DShiekhi

Toyota Wins Its 12th Straight Environmental Leader Award from the EPA



Toyota's hybrid vehicles aren't the only things that make it a "green" company.

Read the rest on the ClubLexus.com homepage. >>

Aron9000

You know this is "going green" thing is about a different type of green, the almighty dollar. Toyota makes more $$$ by saving money on its electric bills when it upgrades chillers, lights, and equipment. I guarantee that Toyota(and every other company) makes sure the numbers work in their favor before spending millions of dollars in capital improvements on things like lighting, chillers, equipment etc.

The good press of upgrading equipment to use less energy and appearing "green" is just extra gravy. Companies don't do these things because of some altruistic moral imperative, that's just how the PR department likes to spin things.

That being said, it is a great indicator that the company is doing well, is profitable, and is committed to its workers here in the United States.

spwolf

it is always more expensive than to be green, thats why most of the production moved to China when it comes to consumer goods.

But obviously car manufacturers are very profitable and they do try to be green manufacturing as well. In many countries, there are laws mandating it too.

Aron9000

All I am saying is Toyota wouldn't be installing new "green" equipment in their plants unless there was a long term payoff realized from the electric bill savings. All this new equipment went through accounting who did a cost/benefit analysis on it.

Sorry if I seem to be a bit of a debbie downer, but that is the way the business world works. I worked in hospitality for a number of years, I remember when our small, independent hotel chain made the announcement/big PR push that we were "Going Green" about 10 years ago. I just rolled my eyes, because it was a positive way for us to say that we were cheaping out and making your experience at our luxury hotel less premium. Initiatives included:

1. Change all bulbs to compact florecents. When we remodeled, use fewer lights in the hallways, public spaces, and fewer lamps in the rooms/bathrooms. Result, your room is darker because we are cheap.

2. Low flow shower heads, spin this as we are conserving water, not that you can't rinse the shampoo out of your hair now.

3. Don't change your sheets every day. Spin this as we are using less energy washing sheets and they last longer, thus less waste. Big cost savings here, mainly from all the labor in house keeping and laundry.

Anyways, ever since then I've been jaded about corporations "going green". Oh and did we ever replace any of the old/dated HVAC equipment, chillers, water heaters, etc in our 30 year old building as part of "going green" Hell no, that costs too much money and we're probably going to sell this dump in 5 years anyways.

G Star

iTrader: (2)

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you can save money over time and strengthen your brand and reputation at the same time, why not??

mmarshall

I have to agree with Aron. That is in fact the way most of the business world works. Classic spin...classic $$$$$ savings.

Having said that, though, G Star also has a point that there's nothing necessarily wrong with saving energy either....as long as it is not carried to extremes, where you can't even take a real shower.

Aron9000

I agree, its a great thing. I just find the PR spin as Toyota being some sort of altruistic company to be the fascinating part, because a lot of the general public buys that crap, not that the real reason Toyota is doing this is to save money in the long run.

spwolf

I am failing to see your point - many manufacturers are not at the same level, so why are they not investing same money and energy?

It is not that simple. When you have more money, you can spend more of it to help save the world, lol.

mmarshall

I find it difficult to believe, though, that the sky is going to fall if Toyota does not use fluorescent or other types of efficient light-bulbs instead of traditional incandescents.

G Star

iTrader: (2)

Exactly, there is a reason the massive solar panel arrays have been going up starting with the giants is mainly because they can afford to do it.

Saving money is great but gaining more loyal customers while doing it is priceless.