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Environmental Record

The Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has implemented its Fourth Environmental Action Plan in 2005 which contains four major issues involving the environment and the corporation's development, design, production, and sales. The five year plan is directed at the, "arrival of a revitalized recycling-based society." Before the Environmental Action Plan, Toyota released its Eco-Vehicle Assessment System (Eco-VAS) which is a systematic approach on the assessment of the effect a vehicle will have on the environment through its production, usage, and disposal. The assessment includes, "a wide range of items, including fuel efficiency, emissions and noise during vehicle use, the disposal recovery rate, the reduction of substances of environmental concern, and CO2 emissions throughout the entire life cycle of the vehicle from production to disposal." 2008 marks the ninth year for Toyota's Environmental Activities Grant Program which has been implemented every year since 2000. Themes of the 2008 program consist of "Global Warming Countermeasures" and "Biodiversity Conservation." Since October 2006, Toyota's new Japanese-market vehicle models with automatic transmissions are equipped with an Eco Drive Indicator. The system takes into consideration rate of acceleration, engine and transmission efficiency, and speed. When the vehicle is operated in a fuel-efficient manner, the Eco Drive Indicator which is located on the instrument panel will light up. Individual results may vary depending on traffic issues, starting and stopping the vehicle, and total distance traveled, but the Eco Drive Indicator may be able to improve fuel efficiency by as much as 4%.