Automakers have made attempts to create more environmentally friendly factories before. Subaru even leveraged its zero landfill factory in Indiana as part of an advertising campaign. But Toyota looks to have raised the bar to a new height by engineering two new flowering plants to help clean the air at its Toyota City factory in Japan.

We’ve envied past collaborations Good Magazine have made with Starbucks and Lexus – and this one follows a similar theme: that they create a special Good Magazine content to create an inspirational experience for the reader and also helps sell a few cars.

Toyota has planted several 18-foot high solar-powered daisies in front of the Prudential Mall in Boston as part of their launch for the 2010 3rd-generation Prius, which will utilize solar power for inner ventilation if parked in the sun. The flowers provide free Wi-Fi, cellphone and laptop charging, and seating for 10 people at a time. The installation also includes 5 bus shelters that use solar panels to operate fans for air circulation.
The exhibit leaves Boston July 19, and will be placed in other cities through the rest of the year.
[via The Design Blog]
[images from Boston.com/The Design Blog]

The limited battery range and lack of known charging stations, which have hindered electric vehicles’ popularity among average folks, turn out to be a match made in heaven for Zipcar. With a vast majority, 95 percent, of its customers using the service for trips lasting less than four hours and not more than 25 miles, electric cars are ideally suited for the Zipcar sharing platform. Including Citroen c1 and plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius the Electric Vehicle Pod aims to extend the platform for evaluation of new alternative vehicle technologies.
The world’s largest car sharing service launched another innovative project earlier this [...]

Toyota chose the 2009 Detroit auto show to debut its new 3rd generation Prius model. The car served as the centerpiece of Toyota expanding line of hybrid vehicles. Rather than print up a typical glossy brochure, the company gave away thousands of paper cards with seeds embedded in them. The front contains a simple tag line that says ‘Good ideas grow. Literally.’ The back has the planting instructions, which are essentially burying the card in soil and watering it. Each card contains a mix of annual and perennial wildflower seeds.
This is the first article of PSFK’s review of the 2009 [...]