Environmental Icon Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Youth Program Sustainability Supported by Toyota
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots youth program, created by Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), and UN Messenger of Peace will be supported by a new initiative and partnership in alignment with Toyota Motor North America’s sustainability goals. Since 1991, Roots & Shoots, a core program of the Jane Goodall Institute, has fostered millions of inspiring changemakers and exists in all 50 states and over 65 countries worldwide.
The exciting and expansive partnership will focus on growing engagement in local communities around several of Toyota’s manufacturing plants and promote the roll-out of Roots & Shoots youth projects and celebrations regionally in the United States. Toyota’s commitment includes a $100,000 grant to be used over 2023-2024 to help catalyze Roots & Shoots youth community-service projects and conduct four events – several with Toyota team members – all with the goal of preserving and restoring wildlife habitat and inspiring action on behalf of the natural world we all share. Previously, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada on Roots & Shoots youth activations in the region around its Cambridge Ontario assembly plant, inspiring similar collaboration in the United States.
Roots & Shoots individuals and groups across the U.S. and world are supported in and outside of the classroom to take on issues in their community to help people, animals, and the environment. Through the program’s tools including its 4-Step Formula to create and implement community-service projects, young people connect to one another, feel a sense of agency and purpose, as well as grow Roots & Shoots Compassionate Traits and essential changemaking skills. This partnership demonstrates the leadership of Dr. Goodall and JGI to establish meaningful relationships with corporations that emphasize a genuine investment in sustainability as a bottom line with a tangible vision and timelines.
This work represents broader efforts by Toyota as part of its Environmental Challenge 2050, which includes a set of six visionary, global challenges that seek to go beyond eliminating negative environmental impacts to create positive value for the planet and society. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC, TMNA’s parent company headquartered in Japan) announced these six challenges in 2015 after extensive research and internal and external consultation. Specifically, the challenges are: 1) New Vehicle CO₂ Emissions Challenge – Reduce CO₂ emissions from new vehicles by 90% (2010 baseline); 2) Operations CO₂ Emissions Challenge – Eliminate CO₂ emissions from operations; 3) Life Cycle CO₂ Emissions Challenge – Eliminate CO₂ emissions from suppliers and dealers; 4) Water Conservation Challenge – Conserve water and protect water resources; 5) Recycling-Based Society Challenge – Support a circular economy; and 6) Harmony with Nature Challenge – Conserve biodiversity, protect species and restore habitats. With the added support from Toyota, a real connection will be made between Roots & Shoots, Toyota facilities, team members, their families, and their communities to make a difference – like Jane Goodall – every single day.
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About Roots & Shoots USA
In 1991, local youth gathered on Jane Goodall’s front porch in Tanzania and expressed how they felt powerless against the problems in the world around them. As the students told stories and offered ideas, Jane realized the solution was right in front of them: their power to create change. The Roots & Shoots program was born. Roots & Shoots provides the resources to encourage and motivate young people to take action on issues that matter to them. Today, the tools and support offered through the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) program empower youth in all 50 states and over 65 countries to use their voices and ideas to address the issues that matter most to them in their communities. Through Jane’s hopeful message and the Roots & Shoots model, youth around the world are encouraged to put their ideas into action. Since 1991, millions of students have taken on the challenge of making the world a better place for people, other animals and the environment we share. Roots & Shoots youth are not only the future–they are the present– and they are changing the world. Learn more at rootsandshoots.org and follow us @rootsandshoots.
About the Jane Goodall Institute
The Jane Goodall Institute is a global community-centered conservation organization founded in 1977 that advances the vision and work of world renowned ethologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE and UN Messenger of Peace. By understanding, protecting and improving the welfare of chimpanzees and other great apes, while inspiring action to conserve the natural world we all share, we improve the lives of people, other animals, and the environment. Learn more at janegoodall.org. Follow Jane and JGI at Facebook.com/JaneGoodall and @janegoodallinst on Instagram and Twitter.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius hybrid and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota and Lexus brands, and directly employs more than 63,000 people in North America (more than 49,000 in the U.S.).
Over the past 65 years, Toyota has assembled nearly 45 million cars and trucks in North America at the company’s 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, the company’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
Through our more than 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.), Toyota sold more than 2.4 million cars and trucks (more than 2.1 million in the U.S.) in 2022, of which, nearly one quarter were electrified vehicles (full battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell).
