Toyota selected by DOE for green building promotion
What is a car company doing being selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to promote green building initiatives? Toyota has been on the forefront of promoting the adoption of green car technology, but buildings?
Only 21 companies have been chosen by DOE to increase adoption of green building technology. This means Toyota is part of an elite team that includes:
Best Buy, JCPenney, John Deere, Macy’s, Target and Whole Foods. Major commercial real estate firms include CB Richard Ellis, InterContinental Hotels, Tishman Speyer, Westfield LLC. Financial institutions include Bank of America and PNC Financial Services.
DOE is giving these companies $15 million in funding as part of the project. That’s a nice chunk of change for doing the right thing. All of these companies will be working with DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to get green technology implemented in commercial buildings and building design.
Toyota has been focusing on building green energy dealerships. In May, Toyota of Rockwell, TX was the first dealership in America to receive LEED Gold certification. So far, there are two Toyota dealerships that have received LEED certification. Five more Toyota dealerships should receive this certification by the end of the year and ten more in 2009.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and “is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.” LEED certification is issued by the U.S. Green Building Council.
All of the certified and soon to be certified dealerships were built as part of the Eco-Image USA II initiative. This initiative promotes environmentally sound renovation of old facilities and environmentally sound building of new facilities.
Because of Toyota’s green renovation/building initiative, the company was a actually a natural choice for DOE. Toyota is setting an example for every other car manufacturer in America. Just as Toyota took the forefront in hybrid innovation, the company is setting the standard for dealerships.
via PRNewswire
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