The money, given over five years, is the largest grant in the society's 103-year history. It will help it spread the gospel of conservation by funding projects, training future environmental leaders and boosting volunteer participation at 51 Audubon centers, including Mitchell Lake.
The money will be used to create a program called TogetherGreen. Audubon President John Flicker described it as "a new Audubon effort to take action to improve and restore the environment we share. It's focusing on efforts to restore our land and water and working to engage people in energy conservation."
Through TogetherGreen, groups can apply for grants up to $100,000 for conservation projects. The program will create conservation fellowships to foster and to train environmental leaders. Also, the program will bring more attention to volunteer days at Audubon centers across the country.
"It's a more enhanced volunteer initiative," said Susan Albert, director of the Mitchell Lake center. "We hope that anywhere the words 'National Audubon Society' and 'Toyota' are used in San Antonio, people will think of Mitchell Lake."
Team members from Toyota Texas have volunteered at the Mitchell Lake center since 2005, planting gardens, clearing trails, and building benches and boardwalks. Nearly 300 people signed up to work the last time Toyota plant employees organized an event there. The next event is scheduled for Sept. 27.
"We're definitely on board, and we've been on board for four years," plant spokeswoman Hilda Bustos said.
Toyota's volunteer projects at centers such as Mitchell Lake helped the company develop TogetherGreen with the Audubon Society, said Patricia Salas Pineda, Toyota Motor North America Group vice president.
"As we developed this partnership and this program, those volunteer projects were a very important driver of putting this program together," Pineda said. "Toyota is not only making a contribution to this program but mobilizing all our team members."
Audubon President Flicker said the TogetherGreen program has been in the works for the past two years. One component of it is a new Web site that will allow people to apply for grants and fellowships and to find volunteer opportunities.
"We're looking forward to engaging Toyota's huge work force," Flicker said. "With 36,000 employees in addition to dealerships throughout the country, they will help launch a cycle of conservation."
Though it has been a strong advocate of hybrid vehicles and environmental stewardship, Toyota has been criticized by environmental groups since the launch of the San Antonio-built Tundra. The massive pickup is a sharp contrast to the Prius, which introduced U.S. drivers to hybrid gas and electric engines.
Projects such as TogetherGreen, along with Toyota's efforts to reduce plant emissions and landfill waste, have met with skepticism from hard-line environmental groups.
Nick Magel, director of the Freedom from Oil campaign, called Wednesday's announcement "green washing."
"It's great that Toyota wants to save the birds," Magel said. "But there aren't going to be any habitats left if they continue to create vehicles that destroy the environment."
Flicker said groups like Magel's would be eligible for the TogetherGreen grants as long as they can demonstrate an ability to "provide meaningful results." Toyota would have no say in who gets the grants.
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