Energy
Toyota Australia sets targets for reducing gas and electricity consumption to reflect the company's approach to reducing its carbon emissions, lowering fuel costs and managing its operations efficiently.
Production Energy Usage
Toyota Australia draws its energy needs primarily from electricity and natural gas.
During 2010/11, the manufacturing plant used 5.28 GJ of gas per vehicle and 830 KWh of electricity per vehicle. This represents a slight decrease from 2009/10 due to new energy initiatives and increased production volumes, leading to greater energy efficiency per vehicle. Total gas usage was 598,880 GJ and total electricity usage was 94,104 MWh.
Initiatives to reduce total gas and electricity usage include:
- Reducing Sunday energy consumption across manufacturing areas (see below)
- Actions taken as part of EREP program (see below)
- A new type of air conditioner was installed in the new Body Shop office which uses a gas combustion engine rather than electricity
- Fan efficiency in the Paint Shop was improved
- The utility maintenance team continued to monitor daily equipment consumption such as gas consumption of boilers and the electrical consumption of compressors. Any abnormal data was investigated, leading to repairs and savings in gas and electricity usage.
Continued Sunday Energy Savings
Toyota Australia's manufacturing plant in Altona has continued to work towards reducing Sunday energy consumption. Sundays are traditionally a non-manufacturing day however a number of operating activities take place within the plant. Sunday energy consumption has reduced by 48 per cent from 2006 to 2010 from an average of 164MWh in 2006 to 85MWh in 2010.
The company has also been able to save energy during other non-operational days and times, such as Saturdays, public holidays, shutdowns and Monday mornings prior to start up.
Environment Resource Efficiency Plan (EREP)
Commercial and industrial sites in Victoria that use more than 100 TJ of energy and/or 120 ML of water per year are required to prepare an (EREP) that identifies actions to reduce energy and water use and waste generation. Toyota Australia's manufacturing plant in Altona is registered in the program as a mandatory participant, and therefore required to implement those actions in the approved plan and report annually to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria on progress.
Toyota Australia developed an EREP project list in consultation with the EPA in 2008 and identified a total of 85 resource efficiency projects.
One of these projects which was undertaken in July 2010 involved introducing a new, lower-temperature phosphate technology for the application of protective coatings to steel vehicle parts. The phosphate coating is applied to steel in the manufacturing process to protect against corrosion and it was therefore essential to ensure the same strict design criteria while operating at a lower temperature. Changing to a low temperature phosphate has led to a reduction in the process tank temperature from 45 °C to 35 °C, resulting in energy savings. It has also resulted in water and prescribed waste savings and a reduction in the use of chemicals needed for the process.
In total the company has completed 72 EREP projects as required under environmental legislation up to 2011, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 9,844 tonnes. All remaining EREP projects will be completed in 2011/12.
Non-Production Energy Usage
For the company's non-production sites, gas usage decreased marginally from to 14,892 GJ in 2009/10 to 14,799 GJ in 2010/11 but did not meet the target set of 13,615 GJ. The company's electricity usage increased from 11,338MWh to 11,655MWh. This did not meet the target of 10,723MWh set for 2010/11.
The company has continued to implement initiatives to reduce electricity consumption, such as the company's NABERS improvement project. In addition, the company has implemented submetering at the Port Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane sites. The improved information on energy usage will enable Toyota Australia to identify additional improvement opportunities.