Toyota Engineers Two New Flower Species to Offset Manufacturing Carbon

The car manufacturer creates two flower species to help counter CO₂ created by Prius assembly

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 10.28.2009 at 9:09 am 6 Comments

Toyota Flower Power If you think this vaguely Prius-shaped flower bed looks good, you should see the engineered flower freaks at the Prius plant PR Newswire

Toyota's rivals have long complained that the popular Prius hybrid has a less-than-green legacy due to its manufacturing process. Now the car maker has flashed its green thumb by creating two new species of flower that help offset the carbon emissions from the Prius plant in Japan.

The new version of the cherry sage plant can absorb harmful greenhouse gases, such as nitrogen oxide, through its leaves. And Toyota's variant of the gardenia acts as a natural humidifier by creating water vapor in the air, to help cool the factory grounds, reducing the energy required for air conditioners.

The Age reports that Toyota has made a broader effort to reduce the Prius manufacturing footprint on the environment, and has managed to reduce CO₂ from its Prius plant by 55 percent since 1990.

Even the grass grows more slowly thanks to some Toyota tinkering. The new grass variant only requires mowing once a year, as opposed to the old version that required mowing three times a year.

The Prius plant also boasts reflective solar tubes in the place of many electric lights, motion-sensitive lights in the toilet facilities, and an air-conditioning system used in moderation. We'd wager that these efforts may contribute more to Toyota's greening goal than flower power, but the genetic engineering is still a pretty stunt.

Toyota has recently debuted its plug-in version of the Prius, as a possible counter to GM's plug-in Volt slated for 2010. No word on whether it's seriously looking at any challenge posed by the electric Hummer, otherwise known as the "Prius-Stomping Green Machine."

[The Age via Autoblog Green]

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6 Comments

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Mycellium

10/28/09 at 10:19 am

Genetic engineering to satisfy political correctness.

Its impossible to see any way this trend might not turn out good.

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blaxpear

10/28/09 at 12:23 pm

They'd do us a lot of good by giving producing the seed for that grass that needs mowing once a year.

60% of water consumed in the US goes to lawns and gardens. If the grass grows slower, it needs less water and less energy/fuel to mow and maintain it. Less toxic fertilizers which means less run-off contaminants in our ground and river water supply which make-up the bulk of our water supply.

It's a growing problem here in California.

Somebody please bring this seed to the consumer. If it were up to Scotts, Dupont, and all the other big companies, we will never see this kind of innovation.

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nhan1st

10/28/09 at 8:59 pm

Got one question. Hope someone can answer it.
Wouldn't toyota prius factory release way more pollution than the poor flowers can take in? I'm guessing the flower can absorb about .5-1% of the pollution but what happens to the rest?...

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rssguar

10/28/09 at 10:20 pm

I agree, i don't think that those pants could absorb an significant amount of the pollutions released by the plant. Maybe they could try to make the manufacturing process a little bit more efficient.

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QIII

10/28/09 at 10:55 pm

If they could bioengineer some type of grass to rapidly absorb the dog bombs in my back yard ...

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gatocarmen

11/16/09 at 8:10 pm

I think there will be a problem if we start genetically enhancing plants. First though, I think it's great that they're trying to find a way to help the environment. However, what if we all start using this grass? What kind of effects will it have on our ecological systems? Will it be a sort of invasive species?

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