Canon is on track to achieve its own net zero goals, and in the process it is helping customers around the world to reduce total electricity consumption and CO2 emissions in support of their own ESG strategies.
So says Sebastian McNamee, Workspace Business Development Manager at Canon South Africa, who notes that sustainability is moving up the list of priorities for businesses in South Africa and across Africa.
“Larger enterprises and multinationals across Africa are focusing more on sustainability now, and we also see sustainability initiatives starting to emerge as criteria in tenders,” he says. “It’s going to become increasingly important for businesses to operate sustainably in future.”
He concedes that the sustainability focus for smaller and midsize businesses in Africa is driven largely by cost savings and electricity reduction. “Power reduction to cut costs is important for many businesses,” he says. “We also see growing demand for our refurbished and remanufactured multifunction devices in parts of Africa. This may be due in part to a commitment to the circular economy, but may also be due to their lower price.”
Canon committed to sustainability
Canon is committed to sustainability and continually improves the energy efficiency of its products, as well as reducing CO2 emissions in production, packaging and logistics, and constantly increasing its use of renewable energy.
“There are four key steps we target to reduce CO2 emissions: avoid, reduce, digitise and offset,” McNamee says. “The avoid component seeks to discover and monitor device-related inefficiencies and build a more sustainable fleet.
Under ‘reduce’, we use smart print management to reduce energy and media consumption across the fleet. This is achieved by implementing rules, such as enforcing printing in mono for those who aren't required to print in colour, and through automatic and manual job deletion when jobs are submitted and not printed within a specified timeframe.”
The ‘digitise’ focus aims to identify where existing processes can be digitised, for example, using a secure e-signature solution to avoid printing contracts. McNamee says: “The more you digitise, the less you print and the more sustainable your business. Printing will never go away, but it can be reduced. You have to print smartly and digitise where you can.”
Where CO2 emissions are unavoidable, the ‘compensate’ focus supports climate and environmental initiatives around the world through the Canon Climate Project Contribution service.
Sustainable workspaces for Africa
Canon multifunction devices, cloud device management and uniFLOW software solution to manage printing and scanning workflows and devices help organisations operate more efficiently and sustainably, McNamee says.
“We constantly work to improve the energy efficiency of our products,” he says. “For example, the new Canon imageRUNNER Advance DX C5860i Multifunction Printer optimises electricity consumption and reduces CO2 by 13% compared to the previous model. One innovation helping to reduce energy consumption is our innovative new low melting point toner, which reduces the energy required to print documents.”
Canon enables streamlined cloud-based management, which both aligns with mobility trends and helps organisations operate more sustainably. McNamee says: “The world is going from on-premises to cloud solutions. Organisations don’t want the cost and complexity of running a print server with the associated licences, electricity and maintenance. In the cloud, they use less electricity and resources, increase efficiency and save money. To support sustainability, they can also pull uniFLOW reports on factors like how much printing was done and how many trees have been saved by reducing printing.”
Impacts in SA
McNamee highlights broader local sustainability efforts such as Canon South Africa’s new initiative to divert waste from landfills by decanting expired/or residual substances from toner containers. He says: “The recovery of these toner bottles is in line with Canon’s commitment to a circular economy and the National Waste Management Act. The recovered toner bottles will be recycled and re-used for different purposes with the intention of protecting and preserving the environment.”
Local initiatives with social impact include Canon South Africa’s Miraisha programme, which fosters job opportunities across Africa by providing workshops for photographers, videographers, filmmakers and print business owners. “We’ve conducted events this year. At two of them, in Pretoria North and Johannesburg, we advocated the avoidance of plastic usage by demonstrating the use of biodegradable water bottles. We are also going to launch a 12-month youth photography project in Mpumalanga next month, focusing on biodiversity,” he says.
Award-winning sustainability efforts
McNamee says Canon’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions throughout the product life cycle have earned the company numerous accolades. Canon has been awarded the international EcoVadis Gold Medal Sustainability Rating for consecutive years since 2013, putting it among the top 3% of companies globally, and was named a “leader” in the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Sustainability Programs and Services Hardcopy 2023 Vendor Assessment.
Canon holds an ISO 14001 certification for Environmental Management Systems (EMS), holds the German Blue Angel environmental label, and has been recognised by UK based non-profit organisation CDP for its transparency and leadership in the field of climate change.
For more information, visit https://www.canon.co.za/.
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