Global Society / Local Communities

The "Toyomori Institute of Sustainable Living" is a human development project done in cooperation with Toyota, Toyota City, and the Support Center for Sustainable Regional Design (NPO) for recovering relation between people and rural villages.

In the institute, 30 individuals recruited from general public participated in learning how the forest ties in the region through classroom study and practice. For the two years from 2009-2010, ten projects have been carried out. Twenty six applicants were accepted from April 2011, and the second term has begun.

Seventy percent of the land in the Philippines was once covered by rain forests but the coverage has fallen to 20% or even less as a result of illegal logging and slash-and-burn farming. Since 2007, Toyota has carried out tree planting activities in the town of Penablanca located in the northern part of Luzon jointly with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Philippines, the Penablanca Municipal Government, and environmental NGOs. In FY 2010, eight volunteers from Toyota, including employees and their family members, took part in the activities and worked together with the local people involved.

The Omotehama beach at the cities of Tahara and Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture is a haven for spawning loggerhead turtles. However, the ecosystem is now in jeopardy as a result of growing coastal erosion. Toyota worked together with a local NPO, "Omotehama Network" to secure the sandy beach, an egg-laying site for the turtles. On April 16, employees of the Tahara Plant and Toyota Head Office along with their family members—a total of 109 volunteers—participated in the 'Beach Clean' operation, where they built up fences to prevent erosion, using bamboo and wood thinned from forests. In the days ahead, such activities as spawning observation tours are scheduled.

In commemoration of Toyota's receipt of the "Global 500 Award" from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1999, it has promoted a grant program to support environmental activities conducted by NGOs etc. since FY2000. The Center for Environment Education (CEE), India's leading environment education NGO and one of the organizations subject to the program's biodiversity scheme, started the Sanjeevani Program (named after a locally produced medicinal herb species) in the poverty area in Gujarat State in 2007 with the aid of Toyota's grant. The aim is to address the preservation of herbs facing the danger of extinction. Some positive results have been achieved.

Toyota and its dealers and so forth across Japan conduct the Toyota Traffic Safety Campaign every spring and autumn, coinciding with Japan's nationwide traffic safety campaigns. In FY 2010, 2.57 million traffic safety picture books and 46,000 traffic safety story cards were donated under the campaign to children entering kindergartens and nursery schools nationwide. It is an activity that has continued for 42 years since 1969. A cumulative total of approximately 123.65 million picture books and 1.29 million story cards have been published to date. Furthermore, based on statistics data showing that some 50% of those who died in traffic accidents in recent years have been over 65 years old, approximately 1.53 million copies of an educational leaflet focusing on ' traffic safety for elderly people' were printed for distribution to showroom visitors nationwide.

Toyota Drivers Communication, safe-driving courses, was launched in 1987 with the goal of reducing the number of accidents involving young drivers. Since then, the program has continued for participants in an increasingly extensive range of age and geography. It is now held regularly throughout the year at Toyota Safety Education Center "mobilitas" located within the Fuji International Speed Way complex, and the MEGA WEB, an automotive museum run by Toyota, as well as the Toyota Driving School Tokyo and the Chubu Nippon Driver School. During FY2010, some 3,800 visitors took the courses at mobilitas and 500 at MEGA WEB. Since 1987, over 45,000 people have participated.

In May 2010, Toyota produced tools called the " Kurapika Box," which demonstrate how reflective materials can improve especially the elderly pedestrian safety at nighttime. In addition to permanent installations in directly-managed driving schools, it is being used in combination with "making original reflector keyring" at events everywhere, and the number of boxes has been steadily increasing. Also, in addition to the Cabinet Office, the scope of its use has been expanded through such communities with Toyota plants, such as in Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures. Further, boxes are being lent out to Toyota dealers and related facilities, and in 2010 there were 14 "Kurapika Boxes" in use, and roughly 30,000 people through the year experienced the effects of reflective materials.

Toyota has been implementing educational activities in public gathering places to help people understand safety through a variety of hands-on demonstrations. Participants are offered the experience of child seat installation, drunken driving, reflective material effects etc., with real cars and objects in a short-time session; an effective program to raise safety awareness. In FY2010, the activities went on domestically and internationally in conjunction with local events hosted by municipalities, Toyota business sites and dealers, gathering a total of some 110,000 visitors.