Toyota wins again

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has been awarded its second Energy Company of the Year award by the Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency (SAEE).

The award recognises outstanding accomplishments of individuals and companies in the energy industry, specifically: the commitment to the profession; the desire to further the association’s mission; and participation in civic and community affairs.

“This is a very prestigious award and we are excited about winning it for the second consecutive year. At Toyota we strive to be Number 1 in all we do and this proves that our efforts towards energy efficiency are moving in the right direction. This is a critical part of our business and a company-wide initiative,” says Riaan Olivier, GM, safety health and environment (SHE) department at TSAM.

TSAM also won a Platinum award in the Toyota Global ECO Award, for the Assembly Plant with the Best Performance in Reducing CO₂.

In April 2010, TSAM opened a dedicated Environmental Engineering Department to handle all the energy-efficiency projects around its Durban manufacturing plant. This department has completed 108 projects since its inception, with the main focus around energy efficiency.

“Energy efficiency requires a collective effort and, for this reason, we mobilise the whole company to assist us with our projects. We are very motivated to ensure all our projects yield optimum results without affecting on quality, safety and production, and we continue to track all projects way after completion. Energy efficiency has far-reaching effects including cost reduction, production efficiency improvement and environmental impact reduction – so it makes sense,” concludes Olivier.