New plants help reduce environmental impact of Toyota Prius factory

And why not.

Would be nice to see some people involved in all this. Car production is one of the last great employers and they need all the perks they can get. Some of the 50,000 trees could be fruit producers for staff to pick free fruit or just help crop for local charities. Some can be used to make an angle for factory walls and act as insulation generally. Lesser plants could also be cropped. Toyota could use wood for their needs from packing to gear knobs to fascias to giving to schools to avoid importing timber. Waste timber can be made into board or toilet tissue. Some timber could be planted and encouraged to grow for use as furniture (seating/tables) for eating outdoors or repose. Some could shelter seeded fungi and more could be used to just look good. Grass can be replaced with chamomile or clover or sedums in places. Toyota gets points for trying and next time they might so better still.

Luv n Lite

Les Ballard

Interesting campaign by Toyota, they’ve been getting a lot of flack for this-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/26/toyota-chamber-climate-bill (and quotes from the president of the Chamber of Commerce near the end…)

There’s been lots of “studies” comparing the CO2 from a Hummer to a Pious, but they all seem to get debunked for cherry picking data for either side of the argument.

Is Toyota guilty of greenwashing? Absolutely. But they are also making major improvements to an industry in a way that no other manufacture has been able to (or tried to) accomplish.