Toyota has created a new plant species designed to offset the CO2 created by its Prius assembly operations. By RICHARD BLACKBURN.

Toyota has created two flower species that absorb nitrogen oxides and take heat out of the atmosphere.

The flowers, derivatives of the cherry sage plant and the gardenia, were specially developed for the grounds of Toyota’s Prius plant in Toyota City, Japan.

The sage derivative’s leaves have unique characteristics that absorb harmful gases, while the gardenia’s leaves create water vapour in the air, reducing the surface temperature of the factory surrounds and, therefore, reducing the energy needed for cooling, in turn producing less carbon dioxide (CO2).

The two new plants are part of a wide-ranging plan to reduce the impact of Prius manufacture on the environment. Since 1990, the plant has reduced CO2 emissions by 55 per cent.

The plant at Tsutsumi has solar panels on its roof to generate electricity and special photocatalytic paint on its exterior walls to absorb harmful airborne gases including NOx and sulfur oxides (SOx).

Inside the plant, some of the light is provided by reflective solar tubes which beam reflected sunlight into rooms, replacing electric light globes, while motion-sensitive lights in the toilet turn off when they are unoccupied. The office air-conditioning system is kept at a balmy 28 degrees in summer to reduce CO2 output and white collar employees are allowed to wear short sleeved shirts and no ties to compensate for the warmer office temperature.

Even the grass 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. In 2008, Toyota planted 50,000 trees to offset the factory’s CO2 emissions.

Toyota has been criticised by its rivals, who claim the company’s petrol-electric Prius isn’t as green as other conventional vehicles once the car’s manufacturing process is taken into account.

Critics claim the Prius production process creates more CO2 than normal petrol vehicles, nullifying the lower CO2 output of the car itself.

Toyota admits the production process is more CO2-intensive, but says that by the first year of its life, the Prius has wiped out the deficit.

The company also denies its CO2-reducing initiatives are related to the criticism the car has received.