WHILE the Toyota Prius may be touted as the “greenest” production car in the market, the Tsutsumi factory which builds it also claims similar eco-friendliness.
Upon entering the tree-surrounded factory in Nagoya’s Toyota City, visitors tend to get an impression that they are in a park rather than a heavy industrial area.
Living up to the slogan “Eco-cars are the product of Eco-plants and Eco-people,” the Tsutsumi factory has become Toyota’s model for its sustainable plant concept using renewable energy.
While the factory gets most of its electricity from power plants, it also has a massive array of roof-mounted solar panels to generate some 2,000kW of electricity.
Like the Prius, the plant is also a kind of a hybrid, running on solar and gas-power electricity power.
The park-like ‘Prius Forest’ at Toyota Corp’s Tsutsumi factory, Japan. At the back is the solar panels of the factory buildings. To further reduce energy consumption, natural light and energy saving lighting system are used whenever possible.
Another interesting eco-friendly step is the use of photocatalytic paint on factory buildings to react with sunlight to absorb nitrogen oxides from the air.
Last year, the Tsutsumi plant employees and the local community planted some 50,000 saplings on the factory grounds to beautify the surroundings.
Although many might expect any eco-friendly plant to be a small capacity site, the Tsutsumi plant is still a sizeable production site, with some 400,000 vehicles made every year.
Its two assembling lines each roll out 57 vehicles every minute.
While the main product is the Prius, other vehicles built are the second-generation Prius EX, Camry, Arion, Premio and Scion tC.
No comments:
Post a Comment