Toyota Talks The Talk Walks The Walk: Helping Their Employees Reduce Personal Carbon Footprint +VIDEO

Originally Published September 28 2017

By Larry Nutson
Senior Editor and Bureau Chief
Chicago Bureau
The Auto Channel

Are you looking for a new car? Or, perhaps you might be looking for a new job. Maybe both. Maybe neither.

In any case, both how you get to work as well as the company you work for can help you reduce your personal carbon footprint.

Stay with me, please!

It’s quickly obvious that you can reduce your personal carbon footprint by what you drive. That is, driving a low emission, fuel-efficient vehicle---an LEV.

As for where you work, an excellent example of how an employer can help is Toyota.

Toyota Motor North America’s new headquarters campus in Plano, Texas has officially achieved LEED Platinum from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Toyota’s new campus is the largest commercial LEED Platinum project in the state of Texas, to date.

Toyota will eventually employee up to 4,000 people in Plano. The state-of-the-art, 100-acre campus boasts a long list of sustainability aspects, from renewable energy to drought resistant landscaping.

Well known for its fuel-efficient Prius model range, Toyota has nearly 50 EV charging stations available to employees to use for free. Yes, free.

Toyota has provided reserved parking spots available for special needs, including disabled, expectant moms, carpooling, visitors, vehicle charging and more. The Toyota Plano campus has nearly 250 LEV designated parking spots across all four parking garages. All of these special need parking spots are conveniently located near the entrances to nearby buildings.

For those who get in their daily exercise on the way to work, Toyota offers bicycle parking areas in the four main parking garages near the main walkway to enter the adjacent building from the parking structure.

And for those who leave the driving to someone else, Toyota worked with the Dallas Area Transit Authority (DART) to add two bus routes with a covered DART stop located near the Main Lobby area. These make it easy for team members who choose to use mass transit access it to and from work each day.

We quickly think of LEVs being pure-electric, hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicles. Well, many traditionally-powered, gasoline engine vehicles are certified as LEVs or even ULEVs---ultra-low emission vehicles.

When new-vehicle shopping you may be surprised. Many performance brands and models offer LEV or ULEV vehicles.

Have a look here for state by state approved green cars by make o www.epa.gov/greenvehicles.

As mentioned previously, Toyota and other LEED certified workplaces provide specially LEV-designated parking spaces that are closer to building entrances. A little perq for driving more-green.

Many other companies across the U.S. have initiatives to make for green(er) commuting. Give this some thought on your next job search.