to download PDF version - Toyota

Independent Assurance Statement
To the Board and stakeholders of Toyota South Africa Motors:
SustainabilityServices.co.za (SS) was commissioned by Toyota South Africa Motors (hereafter, ‘TSAM’) to provide independent third party
assurance over the company’s Sustainability Report 2010 (hereafter, ‘the Report’), covering the period 01 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 (FY08)
and 01 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 (FY09). The assurance team comprised primarily of Michael H. Rea, our principal Sustainability Assurance
Practitioner, with experience in environmental and social performance measurement. Over the past 11 years, Michael has undertaken over 35
assurance engagements in various countries, including Sudan, Kenya, the DRC, Nigeria, Cameroon, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South
Africa, Peru and Canada: working either as part of a team (while in the employ of PwC and KPMG), as an independent sustainability assurance
provider, or as the Partner and Lead Assurance Practitioner within SS.
Independence
Although the assurance process has offered interim guidance pertaining to the perceived strengths and weaknesses of this Report, SS has not
participated in the preparation of any part of this Report and has not undertaken any commissions for TSAM in the reporting period concerning
sustainability management or reporting. SS’s responsibility in performing its assurance activities is to the management of TSAM alone and in
accordance with the terms of reference agreed with them.
Assurance objectives
The objectives of the assurance process were to provide stakeholders of TSAM with a low level independent assurance opinion on whether
the Report meets standard reporting principles, as well as to assess the degree to which the Report is consistent with the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) G3 guidelines, with the objective of establishing whether or not the Report has met the GRI’s G3 Application Level B reporting
requirements.
Scope of work performed
The process used in arriving at this assurance statement is based on best practices in sustainability reporting assurance. Our approach to
assurance included the following:
• Reviews of drafts of the Report for significant data and/or assertion anomalies, and to assess whether sufficient ‘neutrality’ (i.e., success and
challenges) could be identified.
• Interviews with individuals responsible for writing the Report in order to assess TSAM’s measurement and reporting procedures, and to
assess the process used to define the content of the Report by looking at materiality of issues included in the Report.
• An assessment of whether or not the requisite number of GRI G3 performance indicators have been covered in the Report to meet Application
Level B requirements.
Findings
Specific mention should be made of the fact that TSAM is not motivated by the same domestic pressures to report as listed companies in South
Africa, but rather choose to report as a function of Toyota’s global commitment to sustainability reporting. Thus, some aspects of this report
are not consistent with standard disclosures in the South African context, particularly for JSE-listed companies, and some content may not be
deemed comparable to other companies of similar size, stature or manufacturing nature.
In general, the Report adequately reflects the company’s sustainability management and reporting policies, procedures and systems, and
represents a measured improvement over the content contained within the most recent previous report (2008). However, it was found that:
• Although additional performance data (i.e., numerical/quantifiable data) would be required to enhance the overall quality of TSAM’s
sustainability reports, including enhanced self-assessments of the trends and anomalies presented within the data, this Report appears to
reflect an accurate accounting of TSAM’s sustainability performance for the reporting period.
• Although significant improvement has been identified over the previous report, particularly with respect to environmental performance, room
for improvement continues to exist, particularly with respect to Governance and Social Aspects information.
• In some cases, key indicators are deemed inconsistent with expectations and/or international best practice, particularly the definition applied
to Lost Time Injuries (i.e., not counting Restricted Work Cases), and the way in which carbon efficiency is normalized to units of production
(i.e., cars manufactured), rather than person hours worked.
Based on our review of the Report, as well as the processes employed to collect and collate information reported herein, it is our assertion that
this Report adequately meets the GRI G3’s requirements for Application Level B (responses to all required indicators, including the Disclosures
56 Toyota South Africa Motors Sustainability Report 2010