Community Contribution
Globally, Toyota's founding mission is to 'contribute to society through the manufacture of automobiles'. Locally, one of the ways that Toyota contributes is through its investment in the communities where it operates.
Through its community investment the company aims to build relationships with the Australian community and stakeholders, encourage employee and dealer participation and deliver long-term sustainable benefits to the environment through partnerships with non-governmental organisations.
Toyota Australia Community Spirit is Toyota Australia's corporate citizenship program and consists of national and local partnerships. Toyota Australia also makes community sponsorships and donations.
Toyota Australia has eight principles that determine the selection of the company's community partnerships. These principles help Toyota Australia to direct its resources into areas where it can be most effective. To read these principles please click here.
Measuring Community Investments
Toyota Australia measures its contribution to the community using the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) methodology. The LBG is an international business membership organisation, with 51 member companies in Australia and New Zealand, which provides methodologies to determine a company's community contributions.
During the financial year ending 31 March 2011, Toyota Australia's community investment totalled approximately $2.21 million. This includes:
- Charitable donations (11.69 per cent)
- Community investment (25.06 per cent)
- Commercial initiatives (63.26 per cent)
Community donations
Contributions made out of a sense of moral responsibility or in response to expectations from society.
Community investment
Contributions made because of a belief that companies have a long-term interest in fostering healthy communities.
Commercial initiatives
Contributions made as part of a program designed to provide direct benefits to the company.
While Toyota Australia is able to report on its total community investment for the financial year ending 31 March 2011 using the LBG methodology, the LBG benchmarks members' contributions in September each year. Information relating to Toyota Australia's performance against its peers in the LBG is not available until after this report is published.
To benchmark Toyota Australia's performance against its peers in this report the information below relates to Toyota Australia's community contributions based on the financial year ending 31 March 2010 and the LBG's 2010 Annual Benchmarking Report.
In 2009/10:
- As a percentage of pre-tax profit, Toyota Australia's community contributions equate to 1.41 per cent, compared to an average of 0.63 per cent for LBG members.
- Contributions per employee at Toyota Australia totalled $574, compared to the LBG members' average of $322.
- Contributions as a percentage of total revenue were 0.03 per cent compared to the LBG members' average of 0.10 per cent.
For further information about the LBG please see www.lbg-australia.com
Toyota Community Foundation
Toyota Australia will establish the Toyota Community Foundation (TCF) in 2011/12. The Foundation will provide a means for the company to give back to the community, and will consolidate and deliver Toyota's community contributions both nationally and to local communities. It will incorporate current Toyota Community Spirit activities and community sponsorships.
Employees will play a fundamental role in the foundation with 12 employees across the company selected to act as Employee Champions. The Employee Champions will be responsible for making recommendations to the Foundation Endorsement Panel (made up of Toyota Australia Directors) on guidelines and programs that the TCF will contribute to.