Toyota has been praised for its new materials handling sustainability report

Toyota has been praised for its future-facing report highlighting the need for sustainability in materials handling equipment.

Toyota's 'Logistics Trends 2024' concluded that looming government sustainability targets - backed by strong punishments - will drive circularity in the industry.

The report states: "Undoubtedly the biggest area of focus is on ESG (Environment, Social and Governance), with new European Sustainability Reporting Standards coming into effect this year, which will affect over 50,000 companies across Europe.

"This will increase pressure on new developments to lower CO2 emissions in many areas, as examples we see a lot of work going on around renewable energy, more energy-efficient products and carbon-free steel.”

Electronics company In2tec has praised the report, saying there needs to be more major players such as Toyota shining a light on the imperative for a renewed focus on the circularity of electronics.

In2tec Commercial Director Emma Armstrong says: "Hopefully, these thought leaders will shake the wider industry out of its slow adoption of technology circularity before stringent and punitive legal measures force them to - to say nothing of the climate crisis affecting us all."

The Toyota report also highlights that financial performance will fall in importance while environmental social governance will rise.

It adds: "That is now changing, as investors and other stakeholders in society want to know companies’ environmental performance and understand how they manage social aspects.

"Surveys show that company management is having to adapt at a very fast pace."