Canon global

2011 Environmental Assurance Activities

Of Canon's CO₂ emissions generated throughout the product lifecycle, 27% are accounted for by operational site activities and logistics, and 73% by customer use, as well as raw materials and parts production by suppliers. Activities focused on the full product lifecycle are vital to reducing environmental impact. To this end, Canon seeks to improve technological innovation as well as management efficiency, and to reduce environmental impact across the entire product lifecycle.
Because of natural disaster such as Great East Japan Earthquake and floods in Thailand in 2011, Canon continued with ongoing energy-conservation efforts at operational sites, and additionally introduced such measures as "peak hour cuts," "peak hours shift" and "summertime hours" in response to power shortages caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Moreover, we launched the Canon Group Energy Management Committee to strengthen our energy-conservation initiatives and ensure their effectiveness. We also sought to improve the energy efficiency of our products, and made progress in expanding the number of products incorporating environmentally-friendly materials, such as bio-based plastics. In addition, we actively continued with efforts connected to reducing environmental impact during product use, such as developing products incorporating the "Eco Setting" and the "Ecology Information Plug-In," which makes environmental impact during product use "visible." As a result, we achieved a year-on-year reduction of CO₂ across the entire product lifecycle of approximately 14%.

Lifecycle CO₂ Emissions

2011 Material Balance

Basic Approach to CO₂ Calculations

Among the greenhouse gases designated under the Kyoto Protocol, we compile data for CO₂, an energy-derived greenhouse gas. Past data may be revised due to improvements in the precision of data calculations. Calculations using the TEC^* were changed for some office equipment and other products since the 2012 disclosure. These coefficients have been adjusted going back to 2007.
We use different CO₂ conversion coefficients for each region and year. In Japan, coefficients are supplied by the Ministry of the Environment and the Federation of Electric Power Companies. Outside Japan they are provided on a regional basis by the International Energy Agency. (Please refer to Operational Sites Covered in the Environmental Section.) For customer use figures, electricity consumption of products shipped in a given year over their average lifespan is calculated using coefficients stipulated by Japan's Ministry of the Environment in 2000. Other CO₂ coefficients are provided by the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry in their lifecycle assessment (LCA) software.