Toyota takes green approach at network

With a host of successful green cars including the Prius already under its belt, Toyota is now turning its green attentions to its centre network.After a successful pilot programme last year, Toyota is working with the Carbon Trust in an effort to achieve significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions across more than 200 Toyota and Lexus centres. The company will implement an eight step environmental plan after the trial at 16 centres in 2009 recorded savings of up to 20 per cent in electricity and gas consumption as well as reducing the carbon footprint of each site by around 30 tonnes of CO2 a year.According to Nigel Burke, the centre principal at Somerset County Cars, one of the centres that participated in the trial, if replicated nationally this could bring emissions from the entire centre network down by around 15 per cent within a year.“The pilot project has given us the means to visualise our energy usage and where we could make savings,” he said. “Through staff education, good housekeeping, constant monitoring and modest expenditure on items such as lighting or timers we have significantly reduced our electricity consumption.”With the support of the Carbon Trust, each centre will have its current energy use assessed and then a targeted energy management and monitoring system will be put into place to help reduce consumption.

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