Over the past year or so, the driving public has been seeing a lot of headlines about the lengths the automotive industry has gone to help the environment. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Toyota, the innovative manufacturer behind the best-selling Prius, is one of the leaders in the reform movement. A recent announcement has reminded us all that there is more to this “corporate responsibility” thing in the way of “green business” than the media has been letting on. While focusing on developing cutting-edge technology for fuel economy is a step towards eco-friendliness, it’s certainly not everything.
Sorry for the verbal onslaught here, but I just recently walked into my North Shore Toyota dealer and found out some spectacular news: Toyota has just joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WasteWise program, the first national voluntary solid waste reduction program. That’s a step beyond what some of the most eco-friendly manufacturers are doing as their part. Step inside any Chicago used Toyota dealerships and you know you’ll be patronizing one of the most environmentally friendly dealers in the area.
For its part, the WasteWise program encourages companies to practice waste prevention, recycling and buying or manufacturing recycled products as a means of reducing municipal solid waste. This means that your North Shore Toyota dealers are making a daily effort to do everything that they can to help the environment. In fact, in 2008, Toyota Motor Sales USA logged that 86 percent of its waste was recycled – the equivalent of more than 24,000,000 pounds. That means Toyota was responsible for cutting emissions by the equivalent of the output from more than 10,549 vehicles. Chicago 2010 Prius drivers are doing more than their part by patronizing a company with the foresight to practice what it preaches.
