Do you adore the great outdoors? Enjoy planting and harvesting your own organic garden? Have plans to change the world one pesticide-free piece of produce at a time? Then you should know that Toyota is now accepting applications for its 2012 TogetherGreen Fellowships and Innovation Grants. As the Japanese automaker explains, "The goals of the initiative are to foster conservation leadership, achieve conservation results, forge partnerships in communities, and engage millions of Americans in conservation action."¹

TogetherGreen Conservation Fellowships provide funding to individuals that feel empowered to put their innovative green ideas in place throughout their communities and organizations. Each Toyota TogetherGreen fellow receives a ten-thousand-dollar grant to use towards a year-long community project of their choice, as well as support, specialized training to support and implement their projects. The program has been in place since 2008 and has involved more than 200 thousand people (most of which were volunteers) in all fifty U.S. states through green initiatives.

The Toyota TogetherGreen Innovation Grants provide annual funding for environmentally-charged Audubon groups (and others), which support activities such as conservation and creative community projects to create healthier, more vibrant communities. A minimum of forty Audubon projects will be funded (totaling over $1 million in support, with grants ranging from $5-80 thousand).

David Yarnold, President of the National Audubon Society, further explains the project, stating, "TogetherGreen offers people a chance to change lives and communities. How cool is that? . . . If you have an idea that will engage a community to protect the environment, we want to hear it. When communities, and individuals, are touched by TogetherGreen - they become better places to live."²

For more information on these fellowships and Innovation Grants, visit (www.togethergreen.org/fellows) and (www.togethergreen.org/Grants/GrantsGuidelines.aspx). In the meantime, stop by Toyota of Bristol and check out the automaker's green technologies (such as the hybrid models in the Toyota Prius family of vehicles) first hand. Located in Bristol, TN, we're easy to find!

Source: ^1,2 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/applications-open-for-2012-togethergreen-fellowships-and-innovation-grants-2012-01-30