Toyota Plants Trees in India

6,000 Volunteers Plant Approximately 30,000 Trees

June 22, 2009 -- Tokyo — TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announces that Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Ltd. (TKM), its automobile production and sales base in India, held a tree-planting event on June 21, 2009, at its plant in Bidadi, Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka.

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More than 6,000 volunteers assisted in the tree-planting effort, including government officials of Karnataka, local students, suppliers, dealers, as well as TKM President Hiroshi Nakagawa, employees of TKM and members of their families.

At the event, 30,000 trees were planted, representing 51 varieties including mango and neem. Plans call for trees chosen based on a survey of the local flora to be planted in a total of three stages, resulting in coverage of a combined area of 40,000 square meters of the 1.7-million-square-meter plant site. The aim is to produce a multi-layered natural environment using trees native to the area; thereby creating a production site that could serve as a lush and diverse habitat for various living creatures.

Following the tree-planting event held in May last year at TMC's Tsutsumi Plant in Japan, TMC began similar activities at its Takaoka, Tahara and Motomachi plants, as well as at the Ban Pho Plant of Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. These efforts are part of TMC's sustainable plant activities, with the goal being the creation of production plants in forest-like settings. So far, these activities have resulted in the planting of approximately 190,000 trees.

TMC began its sustainable plant activities—which emphasize the role of nature in creating production sites that are in harmony with their natural surroundings—in Japan in July 2007. The activities are being carried out based on the following three objectives: 1) reducing energy consumption through the development and introduction of production technology with lower CO2 emissions and through everyday kaizen (improvement) activities; 2) switching to renewable energy sources such as solar power; and 3) contributing to the local community and conserving the environment by planting trees at and around production plants.

Source: Toyota