WWF and Toyota Form Global Partnership
Organisations will join forces on the Living Asian Forest Project and climate change
WWF, one of the world’s largest independent conservation organisations, and Toyota Motor Corporation have entered into a five-year agreement aimed at accelerating the world’s transition to sustainability. They will work together to promote biodiversity conservation, raise environmental awareness and speed up progress towards a “zero carbon” society.
Toyota is the first car manufacturer and the first Japanese company to sign a Global Corporate Partnership agreement with WWF (effective from 1 July).
As part of the partnership, Toyota will support the Living Asian Forest Project, a series of established and planned WWF activities to conserve tropical forests and wildlife in south east Asia. The project will also focus on increasing the sustainability of natural resources, such as wood, paper and pulp, palm oil and natural rubber. Unsustainable production and use of these commodities are among the main causes of deforestation and increased threats to endangered species in the region.
Toyota will donate $1 million to the Living Asian Forest Project this year and will continue its support for five years in total. This will strengthen the company’s efforts towards achieving the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 goals of reducing Toyota’s environmental footprint to zero, while creating value and producing benefits to society in the face of global-scale environmental issues. The Living Asian Forest Project will specifically help accomplish one of the six challenges: to establish a future society in harmony with nature.
With demand for natural rubber expected to rise – the main resource for manufacturing car tyres – the partnership recognises that sustainable production and use of natural rubber is needed in order to conserve the forest ecosystem. Toyota acknowledges the environmental and social challenges involved and will collaborate with industries and stakeholders to contribute to the setting of international standards, as well as other WWF-promoted activities.
Throughout the partnership, WWF and Toyota will also work together to help realise a zero-carbon society. To meet Toyota’s Zero CO2 Emissions Challenges under the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, the company has already joined the Science Based Targets Initiative (see notes to editors, below) which aims to help companies combat climate change.
Didier Leroy, Executive Vice President of Toyota, said: “We share the same vision as WWF: to achieve a truly sustainable society and leave a living planet for future generations. When we started working on concrete actions to achieve our Environmental Challenge 2050, we decided that joining forces with non-governmental organisations which are experts in their field was essential. Our partnership, and projects like the Living Asian Forest Project, are among the most effective ways for a company like ours to make a positive impact and raise awareness among our employees, suppliers, and customers of the importance of sustainable resource management.”
Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International, said: “WWF is delighted to join forces with Toyota in order to accelerate efforts needed to prevent the dangerous degradation of the natural systems we all depend on. Science has never been clearer and awareness of the problems and solutions to the many environmental challenges that the world is facing has never been greater. We need more private sector organisations like Toyota to step up and find solutions to these challenges. WWF commends Toyota’s vision to help make a safer, healthier more sustainable world a reality for future generations and our living planet.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
WWF Global Corporate Partnership
This partnership is based on a common understanding of issues, shared ambitions or activities, and a willingness to speak out in public. Typically, three types of cooperation with a partner company will be implemented in the partnership: driving sustainable business practices; communications and awareness raising; and philanthropic contributions to support WWF conservation projects.
Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050
In October 2015, Toyota announced the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, with the aim of contributing to the sustainability of the global environment. Toyota is taking on new challenges that consider the world 20 or 30 years in the future, help0ing address key global environmental issues such as climate change, water shortage, resource depletion, and degradation of biodiversity. The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 aims to reduce the negative impact of manufacturing and driving vehicles to zero, and also to create value and produce benefit to society. The challenge comprises six individual challenges across three areas: ever-better cars, ever-better manufacturing, and enriching lives of communities.
http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/environment/challenge2050/
Science Based Targets initiative
The Science Based Targets is a collaborative initiative by WWF, CDP, the World Resources Institute, and the UN Global Compact to support companies to set emission reduction targets in line with what the science says is necessary to keep global warming well below the dangerous threshold of 2°C. The initiative provides a range of guidance documents and tools to support target-setting processes. More than 160 companies worldwide have committed to setting such ambitious climate targets (as of July 1, 2016).
About WWF
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Please refer to www.panda.org/news for the latest news and media resources on the WWF.
