Toyota Canada Opens New Eastern Canada Parts Distribution Centre in Clarington, Ontario

CLARINGTON, Ontario - DECEMBER 8, 2020 – Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) officially opened its new Eastern Canada Parts Distribution Centre (ECPDC) in Clarington, Ontario earlier today. 

Built with safety, sustainability and accessibility top of mind, the new ECPDC will play an essential role in Toyota’s Canadian parts and service operations by allowing for continued growth and increased parts and service efficiency for its Toyota and Lexus customers and guests across Eastern Canada.

The 350,000 square-foot facility is built on a 30-acre parcel of land located near the corner of Baseline Road and Lambs Road in Bowmanville (within the Municipality of Clarington), providing it with direct access to major transportation routes to better serve Toyota and Lexus dealerships from Manitoba to Newfoundland.

Employee Safety, Health and Wellness

The new facility was designed with a primary focus on the safety, health and wellness of the approximately 150 employees working there, including features such as:

• Separation between equipment and workers maintained using signage and barriers.
   
• Shelving a maximum of 63” above the floor and bulk items kept at a height that any employee can manage without risk of injury.
   
• Air quality and temperature maintained using huge air turnover units and an energy recovery ventilation system.
   
• A rooftop garden and a park area where employees can relax outdoors.
   
• A fully equipped gym, a bright and spacious cafeteria and a wellness room for religious prayers or private quiet time.
   
• A private lounge for truck drivers, complete with shower facilities.
   

Environmental Sustainability

As part of Toyota’s global 2050 Environmental Challenge, which aims to go beyond zero environmental impact and achieve a net positive impact on the environment by 2050, the company is not only focused on eliminating almost all CO2 emissions from its new vehicles, but also from its operations.

Toyota Canada’s new ECPDC was designed with this goal in mind and is set to achieve the Canadian Green Building Council LEEDv4 Gold and Zero Carbon Building certifications, making it one of the most environmentally sustainable buildings of its kind in Canada. Some of the building’s sustainability features include:

• A site carefully selected to minimize the impact on local waterways and ecosystems
   
• Geothermal heating to reduce the building’s reliance on emission-producing fuels
   
• Dynamic self-dimming glass to control glare and help reduce the need for cooling
   
• A 25,000-litre cistern to supply the facility’s low-flow toilets and urinals with rain or snow collected from its roof, saving more than 325,000 litres of water per year
   

Physical Accessibility

Toyota’s vision of becoming a global mobility company is underpinned by its commitment to creating a more inclusive society where everyone can move freely. The company’s new ECPDC is another example of this commitment to inclusion and has received the Rick Hansen Foundation’s ‘Gold’ level accessibility certification, making it one of the most physically accessible buildings of its kind in Canada. The facility’s physical accessibility features include:

• Extra-wide accessible parking spaces, hallways and washroom stalls
   
• Push-button doors and motion-controlled lighting
   
• Telescopic adjustable desks and podiums
   
• An elevator and stairwells specifically designed to be accessible to everyone, with rounded rails and markers for people with visual impairments
   

Corporate Citizenship

For more than 50 years, Toyota has aimed to be a good neighbour and corporate citizen in communities across Canada. When building its new ECPDC, TCI also donated over $500,000 to develop a 600-metre multi-use recreational trail connecting Toyota’s new facility to the community’s existing Soper Creek Trail system - in addition to a 400-metre trail which will provide a partial link to Clarington’s Waterfront Trail.

About Toyota Canada Inc.

Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) is the exclusive Canadian distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Toyota has sold over five million vehicles in Canada through a national network of 287 Toyota and Lexus dealerships. Toyota is dedicated to bringing safety, quality, dependability and reliability to the vehicles Canadians drive and the service they receive. TCI’s head office is located in Toronto, with regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax, and parts distribution centres in Clarington and Vancouver. Toyota also operates two manufacturing facilities in Canada. Having produced more than nine million vehicles, popular Canadian models built at these facilities include Toyota RAV4, Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h hybrid. Recent investments at its facilities in Ontario will allow for increased production of the top-selling Toyota RAV4 and RAV4 Hybrid models for the North American market.

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