MHD MATERIALS HANDLING
SETTING THE SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA Toyota has for three decades been pursuing ambitious sustainability goals. MHD explores the history of the company’s environmental commitments, and the latest products in sustainable materials handling.
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n 1992 the Toyota Motor Corporation announced the introduction of ‘A Comprehensive Approach to Global Environmental Issues: Earth Charter’ – setting out the modern framework that Toyota companies would take with respect to environmental objectives. Although Toyota Motor Corporation had already been an innovator with commitments to greater efficiency using fewer resources, the futureforward “A Comprehensive Approach to Global Environmental Issues: Earth Charter” from 1992 set a new – and from the standpoint of three decades later, impressively early – agenda with respect to environmental sustainability, including identification of climate change as a key issue. “Finding ways to preserve an abundant natural environment to pass on to future generations is the most pressing issue for people on earth today,” the 1992 Earth Charter says. “It is an issue that demands the attention of each and every individual. And it is an issue that transcends borders – as in problems like global warming – and thus demands a global response.” The “Comprehensive Approach” set out in the 1992 Earth Charter included developing technologies to minimise the environmental impact of automobiles and automobile plants, implementing environmental programs through Toyota’s production and marketing operations worldwide as well as through parts suppliers and through vehicle distributors and dealers. The original commitments of the 1992 Earth Charter have been 48 | MHD FEBRUARY 2022
The Toyota 9FBMT 7.0 tonne forklift. repeatedly bolstered and elaborated upon by Toyota companies over the years. Just last year the Toyota Industries Corporation outlined its “Basic Stance” on environmental commitments, with “prevention of global warming” as its highest priority for the environment. And in 2015 Toyota Motor Corporation announced the ‘Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050’ – setting challenges for all Toyota subsidiaries globally: • Reduce CO2 emissions from new vehicles by 90 per cent (2010 baseline) • Eliminate CO2 emissions from operations • Eliminate CO2 emissions from suppliers and dealers • Conserve water and protect water resources • Support a recycling-based society • Conserve biodiversity, protect species, and restore habitats.
Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) is meeting and exceeding its ambitious objectives. Indeed, for its own operations the Toyota Industries Corporation set as its target a reduction of 26 per cent of emissions (from fiscal year 2012 baseline) by 2021. Toyota’s European factories – which manufacture some of TMHA’s equipment – well exceeded that goal, achieving a reduction of 31 per cent. So, in the Australian context, what are some of the latest sustainable products Toyota is creating for the materials handling market?
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS HANDLING Glen Ryan, Product Manager – Toyota at TMHA, says that in terms of traditional counterbalance forklifts, it used to be the case that more than 3.5tonne forklifts generally had to run
