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TOYO TIRES WORLDWIDE

Environmental Protection Efforts

Environmental Protection Efforts

We understand that our business activities have the greatest direct impact on the environment of the areas around our production facilities in particular. Therefore, we not only build understanding of and trust in those activities by maintaining a dialogue with and providing information to stakeholders in areas around production facilities but also strive to reduce the physical and psychological environmental burdens. We also promote efforts to protect biodiversity in local communities as something that not only generates direct benefits for local life but also leads to sustainable growth.
For example, the Kuwana Plant works with the NPO Mori-no Kaze to undertake “TOYO TIRES Midori-no Tsunagari Mie” activities, through which we are transforming a local abandoned thicket into a healthy forest.
In 2020, the 7th year of the project, we focused on the conservation of the "Green Trail" which was completed in 2019, to assure that it can be used safely by the local residents, and we worked to develop the "Green Square." With the utmost care to prevent the spread of COVID-19, 18 employee volunteers were joined by administrative officials and members of the local community in planting trees and installing log chairs. Coming up, we will speak with educational institutions to discuss how we can make it easy for students of elementary schools nearby to use the new local infrastructure.
Through such continued commitment, they are hoping that their plant will be seen as an integral part of the host community as it contributes to the further development of the community.

  • Forest conservation activities (Kuwana plant)

Preserving Biodiversity

With production facilities in Japan, the US, China, and Malaysia, we conduct operations while complying with the environment laws and regulations in each country.
We have confirmed that at the current time, there are no protected lands stipulated in biodiversity related laws and regulations or highly valuable land in terms of biodiversity (such as Ramsar Convention-designated wetlands) in the areas around or downstream from our production facilities. In addition, if we operate in countries and regions that are highly valuable in terms of biodiversity, we will continue to analyze risks and work to protect that biodiversity through a preventive approach.

Toyo Tire Group Environmental Protection Fund

Based on the desire of employees to contribute to creating a better living environment as residents of the Earth and local community, we established the Toyo Tire Group Environmental Protection Fund in 1992 to provide financial support for organizations and activities related to environmental protection in and outside Japan. The Fund employs a gift matching system, under which the company contributes the same amount of money donated by employees. Contributing to the fund has taken root as a Group environmental conservation activity, and the employee participation rate has been over 80%.
The fund is managed as two types of funds, an in-house fund within the Group and a foundation fund within the Osaka Community Foundation. The in-house fund is used for several purposes, including providing direct donations and subsidies to environmental protection organizations that we select on our own, covering the cost of providing support in the form of manpower by employee volunteers, and subsidies for applicant organizations that are introduced by independent organizations that select recipients for the fund. We visit organizations that receive direct subsidies once a year, ascertain the details of their activities, and exchange opinions with responsible staff.
Due to the spread of COVID-19 that began toward the end of 2019, we were forced to cancel part of our visits to the recipients of the fund during fiscal 2019 (subsidizing period: April 2019 - March 2020). In fiscal 2020, we met with the staff members of the 22 recipients online to compare notes on various topics, including the impact of COVID-19 on their activities and their response to the situation.

Partnership with the Japan Philanthropic Association on Environmental Protection

We invited the Japan Philanthropic Association to serve as a new independent organization that selects recipients for the Toyo Tire Group Environmental Protection Fund. We have started to provide support for certified environmental protection NPOs and their work through the association.
The association selects organizations to receive subsidies by not only complying with selection criteria created by the Group, using our subsidies to expand the scope of the organization’s activities, and increasing contributions to solving social issues, but also being able to broaden the scope of Group employee’s volunteer activities as application requirements. There is an independent committee to evaluate appropriateness.
Applications for the next fiscal year's subsidies is open between July and September each year, and recipients are chosen after approval by the Environmental Protection Fund Steering Committee. In fiscal 2020, we provided subsidies totaling 15.386 million yen to the 14 organizations chosen by the Association. In fiscal 2021, we plan to subsidize ten organizations for a total amount of 12.398 million yen.

*Due to the spread of COVID-19, it is expected that some of the activities of the recipients will be changed or postponed. Regarding the revision of the plan for our subsidy activities, the Environmental Protection Fund Steering Committee will confirm the activity status of each group and hold discussions. In this way, we will continue to operate the subsidy appropriately in accordance with the plan.

Sustainability