ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 (Challenge 2050), unveiled in September 2015, consists of six goals that seek to make a game-changing contribution to some of the critical environmental issues facing the world today, including climate change, water scarcity, resource depletion, and species and habitat loss. Challenge 2050 was developed by Toyota Motor Corporation and applies to all Toyota affiliates globally.

Challenge 2050 is how team members across the company, in every region of the world, put Toyota’s global vision of respect for the planet into action. Challenge 2050 unites us all with a common purpose – to be more than just good stewards of the environment and to create positive changes beyond our facility boundaries.

Within Toyota Motor North America (TMNA), we developed a regional environmental sustainability strategy to align Toyota’s global vision and Challenge 2050 with our regional four focus areas – Carbon, Water, Materials and Biodiversity. These focus areas in turn provide the framework for our five-year environmental action plans.

In each focus area, we are working towards minimizing environmental impacts and, through outreach activities, towards a net positive impact on society and the planet. To further elaborate on our strategy for achieving Challenge 2050, we issued position statements in 2018. These statements were updated in December 2019 and represent our regional roadmap for attaining sustainable development by 2050.

Achieving Challenge 2050 will require innovation, creativity and new ideas. For more on what it will take to achieve Challenge 2050, see the feature story "The Real Challenge in Challenge 2050".

PRIORITY ISSUES

A global environmental materiality assessment was conducted by our parent company, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), as part of developing the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050. TMC evaluated global trends, risks and opportunities, including the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and identified the following serious environmental issues facing society and the planet:

  • Extreme weather phenomena attributed to greenhouse gas emissions
  • Aggravated air pollution in cities
  • Water shortages due to population growth
  • Resource depletion
  • Ecosystem fragmentation and biodiversity loss

TMC then evaluated the importance of these issues to Toyota and external stakeholders. As a result of this process, TMC identified six material issues:

  1. CO2 emissions from new vehicles
  2. CO2 emissions from upstream activities and end-of-life treatment of vehicles
  3. CO2 emissions from vehicle manufacturing
  4. Water stewardship
  5. Materials management
  6. Biodiversity protection

TMC addresses these six issues in the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, which was introduced in September 2015.

TMNA's process in North America followed a similar path. Our identification of environmental priority issues aligns with TMC’s but consolidates the three CO2 emissions challenges into a single issue we call “Carbon.” We also call out the importance of outreach: sharing our know-how to achieve a net positive impact by 2050. Our priority issues in North America are our four focus areas – Carbon, Water, Materials and Biodiversity – as well as Outreach.

We continue to manage other environmental issues, including air quality and green building, and we are as dedicated as ever to compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations. See "Performance" for information on our activities and progress in these areas.

See the feature story "Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals" for information on how Toyota's environmental sustainability activities are supporting the UN's 2030 Agenda and SDGs.

Priority Environmental Issues for TMNA (Materiality)

2021 TARGETS

TMNA's Environmental Action Plan (EAP) for fiscal years 2017 to 2021 puts us on a path to achieving all six of the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 (Challenge 2050) goals. We know there is much to do and a long way to go, but we are putting the building blocks in place to set us up for success by 2050.

TMNA Environmental Action Plan, FY2017-2021

Focus Area Challenge 2050 FY2021 Target Status FY2020 Progress
CARBON Challenge 1 Foster accelerated adoption of electrified vehicles On Track
  • Supported global corporate commitment to offer an electrified version of each Toyota and Lexus vehicle by 2025 with introduction of Toyota Sienna and Venza hybrids, RAV4 Prime and next-generation Mirai.
  • Continued to support education initiatives, including funding the ECS Young Investigator Fellowship.
  • Issued a 5th Green Bond to fund the acquisition of new retail installment contracts and operating lease contracts financing certain Toyota and Lexus hybrid electric vehicles.
  • Continued partnerships with Shell, FirstElement Fuels and Air Liquide on hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
Challenge 2 Improve GHG emissions intensity from all logistics 5% from a baseline of FY2016 On Track
  • Improved GHG intensity from owned and third-party U.S. parts and vehicle logistics by 4.7% compared to FY2016.
  • Began operating zero-emissions Kenworth/Toyota fuel cell electric heavy-duty vehicles at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Challenge 3 Improve absolute GHG emissions from North American operations 15% from a baseline of FY2016 On Track
  • Reduced absolute GHG emissions by 14% compared to FY2016.
  • Announced virtual power purchase agreements that will reduce GHG emissions from North American operations by up to 40%.
WATER Challenge 4 Prioritize and implement water stewardship plans for facilities in water-stressed areas On Track
  • Mapped North American sites with updated version of Aqueduct™ and prioritized 2 sites for developing water stewardship plans.
  • Continued to implement water reduction projects at various sites.
MATERIALS Challenge 5 Reduce the use of packaging materials On Track
  • Continued to expand the use of returnable shipping containers for service parts and accessories. Between 2017-2019, this program has saved 54.1 million pounds of cardboard and 144.3 million pounds of wood.
BIODIVERSITY Challenge 6 Participate in regional biodiversity activities that support wildlife corridor(s) On Track
  • Toyota has 17 sites with gardens that support monarch butterflies and other pollinators. These gardens are located along the monarch butterfly's migration path and provide food and shelter to the butterflies at various stages of their life cycle as they make their way south for the winter, then return in the spring.
  • On TrackTarget Exceeded
  • On Track Target Achieved
  • On Track On Track
  • On Track Target Missed

GOVERNANCE

TMNA's Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs (SRA) group handles Product Environmental and Safety Regulation, Energy and Climate Research, Environmental Sustainability, Enterprise Chemical Management, and Engine Certification and Compliance. The Environmental Sustainability (ES) division of SRA is responsible for developing short-, medium- and long-term sustainability strategies for TMNA, including planning and target setting in alignment with the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, which includes developing consolidated five-year environmental action plan goals and targets. ES is also responsible for developing the annual North American Environmental Report. ES reports progress on these activities to the North American Executive Environmental Committee (NAEEC).

ES facilitates an Advisory Board and Working Group as coordinating mechanisms for TMNA. Both are comprised of environmental experts and representatives from various divisions:

  • Manufacturing
  • Research and Development
  • Logistics
  • Product Support
  • Corporate Resources (includes Regulatory Affairs and Legal)
  • Social Innovation
  • Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI)

This report contains information from these divisions. Representatives from these divisions also participate in focus groups that concentrate on specific environmental issues, such as water or biodiversity. These focus groups report to the Environmental Sustainability Working Group and help implement environmental action plan targets, perform benchmarking and data gathering activities, and raise awareness among team members and external stakeholders.

Environmental Sustainability Governance in North America