Konica Minolta Publishes CSR Report 2015 on the Web

OREANDA-NEWS. Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has published its CSR Report 2015 (English version) online to inform all of its stakeholders about the Group's corporate social responsibility initiatives.

54% in total – that is the sales amount of Green Products which Konica Minolta has sold in fiscal year 2014 across all business areas^*1 . This represents sales of 547.1 billion Yen. Thus, the importance of Green Products increased once more in comparison to the previous fiscal year, namely by 13 percent points. To be certified as a Konica Minolta Green Product – a certification system introduced in 2011 – a product must pass different criteria such as decreased CO₂ emissions or the usage of recycled materials. 33 new models have been brought to the market in fiscal year 2014, bringing the total to 147 products across all business areas. Their CO₂ reduction effect during product use has been 43,000 tons for instance. These are some of the results of the current CSR report 2015, Konica Minolta published recently. Based on its EcoVision 2050, whose main target is to reduce Konica Minolta’s CO₂ emissions over the product lifecycle by 80%^*2 until 2050, the report shows that the company has done further progress in achieving this target.

Green Products play an important role in achieving the next milestone the company has defined in terms of its Medium-Term Environmental Plan 2016: To reduce the CO₂ emissions throughout the product life cycle by 40% to 1,216 thousand tons in fiscal year 2016.^*3 Examples for Green Products are the bizhub PRESS 2250P made with recycled PC/PET^*4 . The company developed recycled PC/PET plastic, which is a composite material made with PC and, in 2012, was the first in the industry used PC/PET in the outer casing of its colour bizhub multi-functional peripherals?(MFPs). Another example are toner bottles made out of polyethylene from recycled milk bottles. For this purpose Konica Minolta developed its own recycling method and established a mass production system in Mexico and Malaysia. The company intends to increase the proportion of recycled material in the raw material used for toner containers from current 25% to 100% in future. In addition, Konica Minolta contributes with its textile inkjet printers to environmental protection as those achieve a 62% reduction in water resource usage and a 57% reduction in electricity usage in comparison to conventional textile screen-printing.

CO₂ reduction of 20% in Green Factories with level 2 certification

Through its second certification system, the Green Factory Certification System – an evaluation of the environmental activities at its production sites since 2010 – six more units (five in Japan, one in China) achieved the highest level 2. Level 2 means for instance a 20% reduction^*5 of CO₂ emissions and a 50% reduction of waste discharged externally.

Reduction of CO₂ emissions during distribution

Konica Minolta’s Green Marketing evaluation measures distribution, sales and service, collection and recycling. Konica Minolta has reduced CO₂ emissions during distribution by shortening transportation distances through optimization of distribution sites and routes worldwide, reducing the number of containers through improved loading efficiency, and reducing the frequency of air transport.

Besides, Konica Minolta is developing systems for recycling used information technology production in different locations worldwide and striving to increase the recycling rate. In Japan, the company collects MFPs through sales companies nationwide, and dismantles and separates the components: the recycling rate was 98%^*6 in fiscal year 2014.

Reduce environmental impact in cooperation with suppliers

Considering the entire supply chain, the company could decrease its CO₂ emissions by 2.7% to 1.37 million tons in comparison to fiscal year 2013. As the entire supply chain also includes Konica Minolta’s suppliers delivering raw materials and parts the company is continuing with its efforts to reduce emissions by setting targets in cooperation with them. Among other efforts to achieve this goal, Konica Minolta started its Green Suppliers Initiative in fiscal year 2014 to provide suppliers with the environmental technology and know-how to help them reduce their environmental impact. Experts in energy and waste measure from Konica Minolta visited the suppliers’ factories and proposed reduction measures based on the current situation. They work with the suppliers’ staff to formulate and implement improvement plans. Two suppliers agreed with the intent of the activities so far.