Usage Proposals to Customers
Distributing Information on Environmentally Conscious Products
There is a growing need in market for environmental consciousness in recent years. It brings a corresponding surge in enquiries from customers regarding the environmental consciousness of Canon products.
In order to respond to such market demands, we have aggressively transmitted information on environmental aspects of our products on our website and other media.
Canon's endeavors to cut CO2 emissions are classified into three lifecycle stages: Produce, Use and Recycle. Cooperating with customers is indispensable in dealing with reductions in emissions arising during Use stage. In the future, we will also promote collaborative CO2 reduction efforts during Use stage through these information channels.
GREEN NAVI, a website supporting environmentally-conscious action by our customers
In November 2009, we established GREEN NAVI section on Canon website.
GREEN NAVI supports environmentally-conscious action on the part of our customers by introducing products and functions which promote to reduce CO2 emissions at offices. It holds an energy- and resource-conservation simulator function that allows users to verify the CO2 reduction merits of upgrading to new models of the product. By making CO2 reduction volumes more apparent, the issues surrounding environmental consciousness become more easily comprehensible to general customers.
In August 2010 we added a Home Edition to the Office Edition which had been in place since we first created the site. The Home Edition introduces efforts to reduce environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of products used in the home. We also added an IT Solutions Version in December, which introduces IT solutions for balancing ecology with improving our business in our corporate activities.
In the future, we intend to expand the series of disclosing Canon products and to introduce multilingual contents to extend benefits abroad. We are also planning to investigate other means of developing and expanding GREEN NAVI services.
GREEN NAVI
Providing Product Environmental Information
Canon has disclosed online quantitative data about the environmental burden of its products throughout their lifecycles since 2002 through the Eco-Leaf*1 program for Type III Environmental Labeling. In 2010, the Company disclosed six such information, bringing the cumulative disclosure to be 81 over nine years.
Moreover, in 2009 the Company began posting a unique product environmental data sheet, GREEN PROFILE, on its website, featuring listings of each product and model with information such as environmental labeling responses, elimination of hazardous substances, and energy and resource conservation. As this feature was created in response to customer enquiries, information provided is highly practical. Disclosure during 2010 spanned 17 product lines and 165 models. We are planning to expand the series of products and models on GREEN PROFILE in the future.
In Europe, we have provided environmental information through the IT Eco Declaration (currently called the ECMA370 Standard [TED*2]), since the late 1990s. Disclosure through the common format among an industry makes it simple to compare environmental aspects of products the users are interest in with those of other companies. This merit has encouraged IT Eco's widespread adoption as a marketing tool, notably in North Europe, for business to business (BtoB) tendering and other transactions.
- *1Eco-Leaf
The eco-label the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (JEMAI) developed and has promoted. Eco-Leaf uses the lifecycle assessment (LCA) method, and shows the quantitative environmental burden of a product throughout its lifecycle, from extraction of resources through manufacturing, use, and recycling. - *2TED
The environmental label European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) developed for voluntary disclosure of environmental information of products. This label makes it relatively easy to understand the environmental consciousness of products.
GREEN NAVI and GREEN PROFILE
awarded the Green Purchasing Grand Prize
Canon uses websites such as GREEN NAVI and GREEN PROFILE to actively provide environmental information about products. In recognition of such efforts, Canon was awarded the Grand Prize (Major Corporation Category) as part of the Green Purchasing Awards announced in October 2010.
The Green Purchasing Awards were founded in 1998 by the Green Purchasing Network, a consortium of businesses, government organs, and NGOs, to commend leading efforts to contribute the expansion, acceptance, and substance of green purchasing.
The current award was for "new ways of delivering information in support of environmentally-conscious activities by the customer." This spurs us to continue to expand our efforts to work with our customers to reduce environmental impact.
