Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced August 28 the publication of its "Sustainability Report 2008: Toward a New Future for People, Society and the Planet", which outlines TMC's environmental and social activities conducted primarily during 2007* and the concepts and policies that serve as their foundation.
TMC has made specific effort to clearly emphasize its philosophy concerning "sustainability in three areas" by labeling special-feature pages at the beginning of the report "Sustainable Mobility", "Sustainable Plant Initiatives" and "Sustainable Social Contribution", thus making these pages key, new features of the 2008 issue.
"Vision and Structures", the introductory segment, details TMC's Global 2020 initiatives. It firstly describes the type of company TMC – now celebrating its 70th anniversary – is aiming to become, and secondly explains the role of the CSR Committee, established within TMC to oversee and promote activities vital to facilitate the fulfillment of TMC's social responsibilities.
The main body of the report has three sections. The first, regarding the environment, presents TMC's fundamental activities and ideas regarding reduction of energy use, global warming countermeasures and further initiatives for reducing CO2 emissions in production. The section also contains Toyota's "Biodiversity Guidelines", which are the basic concepts underlying TMC's work in this area.
The second section concerns social contribution activities and gives information about the establishment of Toyota Loops Corporation, which works to encourage greater employment of disabled people. Toyota Partner Robots, which represent a new direction in TMC's social contribution activities, are also covered in this section.
The final section contains basic financial data and sales information from the Annual Report 2008 for investors**, which was released on August 25, 2008.
TMC's overseas affiliates and related companies now publish national and regional reports in 12 countries and regions including Japan, with those regions together accounting for approximately 84 percent of Toyota vehicle sales throughout the world.
TMC has been issuing an annual report regarding its environmental activities since 1998, but starting in 2006 it added social and economic sections and changed the name of the report to the sustainability report. This year marks the 11th issue.
TMC plans to continue to expand and improve its global disclosure of information.
* Years mentioned are business years starting on April 1.
** Available for download at http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/ir/library/annual/pdf/2008/index.html