By Betsy Vereckey

Whether it’s a hybrid car or a battery electric vehicle, consumers have lots of eco-friendly cars to choose from these days. Toyota’s Mirai model is a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle that creates energy when hydrogen is combined with oxygen through a chemical reaction. It produces zero emissions, aside from water. Drivers fill their tanks with hydrogen, just like they would if they were using gas. 

Yumi Otsuka T’07, the chief sustainability officer of Toyota, says that Toyota offers a variety of eco-friendly cars so that people can choose the best option for them, depending on where they live and how they use the vehicle.

“Since we conduct business globally, we understand there are very diverse needs in different places around the world,” Otsuka says. “That’s why it’s important to offer various solutions to customers that will help us achieve carbon neutrality in an inclusive manner worldwide.”

Toyota is also working hard on creating a circular economy and sustaining biodiversity. For example, recycling batteries is crucial to increasing the manufacturing of electric vehicles and reducing the negative impact of precious mineral extraction on biodiversity.

“Working on sustainability takes time and effort, but we believe that this challenge will help us hone our competitive edge and make Toyota itself more sustainable,” Otsuka says.

A graduate of Osaka University, Otsuka began her career at Toyota in 1992, when she worked in product management. She also served as executive vice president of GAZOO Racing Company, Toyota’s motorsports division. She’s especially proud of helping establish the company’s first in-house childcare facility in Japan and introducing remote-work arrangements to support work-family balance.

Toyota sponsored Otsuka to earn her MBA, and Otsuka chose Tuck over other schools because she liked its small, warm community.

“The various frameworks I learned as a part of Tuck’s general management focus have been very useful for organizing and understanding complex issues,” she says.

Otsuka recently had the pleasure of welcoming 28 Tuck students for an insightful lecture on the Toyota Production System at Toyota headquarters in Japan, where she reconnected with Professor Joe Hall, who taught her operations at Tuck back in 2005.

Now, as chief sustainability officer, Otsuka is especially excited about the creation of Toyota’s Woven City, which is being built in Japan at the foot of Mount Fuji. The purpose of the project is to test new technologies and services and create a more sustainable environment for living and working. For example, with the help of its partners, Toyota will explore CO2-free hydrogen production and usage at Woven City. Also, Toyota will conduct proof of concept trials of a portable hydrogen cartridge, which will facilitate the everyday transport and supply of hydrogen energy to power a broad range of daily life applications in and outside of the home.

“It’s a new chapter in our story that we’re all very excited about,” Otsuka says.

This story originally appeared in print in the Summer 2024 issue of Tuck Today magazine.