Environmentally Conscious Management | Environmental Accounting / Material Flow Cost Accounting
Environmental Accounting
In 2011, we invested ¥18.42 billion in environmental protection. Of this amount, ¥ 8.3 billion was dedicated to improvements in such areas as countermeasures for global warming and the efficient use of resources, which resulted in benefits of ¥12.16 billion.
2011 Benefit Found Through Environmental Accounting
Environmental Accounting Results for 2011
Reporting scope: Main subsidiaries and affiliates (expanded from 2004 by adding data for main subsidiaries and affiliates outside Japan to data for subsidiaries and affiliates in Japan).
Calculations performed according to the Environmental Accounting Guidelines (2005 edition) issued by Japan's Ministry of the Environment.
| Category | Details of Key Activities | 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investment | Cost | |||
| (1) Business Area Cost | 2.57 | 10.06 | ||
| Details | 1) Pollution Prevention | Air, water and soil pollution prevention, etc. | 1.62 | 6.24 |
| 2) Global Environmental Cost | Energy conservation, efficient logistics, prevention of global warming, etc. | 0.51 | 1.56 | |
| 3) Resource Recycling Cost | Efficient resource use, waste reduction, sorting, recycling, etc. | 0.44 | 2.26 | |
| (2) Upstream / Downstream Cost | Green procurement initiatives, product recycling*1, etc. | 0.03 | 4.85 | |
| (3) Administration Cost | Environmental education, environmental management system, tree planting, information disclosure, environmental advertising, personnel, etc. | 0.11 | 3.14 | |
| （4）R&D Cost*2 | R&D for reducing environmental impact | 0.0 | 0.06 | |
| (5) Social Activities Cost | Contributions to environmental and other organizations, sponsorships, memberships, etc. | 0.06 | 0.09 | |
| (6) Environmental Remediation Cost | Soil remediation | 0.0 | 0.21 | |
| (7) Other | Other environmental protection-related costs | 0.0 | 0.01 | |
| Total | 2.77 | 18.42 | ||
- *1In connection with the recycling of used products, expenses for product collection, storage, sorting, shipment, etc.
- *2Expenses for basic research on environmental technologies
| Details of Effect | Environmental Protection Indices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Index Value | ||
| Effect Related to Business Area Cost | Effect Related to Resources put into Business Activities | Energy conservation (t-CO2) | 38,208 |
| Effect Related to Waste or Environmental Impact Originating from Business Activities | Recycled volume (t) | 70,553 | |
| Effect Related to Upstream / Downstream Cost | Effect Related to Goods and Services Produced from Business Activities | Product energy conservation amount (t-CO2)*3 | 1,712,576 |
| Recovery of used products (t)*4 | 45,158 | ||
- *3CO2 equivalent calculated for power consumption by the number of machines shipped in 2011 with on-demand energy-efficient technologies (on-demand fixing technology, IH fixing technology).
- *4Amount of recovered copying machines, cartridges, etc. (including outsourced material recycling and energy recovery)
| Details of Effect | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Sales revenue from waste recycling | 1.83 |
| Cost Reduction | Reduction in energy costs from energy conservation | 1.96 |
| Reduction from green procurement | 0.0 | |
| Reduction in waste handling costs from resource conservation and recycling | 1.28 | |
| Total | 5.07 | |
| Details of Effect | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Lower energy costs from reduced product energy consumption*5 | 54.40 |
| Profit from used product recycling | 7.09 |
- *5Calculated as the reduction in annual energy consumption of business machines with on-demand energy-efficient technologies (on-demand fixing technology, IH fixing technology) x 12 yen/kWh (economic effect for the customer).
Promoting Material Flow Cost Accounting
Canon began introducing material flow cost accounting (MFCA)* as a management tool at its production sites in Japan in 2001 and outside Japan in 2004, to reduce environmental burden and cutting costs simultaneously. As of the end of 2011, MFCA was being used by 17 sites in Japan, and nine in other countries.
Foremen at major workplaces where MFCA is applied have led efforts to identify the amount and cost of negative products generated through the manufacturing processes of each workplace and to analyze how resource losses occur. Improvements spurred by this analysis have brought about reductions in environmental impact and costs.
As part of its promotion of MFCA, in November 2007 Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) proposed an international standardization of material flow-based cost accounting to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This was issued as the "ISO14051 Material Flow Cost Accounting- General Framework" in September 2011. Canon put to use the rich MFCA experience we have gained up to now in our participation in efforts toward the international standardization of MFCA, and supported the drawing up of the framework.
- *Material flow cost accounting (MFCA)
This method of environmental managerial accounting incorporates the calculation and management of quantity and cost data for losses of resource inputs to the manufacturing process. This model accounts for final shipped products as "positive products" and everything else released during the manufacturing process as "negative products." Analyzing negative products and reducing their amount results in lower environmental impact and costs because the resource inputs to the manufacturing process are reduced by an amount equivalent to the decrease in negative products.
