Toyota Manufacturing Manages Greenhouse Gases

The majority of CO2 emissions associated with our manufacturing facilities is related to our energy usage. Our facilities consume more than $100 million worth of energy annually, resulting in 1.4 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. It is sound business practice to seek ways to reduce the financial and environmental costs of our energy use.

Energy use is the main source of greenhouse gases from our manufacturing plants. Figure K shows our GHG emissions from energy use at our U.S. plants. For Toyota’s worldwide production, we are committed to a 20% GHG reduction per sales unit, by 2010, against a 2001 baseline. In the U.S., Toyota, along with other members of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, participates in the U.S. Department of Energy Climate VISION program. Member companies have committed to reducing the level of GHGs emitted from manufacturing operations by 10% per vehicle produced by 2012, compared to a 2002 baseline. We are exceeding this U.S. commitment.

In this first year of our new Action Plan, we increased production at our nonassembly plants in Alabama and West Virginia, and expanded our nonassembly plants in Delta, British Columbia, and Troy, Missouri. Due to these production increases and facility expansions, our overall energy use per vehicle slightly increased. Nevertheless, we are still on track to reach our target, and continue to implement pilot projects and kaizens to reduce energy use.

Toyota has been an Energy Star partner since 2003. For the third year in a row, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing, North America, was awarded the 2007 Energy Star Award for Sustained Excellence in their U.S. manufacturing operations. In addition, the U.S. EPA recognized Toyota vehicle assembly plants in Indiana, Kentucky and northern California with Energy Star Plant Awards.

One of the ways we reduce energy use is to pilot energy reduction projects. The projects must have a payback of less than three years, and must be able to yokoten (be implemented) at other manufacturing plants. These projects can involve either a new technology, or a new application of an existing technology.

Implementation of a pilot project is almost complete at our plant in Cambridge, Ontario, that will use waste heat from an air compressor unit to preheat the city water before it is processed by reverse osmosis. The project is planned to improve the efficiency of the reverse osmosis system, with an estimated combined electric and natural gas reduction of 5,000 MMBTUs per year and a water reduction of six million gallons per year.

Source: www.toyota.com