations. The honour has been presented to Toyota Motor Europe, the company which controls Toyota’s vehicle plants at Burnaston and Deeside in the UK, by the World Trade Group.

The award recognises the work of businesses that show the best performance in environmental manufacturing. Toyota’s success demonstrates how its focus on the environment extends to every aspect of its operations, not just the development of vehicles that are cleaner and more fuel efficient.

Toyota emerged the winner after the adjudicators looked at case studies from the short-listed contenders to analyse performance in areas such as maximising energy efficiency, water usage and treatment, compliance with environmental regulations and the reduction of waste from production processes. The judges praised Toyota’s approach to environmental issues in production, which forms a clear link to the fundamental principles of the Toyota Production System.

The performance of Toyota’s UK factories is central to Toyota’s global environmental mission. The Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire is one of the company’s Sustainable Plants, leading the way in cleaner, more efficient production and the harnessing of sustainable energy sources. Toyota’s achievements in the UK include eliminating landfill and incinerated waste and significantly reducing the amount of energy and water required to build each vehicle. Earlier this year Burnaston achieved another UK industry-first in switching on a vast solar panel array, capable of capturing up to 4.6 million kWh of sustainable energy every year – enough to build around 7,000 cars.

The award was accepted at the fifth annual Strategic Manufacturing Awards ceremony in Düsseldorf, by Steve Hope, Toyota’s General Manager of Plant Engineering and Safety.

He said: “This award recognises the tremendous efforts by the members at all of our European Manufacturing facilities who continuously improve, and apply their knowledge of and expertise in the Toyota Production System to their daily activities.”

Between 2001 and 2009, Toyota reduced the consolidated impact of each vehicle built in Europe by 40 per cent in terms of energy use; 38 per cent in waste produced; 51 per cent in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and 44 per cent in water usage. Its work continues to improve even further on this performance.

In the same industry competition, Toyota was also shortlisted for the Outstanding Achievement in Continuous Improvement award.

ENDS

Notes to editor:

Toyota publishes an annual Sustainability Report detailing its sustainable operations in Europe. The 2011 edition of the report can be found in the Corporate section of media.toyota.co.uk under Publications.

About the World Trade Group: The World Trade Group is one of Europe’s leading business-to-business, corporate events, media information