Small actions, big savings

What say you on the issue below?

On a visit to the assembly plant of automotive giant Toyota.

PAYING heed to Mother Nature makes absolute economic sense and does pay dividends, at least RM1.5 million in energy-savings, for Toyota’s assembly plant in Shah Alam.

Over the years, the plant’s energy use has risen, in tandem with the increase in production volume which almost touched 70,000 units last year.

The plant is now embarking on 64 improvement activities in various departments, which by next year will translate to a reduction of more than 2,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Manjula Murugesan explaining the department’s environmental tasks, targets and assessments.

That’s one-fifth of the plant’s 2007’s figures for 2007. In And in practical terms, RM1.5 million mil in energy-savings.

“Energy costs us about RM9 million mil now. If we don’t do anything, we estimate that we’ll be spending RM12 million mil next year,” says Manjula Murugesan, the environment unit head of Assembly Services Sdn Bhd (ASSB), the manufacturing arm of UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd.

Behind the giant of a target are small and simple actions. actually. For example, changing the nozzle design and distance of paint spraying in the paint shop saves RM28,000 a year.

Even the simple action of switching on hot water generators and the chiller as and when they are needed instead of an hour earlier, which was the norm, saves the plant RM43,000.

“A lot of these are simple changes in our operations, activities, but they have resulted in a lot of CO2 benefits and cost-savings,” says Manjula.

With a belief in building cars that are friendly not just to consumers but also to the environmentnature, as well, the Toyota has
to strike a fine balance between economics and the environment.

Not a light task, considering the many “loopholes” for environmental impacts to take place throughout the automobile’s lifecycle.

Whatever the impacts, be it the use of natural resources, or pollution tainting of air, water and soil, they exist at each point of the cycle, from the time the vehicle is designed and developed to the purchasing of parts and materials, logistics, production, sales and services, use and, finally, disposal.

But within these loopholes also lie manyare also where opportunities, lie, says Manjula.

“This is our cradle-to-grave concept. At each and every part of the cycle, we intend to minimise necessary pollution and eliminate environmental impacts that should not happen.”

Chemical, physical and biological processes are employed to treat wastewater in the ASSB plant before it is discharged into the drains. Some 150,000 metre cubes of treated water, with a quality twice better than the national legal limit, are discharged each year.

This is done through a consolidated environmental management system set up in 2000 by Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and more than over 500 affiliates around the world.

For example, while the design and development departments strip substances of concern like plumbum, cadmium and mercury off manufacturing, logistics plays its part by cutting down on carbon dioxide emission and packaging material use during delivery.

At the ASSB assembly plant in Shah Alam, environmental consideration is weaved into daily operations in three main production stagesprocesses: development, developing, paint shop, and assembly.

During production, natural resources are used and waste produced.

“Wastewater is released after cars are cleaned. There’s air pollution when burners are used. When we use parts and materials, there’s waste generation, – both industrial and general.

“This are the effectsese are the impactss we have on the environment and if we don’t control them, they will cause pollution,” says Manjula, while leading , who led a delegation of local media on a tour of the plant.

For this reason, the plant built seven wells at within its vicinity to monitor the quality of its soil and groundwater.

Every year, samples are tested in labs to determine if there are any chemical or wastewater leakages from facilities and equipments into the ground, a process which costs over more than RM30,000.

Thus So far, the record has been clean, maintains stresses Manjula.
The paint shop aims to cut down on the emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by next year.

VOCs are organic chemicals that vaporise easily and may have health consequences.
They are manifested in the unmistakable sharp smell that hits the air once a can of paint or thinner is opened.

To meet its target, the paint shop switches to materials that emit less VOCs, uses robotics which are more efficient in paint transfer than spray guns, reuses its thinner thus reducing fresh thinner consumption and educates its its employees employees on the need to cut down on VOCs.

Ever since ASSB became the first automobile assembly plant in the country to obtain the ISO14001 certification, an internationally recognised standard for environmental management system, 10 years ago, the assembler and distributor has continuously taken many proactive measures in its operations.
gone beyond what is required.

Like the groundwater monitoring and removal of substances of concern from its manufacturing process, upgrades to its fuel farm are also done on a voluntary basis.

Single-walled tanks are replaced with double-walled fibre-reinforced plastic tanks for petrol storage underground so that should leakages occur, fuel doesn’t seep into the soil. The leak detection system is also enhanced.

All together, the bill came up to more than RM250,000 for the fuel farm alone.
“These activities are not mandatory under national legal requirements, but it is a global direction, a voluntary movement from our side.
“We do it because the environmental benefits outweigh the costs,” says Manjula.