Toyota Ireland & UCD Greenwashing Research

It is undoubted that greenwashing has been honed into an art form over the past decade, as brands feverishly try to out-do one another in their bogus claims about their supposed ‘green’ credentials.

They know that we will spend more, consume more if their brand appears to care about the environment and reflects even a shred of the ethics that we value. They also know that this is a key way to get you to buy their product over a competitor, to gain a market advantage.

In a world where this has become the most prevalent tool in marketing and advertising products to us, Toyota can likely lay claim to the crowd as the corporation which has most refined their greenwashing approach. This is not intended as a compliment.

They have revolutionised the spreading of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) as a method to fearmonger consumers into delaying ethical actions, while also soothing them with entirely false claims that the products they sell are sustainable in the face of the Climate Crisis.

We can see this most plainly in their promotion of “self-charging hybrids” – a flexible marketing line designed to hide the fact that every vehicle Toyota currently sells is entirely reliant on fossil fuels. The “self-charging” requires you to burn petrol to make electricity. See our article We Need To Talk About Toyota for more on this.

Yet Toyota Ireland is not resting on its laurels, safe in the knowledge that it can bamboozle consumers with creative language – it has also engaged in more sinister methods of deception.

It is the automotive equivalent of shampoo adverts which claim that 98% of 100 women thought their hair was shinier after using a new product. It is wholly unscientific.

In fact, we were so concerned at such a small sample size being used that we contacted the researchers at UCD behind the study, and they confirmed to us: “This was a small-scale study and did not purport to be otherwise.”

And yet, Toyota deliberately took this information – which they had commissioned and funded – and used it to fabricate claims about the ‘green’ credentials of their vehicles being used across Ireland.

In the press release announcing the report, Mark Teevan, Toyota Corporate Affairs Director, claimed:

“This is the first study of this type carried out in Ireland, and we anticipate its results would be replicated across the country and also across the range of newly launched Toyota hybrid models. It conclusively shows that our self-charging hybrids are in zero emissions mode for well over half of their journeys, including on long drives.  It underlines the fuel economy and positive environmental impact that self-charging hybrids can bring to society with reduced C02 and improved air quality, which, in turn, can deliver significant health benefits for cyclists and pedestrians traveling the same routes.”

At no point in this report is there any intention to investigate the health or environmental repercussions of hybrid use, nor was a control group used to monitor the efficiency and emissions of a petrol vehicle or a fully-electric BEV car.  

This is not the fault of the researchers – it is a deliberate act to deceive the people of Ireland, and the press, by Toyota Ireland.

Dodgy Data

Furthermore, the study used entirely questionable data to manipulate the claims that Toyota Ireland wanted to make.

Importantly, the CO2 emissions computed in the study were based on US data (US EPA Emissions Factors for Greenhouse Gas Inventories), rather than European data models. This is crucial as European laws on greenhouse gas emissions are considerably stricter than those applied in the US, where vehicles tend to be larger and considerably less efficient too. This ensured a more favourable result for Toyota Ireland.

Furthermore, the report used out-of-date data regarding the average commuting behaviour in Ireland. According to the authors of the report, they based their calculations on the average journey by an average car being 12.85km, when in reality it is 16.4km – as reported and readily available from the Central Statistics Office.

Again, this is an inherent bias in the report which ensured favourable data that could be used to market hybrid vehicles as a ‘green’ option for Irish drivers – while hiding the fact that they are entirely reliant on fossil fuels, and create harmful emissions that worsen public health and the Climate Crisis.

Somewhat unbelievably, the spokesperson then goes on to claim: “Our self-charging petrol electric hybrids […] are therefore the means to an urgent democratisation of electrification for the private car.”

Here is Toyota Ireland, boldly extrapolating the findings of a study that they paid for, that they controlled, that they misinterpreted, to claim that they are aiding the democratisation of electrifying vehicles.

Suppression of the truth, artificial scarcity and manipulation of data are not the calling cards of democracy. They are the hallmarks of tyranny.

These are the words of a company which fully understands the consistent harm that its products are having on public health in Ireland, and in worsening the Climate Crisis, and yet chose to fund a study to get them off the hook – and get rich from making us and our planet sick.

By law, this must be fulfilled within 8 weeks of submission – but six months later and we are yet to have a firm timeline from the University on when this request will be fulfilled, or if it ever will be.

This is incredibly worrying behaviour from a University which has – knowingly or unknowingly – enabled a major car manufacturer to engage in greenwashing designed to profit from worsening the Climate Crisis.

In addition to weekly emails since 8th July 2021 chasing a response to our questions, we have contacted UCD’s press office for comment on this. No comment was forthcoming at the time of publication.

We have not attempted to contact Toyota Ireland for comment on this article. This was a deliberate act on behalf of IrishEVs, given that Toyota Ireland have previously only ever offered “no comment” on previous enquiries after making us wait several weeks for a response.

We are also tired of printing the tired lies of PR people which do not address the specific questions asked in the face of the Climate Crisis which claims 5 million lives annually and threatens to displace 1.2bn people by 2050.

We will leave you, the reader, to decide what to make of this.

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