GREEN ZONE
“IT’S ASTOUNDING HOW MUCH LIFE IS OUT THERE THAT YOU DON’T REALLY SEE. IT USED TO BE FARMLAND AND NOW IT’S A PRISTINE WETLAND – THE LAST ONE LEFT IN THIS AREA.”
When it comes to water, the site has
Atlas Road warehouse adheres to Toyota’s strict environmental codes from the outset. Initiatives he’s put in place include ensuring the building itself was designed to green building standards. To conserve energy, he included light sensors, double-glazed windows and optimal insulation. Solar panels were then installed on the roof and the warehouse now generates up to 3MWh of power per day, which makes the building virtually self-sufficient in terms of its daytime electricity needs. In addition, the warehouse is trying
T
oyota SA Motors’ (TSAM’s) Atlas Road warehouse – based in the east of Johannesburg and home to the company’s parts operations – is a shining
example of TSAM’s environmental sustainability work. Heading up this initiative is Andries Botha, Toyota’s Senior Manager: BI & Production Administration, a qualified chemical engineer from the CSIR. Andries has been involved in ensuring Toyota’s
to minimise its waste. “Within the Toyota environment, we re-use and recycle – and landfill is the last resort,” says Andries, pointing to the re-use of packaging materials as just one example. If the boxes in which stock is received are in good condition, they’re re-used to send orders to Europe. If they’re usable, but not in pristine condition, then the warehouse uses them for in-house storage. Any wooden packaging is repurposed into pallets for shipping to Africa. In addition, the warehouse has introduced returnable plastic containers to transport spares to local dealerships. The warehouse also composts all its
kitchen waste using a Bokashi system, before transferring the fermented waste to the site’s composting heap. This compost is used in the plant’s gardens. Atlas Road also processes Toyota Sandton’s waste.
an elaborate filtration and collection system. “Rainwater from the roof runs down through a bioswale – it looks like a garden in our truck yard,” explains Andries. “The water gets filtered through that and goes into an underground tank. We use that underground water for our irrigation system and the excess flows into the wetland.” Currently the tanks hold about of water, which lasts the
110 000m3
facility from February to June or July, covering most of the dry winter months until the rainy season starts again in spring. They have also sunk a 90m-deep borehole to top up the tanks, should this be required. In addition, the warehouse’s gardens only feature indigenous water-wise plants. Perhaps the most impressive
environmental outcome from the warehouse’s environmental management initiatives is its care and maintenance of the adjacent wetland. Andries is extremely proud of the company’s achievement in this respect. “Since the construction of our facility, we’ve turned the wetland into a pristine wetland,” he says. It’s pristine, he explains, because the wildlife there is basically natural. “The water purity is ideal, as it’s supposed to be for the habitat. We currently have three endangered species in the wetland: the grass owl, the golden mole and the African bullfrog. And, of course, the bird life is extraordinary. “It’s astounding how much life is out
there that you don’t really see. It used to be farmland and now it’s a pristine wetland – the last one left in this area.”
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