Lexus' tireless environmental efforts have grown out of our genuine respect and
concern for the earth's environment. Our concerns range from the gathering and
transporting of raw materials to the processing and assembly of vehicle parts,
and from the processes at our dealer locations to the handling of materials at
the end of a vehicle's life.
Designed With Concern
The focus of Lexus design efficiency is to build a
vehicle that is exceptionally lean in its use of raw materials, its fuel, and
its impact on the environment - all while pushing the boundaries of performance,
luxury and quality.
The design of lighter-weight vehicles means greater
natural resource conservation, better fuel consumption, less emissions, reduced
brake wear, improved handling and braking performance, and less scrap disposal.
Lexus works to reduce weight without weakening the vehicle or eliminating
desirable features through sophisticated computer modeling that allows excess
material to be designed out during engineering. Extensive testing validates the
strength and durability of each component before it goes into
production.
Lexus pushes the frontiers of vehicle aerodynamic efficiency,
using wind-tunnel-tuned, computer-modeled details to reduce aerodynamic drag.
Engine and driveline sounds are analyzed and tuned exhaustively, and airflow
sounds are investigated in the wind tunnel and on the road.
Lexus
innovations ensure that power plants deliver maximum power from the minimum
amount of fuel, with remarkably low exhaust emissions. Sophisticated
VVT-i combustion management controls do all this,
with the result that Lexus models meet
Low Emission Vehicle (
LEV) or the more stringent
Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (
ULEV) EPA certification standards.
Cleaner Manufacturing and Distribution
In-plant water use, waste volume
and scrap material generation have been cut dramatically at Lexus plants, and
improvements in plant energy efficiency help to reduce the greenhouse gases that
are a by-product of power generation. All eight plants that build Lexus vehicles
are ISO 14001 qualified, having received an internationally recognized
certification for environmental management systems.
Lexus dealers are a
part of this effort. The Lexus Environmental Assistance Network equips all
dealers with a customized web site that provides up-to-date waste-management
information. Dealers return numerous components for precision factory
remanufacture and ultimate sale as rebuilt parts.
On The Road And Beyond
Plastic components used in the interiors and
exteriors of Lexus vehicles are molded of a highly recyclable and lightweight
material, Toyota Super Olefin Polymer. Its use has reduced by two-thirds the
polyvinyl chloride used in the LS 430 during the current model's redesign. Lead
and mercury, two of the more challenging substances to deal with when a car is
dismantled, have been largely supplanted by environmentally preferable
materials.
Lexus is improving recycling technology with facilities such
as the Automobile Shredder Residue Recycling plant that recovers urethane foam,
fiber, copper, glass and plastics. Vehicle dismantling methods and recycling
technologies are being developed to allow Lexus vehicles to meet a vehicle
material recovery rate of 95 percent by 2015.
