Toyota Kirloskar Motor Continues To Create ‘Green Wave Through Afforestation’

* Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) continues its strides to enhance afforestation activity through planation of over 750 saplings at its plant facility held recently

* To date, TKM has planted more than 3,23,000 saplings with 650 native species, creating rich biodiversity

* Toyota accelerates various eco activities towards realizing the carbon neutrality goals

In its journey of developing a strong sustainable culture in the company, Toyota Kirloskar Motor continues to make strides in creating a green campus through afforestation drive held at its plant in Bidadi (Karnataka). With the involvement of over 250 participation including students, NGO’s, Government officials from the Education Department and Directorate of Women & Child Development Department, and Anganawadi teachers, the project covered more than 2 acres  with the planting of over 750 fruit saplings to further stabilizing the biodiversity in the region.

This afforestation drive was graced by Mr. Ganganna Swamy, Deputy Director of Public Instructions, and Mr. A.R Shivakumar, Retd. IISC Scientist (popularly known as Bengaluru’s Rain Man), is one of the major contributors to developing Rainwater Harvesting programmes both in urban and rural homes of Karnataka. From TKM, Mr. Raju B Ketkale, Executive Vice President, Mr. R Vinaya Kumar, Vice President and Mr. G Shankara, Vice President – HR, were present at the occasion.

Thriving on the principle of living in harmony with nature, TKM over the years has extended unwavering support to the environment beyond just its sustainable product line-up. The announcement of Toyota's six aspirational global environmental challenges, in 2015, continues to strengthen the company's relentless efforts towards achieving ‘Carbon Neutrality by 2050’ & ‘Net Zero Carbon in Manufacturing Operations by 2035’. The afforestation drive which is inspired by the sixth challenge of ‘Establishing a Future Society in Harmony with Nature’, aims to conserve biodiversity, create awareness, and promote environmental education through collaboration with our internal and external stakeholders. Thus, in its journey of creating environment friendly premises, TKM to date has planted more than 3,23,000 saplings with 650 native species.

Talking about TKM’s continued focus on green initiatives, Mr. Raju B Ketkale, Executive Vice President, TKM said, “Sustainability is a way of life at TKM, which reflects in the environment-friendly practices across our entire value chain. All our initiatives are designed toward lowering our environmental impact and achieving the goal of ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’.

We believe that sustainable living is also important in reducing the carbon footprint and protecting our environment, and these initiatives are crucial to realizing these goals. As part of our water and environment conservation efforts, our focus is to co-create projects that not only showcase impact but bring about a behavioral change in society. Needless to mention, the students, teachers, and other government dignitaries play a major role in inspiring others to join the mission, and thereby continuously engaging with them in a variety of activities to support in inculcating eco mindset towards creating a society living in harmony with nature.  We are extremely grateful for their participation.”

TKM considers that it is critical to implement nature conservation activities beyond the Toyota Group and its business partners among communities, with the world, to the future generation towards creating a sustainable future. Therefore, the company has focused on creating interventions that bring about behavioral change by motivating various stakeholders to incorporate eco-friendly habits into their day-to-day lives. The idea is to help individuals understand how adopting a simple change in one’s life can make a huge positive impact on the environment.

In this journey of sustainable development, TKM has made significant achievements on the path of carbon neutrality and net positivity, with the help of strategic five-year action plans. Currently, TKM is using 100% Renewable Energy for our grid electricity needs. On water conservation initiatives, there have been outstanding results with reduced freshwater usage by 90% in manufacturing. The company not only focuses on eco initiatives to mitigate the impact on the environment but also proactively contributed to the betterment of it, by creating awareness & enabling a good understanding on the topic of sustainable development in Toyota’s one-of-a-kind experiential learning center – Ecozone, covering more than 27,100 people so far.

The novel mega project - Ecozone is also guided by the Environmental Challenge 2050. As part of TKM’s efforts to raise awareness about critical environmental issues, along with afforestation drives, the company has also been conducting webinars, eco-lifestyle campaigns, clean-up drives, and virtual tours. of. Set up inside TKM’s plant premises, the Ecozone is an outdoor environmental learning center, specially designed to provide experiential learning to stakeholders. Spread over 25 acres, Ecozone comprises 17 theme parks (to name a few - value theme parks covering 3Rs, medicinal garden, conservation of natural resources/energy, evolution timeline, climate change, and so forth) representing the five modules of Water, Waste, Climate Change, Biodiversity and Energy. This is an eco-effort to introduce and share deep insights about the crucial elements of mother nature, by creating native ecosystems, working models, audio-visual, and other sensory experiences including hands-on activities and experiments.