Toyota Kirloskar Motor, in pursuance of its strong commitment
towards ensuring balance in environment, organized a reforestation drive
at the Bannerghatta National Park. Toyota gives top priority to environment
management and is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all stages of
vehicle life cycle, including development, design, production, logistics and
sales as well as in all business areas.
The event witnessed participation from 600 TKM employees with
their family, along with 150 students from Delhi Public School, Bangalore
South, and 100 members from the Karnataka Forest Department. About 500 saplings
were planted by the members who participated in the noble cause to spread
awareness on conservation of native ecosystem and contribute towards reducing
the carbon footprint. A fully grown tree can roughly sequester 20kg of CO2
per year and generates about 118 kgs of oxygen per year. Human being uses
about 550 litres of pure oxygen per day. A single mature tree can release
enough oxygen to support 2 human beings. Planting trees and
restoring the green is one of the most effective means to reduce carbon
emissions. Sunil Panwar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karnataka Forest
Department, Bannerghatta National Park, Raju B Ketkale, Senior Vice President,
Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Manju Sharma, Principal Delhi Public School,
Bangalore South, were the dignitaries present at the afforestation drive.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor initiated a large scale afforestation drive
in the year 2009 by planting 36000 saplings in a single day involving all
its stakeholders to develop a greenbelt within its boundaries. TKM has planted
around 2,65,000 saplings involving team members with the unique Japanese
Miyawaki method. The plant at Bidadi has been designed in line with the Eco
factory concept at Toyota. The company has undertaken unique
environment friendly initiatives in the manufacturing facility like water based
painting to reduce VOC emissions, low CO2 footprint technologies like Servo
machines, vermi-composting for waste minimization, biogas plant to reduce
LPG usage and rain water harvesting to reduce fresh water consumption. The
water recycling & rainwater harvesting efforts at TKM manufacturing unit
ensure least dependence on Freshwater/River water ensuring sustainable
community. The rainwater harvesting structure with a storage capacity of
25000 m3 was constructed, which has helped in saving consumption of 60000 m3 of
freshwater last year. Moreover, through consistent efforts TKM has
achieved a reduction of 8000 tons of CO2 compared to last year.
Toyota has decided to challenge itself to reduce vehicle CO₂
emissions to ZERO in comparison with 2010 levels, by 2050. From fuel
efficient vehicle to developing ground breaking technology, TKM focuses on
environmentally sustainable solutions in every business operation and every
vehicle that is manufactured. Toyota also works towards increasing Hybrid
vehicles in India. Hybrid technology is one of the finest examples of
green future which minimizes the usage of existing exhaustible resources. The
company boasts of a rich lineage of over 15 years in hybrid with over 8 million
hybrid cars across the globe.
According to a recent analysis done by the Centre for Ecological
Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in the last 40 years Bangalore
has seen a phenomenal increase of 625% in built up area and the vegetation of
the city has seen a decline of an alarming 78%. The rapid urbanization
has led to the alarming depletion of green cover in the city which as has
resulted in human-wildlife conflict and dangerous levels of toxic matter
in the atmosphere.
Raju B Ketkale, Senior Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said “Environment
Conservation is inherent in the Toyota culture. We have been constantly
investing our efforts to establish a society where human and nature coexist in
harmony. With the rise in global warming and the impending environmental
pollution increasing day by day, it is not just imperative to create
necessary awareness, at the same time, one needs to action out measures like
these, along with the involvement of the community. He also went on to stress
the importance of conservation of biodiversity stating that “during the
evolution of earth, species like plants, insects, animals inhabited the earth
much before the humans did. We humans have only evolved at a much later stage
however, we have been responsible for destruction of most of the life forms for
our selfish needs.” In addition to creating awareness, we also involve our
employees physically in afforestation drives, environment month promotion and
other Eco CSR activities with an intent to bring a sense of ownership towards
the environment”
Speaking on the occasion Sunil Panwar, Deputy Conservator
of Forests, stressed on the importance of reforestation to avoid human
animal conflicts which is prevalent currently around the sprawling Bannerghatta
forest reserve. He went on to say “As human populations expand and natural
habitats shrink, people and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over
living space and food”. Further he said “People lose their crops, livestock,
property, and sometimes their lives. The animals, many of which are already
threatened or endangered, are often killed in retaliation or to 'prevent'
future conflicts”. He emphasized that public must join hands with the forest
department to save and preserve the biodiversity that we are left with”
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