The flowers, created from the cherry sage plant and the gardenia, absorb nitrogen oxides and take heat out of the atmosphere. The sage derivative's leaves have the ability to absorb harmful gases, while the gardenia's leaves create water vapour in the air and reduce the temperature of the area around the factory thereby reducing the need for cooling.
What's more, the grass in the premises has been specially developed to grow more slowly than conventional lawn. As a result, it only requires mowing once a year, compared with three times for the grass it replaced.
Toyota planted 50,000 trees to offset the factory's CO2 emissions in 2008. The company has faced severe criticism in the past by rivals who say that the company's petrol-electric Prius isn't as green as other conventional vehicles once the car's manufacturing process is taken into account.
Though the car manufacturer admits the production process of the Prius is more CO2-intensive, it claims that the Prius has wiped out the deficit within the first year of its life.
Source: India Syndicate
Image: Reuters
