Environmental Accounting / Material Flow Cost Accounting
Environmental Accounting
Since introducing environmental accounting in 1983, Canon has expanded its scope of application while raising its precision. We use environmental accounting to determine whether management resources are being optimally invested.
Our environmental accounting for 2010 indicates an investment of ¥19.54 billion in environmental protection, including ¥8.66 billion for enhancing items such as countermeasures for global warming and the efficient use of resources. This investment generated benefits of ¥11.26 billion.
Environmental Accounting Results for 2010
Environmental Accounting Results for 2010
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 in accordance with the Environmental Accounting Guidelines (2005 edition) issued by Japan's Ministry of the Environment.
| Category | Key Activity and the Outcome | 2010 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investment | Cost | |||
| (1) Business Area Cost | 1.78 | 10.95 | ||
| Details | 1) Pollution Prevention | Air, water and soil pollution prevention, etc. | 1.19 | 6.60 |
| 2) Global Environmental Cost | Energy conservation, efficient logistics, prevention of global warming, etc. | 0.43 | 1.81 | |
| 3) Resource Circulation Cost | Efficient resource use, waste reduction, sorting, recycling, etc. | 0.16 | 2.54 | |
| (2) Upstream / Downstream Cost | Green procurement initiatives, product recycling*1, etc. | 0.10 | 4.64 | |
| (3) Administration Cost | Environmental education, environmental management system, tree planting, information disclosure, environmental advertising, personnel, etc. | 0.01 | 3.69 | |
| (4) R&D Cost*2 | R&D for reducing environmental burden | 0.0 | 0.05 | |
| (5) Social Activities Cost | Contributions to environmental and other organizations, sponsorships, memberships, etc. | 0.0 | 0.11 | |
| (6) Environmental Remediation Cost | Soil remediation | 0.0 | 0.04 | |
| (7) Other | Other environmental-protection-related costs | 0.0 | 0.06 | |
| Total | 1.89 | 19.54 | ||
- *1In connection with the recycling of used products, expenses for product collection, storage, sorting, shipment, etc.
- *2Expenses for basic research of environmental technologies
| Details of Effect | Environmental Protection Indices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Index Value | ||
| Effect Related to Business Area Cost | Effect Related to Resources Input into Business Activities | Energy conservation (t-CO2) | 34,950 |
| Effect Related to Waste or Environmental Burden Originating from Business Activities | Recycled volume (t) | 75,614 | |
| Effect Related to Upstream / Downstream Cost | Effect Related to Goods and Services Produced from Business Activities | Product energy conservation amount (t-CO2)*3 | 1,735,769 |
| Recovery of used products (t)*4 | 46,536 | ||
- *3CO2 equivalent calculated for electric energy consumption by the number of machines shipped in 2010 with on-demand energy-efficient technologies (on-demand fixing technology, IH fixing technology).
- *4Amount of recovery of copying machines, cartridges, etc. (including outsourced material recycling and energy recovery)
| Details of Effect | Monetary Value | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Sales revenue from waste recycling | 1.45 |
| Cost Reduction | Energy expense reduction from energy conservation | 1.77 |
| Expense reduction from green procurement | 0.0 | |
| Waste handling expense reduction from resource conservation and recycling | 1.13 | |
| Total | 4.35 | |
| Details of Effect | Monetary Value |
|---|---|
| Lower Electric Energy Expense from reduced Product Energy Consumption*5 | 55.10 |
| Profits from Used Product Recycling | 6.91 |
- *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 manufacturing sites in Japan in 2001 and outside Japan in 2004, to reduce environmental burden and cutting costs simultaneously. As at December 31, 2010, 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 in each manufacturing process at their own workplaces and to analyze how resource losses occur. Improvements spurred by this analysis have brought about reductions in environmental burden and cut costs.
We will continue to increase our efficiency of analysis at workplaces, and establish methods for the timely discovery of resource loss and reduction of environmental impact. Along with this, we will look into opportunities to apply MFCA methods, for example by developing them at upstream development divisions.
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 cost accounting to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). We have been working with METI to promote international standardization of MFCA by drawing on our MFCA successes, with the goal of issuing international standards in 2011.
- *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 burden and costs, because the resource inputs to the manufacturing process are reduced by an amount equivalent to the decrease in negative products.
