Toyo reports progress with emissions reduction programme

Tokyo - Toyo Tire Corp. has reported year-on-year increases in both scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2023: up 3.5% to 274.5 thousand t-CO2e and 10.6% to 280.5 thousand t-CO2e respectively.

However, in 2023 GHG ‘emissions intensity’ – total volume from scopes 1, 2 divided by total sales – declined to 1.01 from 1.04, ERJ’s analysis of figures in Toyo’s newly released Integrated Report 2024 shows.

The Japanese tire & rubber products maker has calculated scope 2 emissions using a location-based method up to 2022 but switched to a market-based method as of last year.

Market-based GHG emissions were recorded at 105.8 thousand t-CO2e in 2023 – reducing emissions intensity to 0.69 – with only location-based figures presented for the preceding two years.

Energy consumption at Toyo increased by 4.3% year-on-year in 2023 to 7,687 thousand GJ, though energy intensity – total energy used within the group divided by sales – fell to 13.9 from 14.8 in 2022.  

Reviewing actions to reduce CO2 emissions in 2023, Toyo said a project to enhance thermal insulation on the vulcanisers and pipelines at its Sendai Plant delivered a saving of 500 tons a year.

Other projects included the conversion of boilers at the group’s Kuwana plant to natural gas, which reduced CO2 emissions by 1,400 tons.

Meanwhile, introducing nitrogen vulcanisation and installing inverters on vacuum pumps at tire manufacturing subsidiaries in China, reduced annual CO2 emissions by 1,600 tons.

Toyo went on to report that since the second half of 2022, it has been switching electricity purchased primarily at production sites to power derived from renewable sources.

By the end of 2023, 100% of the electricity purchased at the group’s Sendai, Kuwana in Japan and US tire plant in White, Georgia had been converted to renewables.

“We will systematically promote efforts to achieve a global 90% renewable energy usage ratio by 2030,” said Toyo, adding that the ratio stood at 71.14% at the end of 2023.

Toyo is also introducing photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems at its facilities, the largest being in Serbia with a power generation capacity of 8.4MW.

The system’s annual generation of 10,150MWh of electricity is helping reduce CO2 emissions by 7,100 tons a year, the report noted.

At the end of 2023, a large-scale PV power generation system with a generating capacity of 14.0MW was installed on a 96,000m2 rooftop space at Toyo’s tire plant in Malaysia.

The system is expected to generate 19,000MWh and reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 12,000 tons per year.