Issue #0837/1 – Since last week’s brief review in TCPglobal of the resources available through the Xerox Sustainability Portal, the company has released its 2008 report on Global Citizenship and Epson has released its Global Environmental Positioning Statement, looking towards 2050. We summarise the highlights from the top 10 printer manufacturers, both achievements and initiatives.
On the whole, there are masses of information from almost every manufacturer relating to its activities, goals and achievements on environmental and sustainability issues – most of it reasonably accessible. Some data can be buried fairly deeply within some manufacturer’s web site, making it difficult to access and some is difficult to digest.
Partly for this reason, and partly because there are no standards or statutory formats for delivering environmental data, it would be impossible to present a thorough analysis of the activities of all manufacturers under the remit of TCPglobal. We have attempted, therefore, to extract the most important facts and most interesting initiatives, always accepting that the summary may not be inclusive.
There are, of course, some universal principles that lay the foundation for the performance we see.
In principle, there are three areas that are seen as the core of the environmental issue, each viewed from the perspective of business sites and products, together with laws and regulations. These are very succinctly identified by Brother as:
- Global warming prevention
- Creating a recycling-oriented society
- Pollution prevention
In the current climate, all manufacturers are obliged to seek to develop new products and new technologies that reduce the burden on the environment, specifically energy consumption and CO2 emissions but also waste production. This includes new printer and MFP products with lower power consumption, better use of raw materials, easier recycling of parts at end of life and less packaging that can be more easily recycled.
Manufacturers are obliged to comply with product collection and recycling legislation under the WEEE initiative and have programs in place to that end.
In addition, most manufacturers recognise that increased levels of production result in higher emissions and energy consumption overall and are therefore primarily targeting reductions in energy consumption and emissions per unit of revenue or production. In many cases, absolute consumption and emissions may have risen but the efficiency has increased, resulting in an effective reduction in the relative burden.
Transportation has become a major issue in the last few years and most manufacturers are seeking cheaper and less environmentally burdening alternatives to air freight and wholesale trucking of product – namely sea and rail.
And finally, carbon offsetting has become one of the major buzz-words over the past couple of years and many of the manufacturers are involved in carbon offsetting projects around the world, ensuring that new trees are planted on an ongoing basis.
So, taking each of the 10 in turn, what are the top manufacturers saying to their audience about how well they have performed, achieved their goals and set appropriate environmental initiatives in place?
Brother
Although Brother appears not to provide data relating to the global achievement on the environment, a number of examples are highlighted – with Brother UK standing in the limelight:- Energy costs have been reduced by 8% while business grew by 5% (2006/07)
- 82% of power consumption is from ‘green’ sources (2007) with the remainder is to be switched to green sources during 2008
- Percentage of recycled waste grew from 88% to 93% in (2006/07)
- Used cartridge collection and recycling grew 85% in 2007 with prospects for 2008 suggesting a further 74% improvement
- Materials recycling from cartridges was 100% – meaning zero landfill
Brother Industries around the world have also introduced several interesting concepts for energy conservation and instilling environmental responsibility in its workforce:
- Turning off lights on lunch breaks and turning off power and water heaters over holidays. Using this principle, Brother is targeting a 20% energy reduction in 2008 from a base line in 2002. The monthly energy consumption at one plant has already been reduced by over 48,000kWh and at another by over 32,000kWh (no percentages available). A further plant can lay claim to a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions between 2003 and 2007.
- A rooftop sprinkler system helps to reduce demand for air conditioning
- Inverter-driven fluorescent lights, pumps and compressors reduce power consumption and emissions
- All truck drivers have been required to participate in an Eco-driving course, providing a benefit of >5% between 2005 and 2007
Canon
With sustainability reports from Canon are readily available dating back to 1999, Canon focuses on the development of resource-conserving products that are smaller, lighter and easy to recycle. Thus, they use less raw material and manufacturing energy as well as reducing transportation costs.Between 2000 and 2007, Canon targeted an improvement its CO2 emissions to net sales ratio of 100%. Working from a base ratio of 1.0 in 2002, the achieved ratio by 2007 was 1.57 (falling short of its targeted ratio of 2.0). Thus, although total CO2 emissions rose from 6.1m tonnes in 2000 to 6.48m tonnes in 2007, net sales rose from just under 2,700bn Yen to 4,480bn Yen, netting a relative reduction in emissions per unit of net sales.
Other environmental statistics regarding waste are (figures for 2007):
- 190,000 tons of used product has been recycled (from 1990)
- 100% of returned cartridges are recycled, resulting in zero landfill
- 103 tons (8% increase year on year) of inkjet cartridges have been recycled into stacking pallets and new cartridges
- Waste consigned to outside processing contractors was 62,407 tons, a reduction of 40% per unit of net sales from the 2000 level
- Waste consigned to landfill was 858 tons, a 53% reduction from the level in 2004
- Water use was 9.02 million m3, a 25% reduction per unit of net sales from the level in 2000
- Paper use was 698 tons, a 22% reduction per unit of net sales from the level in 2005
Interesting environmental initiatives from Canon include:
- Conducting an energy conservation patrol and using a monitoring system that controls power consumption by workplace
- In 2007, marketing subsidiaries in seven European countries such as the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands purchased 60% of their total electricity usage from renewable energy resources, specifically from biomass power stations and hydropower stations
| Air | 100% |
| Truck | 15% |
| Ship | 4% |
| Rail | 2% |
Along with switching from air transport to ship and rail, the European central logistics centre is now bypassed for certain products to certain countries. Product is shipped direct from the port of entry to warehouses in each country by rail or feeder boats. Canon estimates CO2 emissions of alternative methods of transportation, compared to air freight, per ton of product shipped, to be as follows:
- Instant-on fuser is a Canon invention, which has been in use in all Canon and Hewlett-Packard laser printers for a number of years. This represents a large percentage of total laser printer sales per year and considerably reduces power consumption by the device.
- 2007 - 100% of laser printers and 83% of MFPs comply with Energy Star.
- Canon has succeeded in reducing energy consumption in MFPs by 80%
Epson
Epson has a long-term vision for sustainability, publishing a 2050 vision brochure.Sustainability targets from Epson include:
- European cartridge recycling to be increased from 30% in 2007 to 70% in 2010
- Use double-decker trucks wherever possible in transportation of product – these trucks create 40% less CO2
- Reduce warehouse size by 40% per sq metre of stock while maintaining stock levels
- Reduce the size and weight of products
- Reduce power consumption of inkjet printers by 73% over 4 years
- Reduce power consumption of projectors by 90% over 10 years
In keeping with the above goals, Epson can already show improvements in environmentally-conscious product design – e.g. the Stylus Pro 4800 printer is 71% lighter and 57% smaller than its predecessor (Stylus Pro 3800), resulting in a 44% reduction in the carbon footprint of the product.
Epson claims that it has the first inkjet printers to carry the new Energy Saving Recommended logo (which sets limits for Ready, Idle and Sleep modes for inkjet printers, photo printers and multifunction devices).
Achievements – since 2004:
- 8% reduction in CO2 equivalent energy consumption
- 40% reduction in emissions
- 54% reduction in industrial waste
- 5.4% reduction in water consumption
- Epson spent 12.7bn Yen on environmental conservation in 2007
- 74% (9.67bn Yen) was spent on environmental R&D, of which 49% was spent on improving product energy efficiency
- In addition, 93% of R&D expenditure went on developing environmentally friendly products
One very interesting development from Epson is that the company has joined Lexmark in running what is effectively a ‘prebate’ programme for aftermarket toner cartridge sales. This is currently specific to its new AL-M2000 laser printer.
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard hits hard with a marketing claim that 1bn tonnes of global CO2 savings could be achieved through the use of current Hewlett-Packard IT solutions in areas including buildings, transportation networks and industrial production.Targets for Hewlett-Packard include:
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16% by 2010 over 2005 levels
- Reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2010 over 2005 levels
- Because this target was nearly met by the end of 2007, it has been revised to achieving a 25% reduction by 2010
- Recycle 1 billion pounds (450,000 metric tonnes) of electronic products and supplies since it began recycling in 1987
- Because this goal was exceeded by the end of 2007, a new goal has been set to recycle a further 1 billion pounds by the end of 2010
Achievements for 2007 include:
- 5% reduction in energy consumption from 2006, which represents a reduction of 17% per unit of revenue
- 51% increase in recycling tonnage over 2006
- Collected approximately 3 million hardware units weighing 28,500 tonnes (63 million pounds) for reuse and remarketing, an increase of more than 31 percent compared to 2006
- Increased the volume of waste recovered for reuse and recycling as a proportion of relevant sales to 15% from 10% in 2006
- More than 200 million inkjet print cartridges have been made from post-consumer plastic waste since 2005
On the recycling front, Hewlett-Packard works with Braun, Electrolux and Sony in Europe to process used electrical hardware. In China, Hewlett-Packard has set up service centres in 31 major cites where consumers and businesses can deposit HP-branded equipment for recycling.
Along with achieving savings in transportation by switching from air to ocean and from road to rail, lighter pallets are being used and moves are being made to increase the number of products per pallet.
Konica Minolta
Using data for 2007, Konica Minolta has:- Reduced total waste by 25% since 2003 (which represented the peak waste production) and 6.7% from 2006
- Reduced landfill volume by 87% since 2000 and 53% from 2006
- Reduced the percentage of waste sent to landfill from 5.2% in 2000 to 0.86%
- Increased the percentage of waste reused or recycled from 81% in 2000 to 98%
However, Konica Minolta has not been as successful in certain other areas of its business, specifically relating to energy consumption and emissions.
- Energy consumption has been rising while net sales have been falling, resulting in increased energy consumption of 17% per unit of sales since 2004 and 8% year on year
- Emissions have also been rising on reduced net sales, resulting in a worsening of the emissions to net sales ratio of 14% since 2004 and 9% year on year
Konica Minolta has, on the other hand, been fairly active in developing initiatives to reduce the environmental burden in the future, along with other key initatives:
- Induction heaters have been introduced into MFP fuser units
- Resulting in power consumption being cut by about one-third while the print speed from the MFP devices increase
- Two power switches have been introduced to MFPs. A sub-power switch shuts down most operations but leaves the machine capable of receiving faxes. This is used as the daily power switch (i.e. typical for overnight operation), while the main power switch cuts all power to the device
- Only 2 types of plastic are now used in MFP outer casings to facilitate recycling
- Minimisation of air transport and long-distance trucking has had to be accelerated in order to achieve the targeted 30% reduction in transportation emissions from 2000 to 2006
- Electric vehicles have been introduced for MFP service engineers
- In-house processing of certain waste materials includes compression of expanded polystyrene; crushing of cardboard and plastic waste; and shredding of cardboard for use as shock absorber protection in packaging
Kyocera
Kyocera has one of the longest histories in the development of eco-aware printer products in the industry:- 1992 saw the first printer with the ECOSYS print engine, which uses a long-life, ceramic OPC drum, now with a life of up to 500,000 pages (depending on the model)
- ECOSYS engine results in: smaller supplies; smaller packaging; improved transportation efficiency; lower transportation cost per unit; lower waste production; and lower Total Cost of Printing for the customer
- Supplies packaging is made from single-piece folded card to offer protection and shock absorption using minimal material and no adhesive
- Kyocera is the only company to be using reconstituted cardboard as packaging inside laser printer shipping boxes
- Decrease in absolute CO2 emissions of 22% from 1990 to 2006, including a 1.3% reduction from 2005 to 2006
- Claims to have achieved zero emissions at all business sites in Japan in 2007
- Promoting return and reuse of used plastic toner containers, targeting 50% reuse rate by 2007, achieved 60%+ collection rate and 35% reuse rate in 2006 from a standing start in 1999
- New heaters/coolers at the company headquarters have delivered 28% reduction in CO2 emissions
- 1,900 tons of used product collected in 2006, with 99% recycle rate. Targeted 100% recycle rate for 2007
- Parts reused increased by 14% in 2006
- Streamlining distribution routes has resulted in 22% improvement in CO2 reduction from transportation in 2006
Lexmark
Lexmark has led the field in extra high-yield toner print cartridges for office printers for many years. Extra high-yield cartridges (up to 32,000) means fewer cartridges to package, ship and recycle – therefore, means lower energy consumption, lower emissions and lower recycling costs.Other product initiatives include:
- E series laser printers now using instant warm-up fusers, means 12W power in standby mode – one-ninth the power consumption of previous generations
- An ECO mode has been introduced on several models. This reduces power consumption by up to 28%. A combine ‘ECO mode plus duplex’ option offers maximum savings with minimal effort
Environmental achievements include:
- Used cartridge collections achieved 18x volume increase in 2007 since its start in 1996. This, however, still means only 33% collection rate (up from 10% in 1996). Co0llection rates in the US are higher than elsewhere in the world, running at between 40% and 50%.
- Zero landfill policy for cartridges – meaning 100% recycle or recovery
- Lexmark’s global headquarters reduced emissions by 11% year on year in 2006, saving 28% natural gas and 7% electricity consumption
- 2007 saw further savings at the site of 17% on natural gas consumption
- Boulder Colorado plant increased wind power purchase by 60% in 2007
- Other plants buying alternative energy from hydroelectric plants, solar sources and kite wind generators
- Over the last two years, Lexmark has achieved reductions in employee miles travelled by road (7.6%) and air (19%), with corresponding savings in emissions (18%)
However, Lexmark is another company that has experienced increases in emissions on falling revenues. And, this is not the only areas for concern:
- Emissions actually rose in 2007 from 2006 – by 1% – on a 4% drop in revenue, resulting in an effective increase in emissions per unit revenue of 5.6%
- Only 66% of waste is being recycled
- 21% of waste is going to landfill, 9% is being incinerated without energy recovery
Like other manufacturers, Lexmark is targeting a direct-ship distribution model to minimise shipping miles and reduce reliance on central warehouses
Oki
Despite reducing CO2 emissions by 5% year on year in 2007, Oki does not seem to be anywhere close to achieving its target. In 1995, it set itself the target to reduce emissions by 10% by 2010. That is a 15-year period to achieve just 10% improvement.Year-on-year achievements for 2007 from Oki include:
- 5
- % reduction in energy consumption
- 5% reduction in CO2 emissions
- 11% reduction in paper consumption (46% reduction achieved since 2000)
- 9% reduction in total waste generated
- Final waste disposal (presumably meaning landfill) was reduced by 3%
But …
- … 9.6% of total waste generated ion 2007 was committed to landfill
In fact, during the past 12 years, the company has: reached an emissions level nearly double its 1995 level (1998) and only two years out of the 12 have shown an emissions level below the 1995 base line. Curiously, both of these years met the 2010 target nearly a decade before the deadline. In more recent years, however, it has become clear that Oki has a lot of hard work ahead of it, in the last couple of years of the decade, if that original target is to be achieved – especially with a consistency that can be maintained.
Where waste disposal and recycling is concerned, up until 2005, Oki was being highly successful in achieving a zero emissions state by recycling more than 99% of waste over four consecutive years. However, in 2006, Oki claims that acceptance criteria of its recycling contractors were changed, leaving Oki with a 10% balance of waste that could not be recycled – a situation that also affected 2007.
Oki is hard at work on this dilemma however. Total waste generated in 2007 was reduced by 9% over 2006 and the company expects that switching recycling contractors will enable a return to the 99%+ recycling rate for 2008.
Environmental initiatives from Oki include:
- Eco-driving training for drivers
- Looking to switch transportation to biodiesel fuel manufactured from used cooking oils
Samsung
Samsung is one of the companies that has experienced impressive unit sales and revenue growth over the course of this decade, not least in the printer market, where it now claims the number two position in many areas. As a result, total energy consumption and waste production, as a whole, has inevitably increased. Samsung is, therefore, careful to quote its data in terms of energy or waste ‘per unit of production’.In other words, if Samsung can push up production without pushing up energy consumption or waste production, then the resulting figures show a relative reduction in energy or waste per unit of production and represent an achievement despite the fact that the gross figure increased.
Compared to 2001, Samsung claims:
- 42% reduction in CO2 emissions per unit of production by 2006, with a 45% reduction targeted for 2010
- Total waste production increased by 62% between 2001 and 2005 but waste produced per unit of production fell by nearly 9%
- At one point, waste production per unit of production was as much as 25% lower than the 2001 level
- Percentage recycling of waste has improved from 71% to 83% over the period with the total amount of waste recycled increasing by 86%
Because of its heavy involvement with chemical processes, in the production of silicon products, Samsung’s declared focus areas for improvement in its homeland, Korea, are centred on such aspects as foul smell reduction, solder recycling and the processing of waste gases and liquids.
Environmental initiatives in the community appear to be centred on the environmental impact of manufacturing plants. Each plant is charged with responsibility for monitoring its impact on the local river system and ecosystem.
Xerox
Xerox’s Global Citizenship Report is a very comprehensive document covering a wide range of topics relating to corporate responsibility, including employment and environmental sustainability. The report shows improvement in almost every area, particularly where environmental issues are concerned.Accepting that there is no ultimate attainment in the area, Xerox determines to make continued improvement year on year:
- As of 2007, all of Xerox’s major U.S. facilities are National Environmental Performance Track sites, validating environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance
- Xerox has been named a National Performance Track Corporate Leader in 2008
- All manufacturing facilities are certified to ISO 14001
- Waste recycling rate (non-hazardous solid waste) was 92%
- Waste diverted from landfills through equipment and supplies return, reuse and recycling programs reached 2.1 billion pounds since 1991
- Energy consumption has reduced by 19% since 2002
- Worldwide reduction in greenhouse gases is down by 21% since 2002. This is the result of improved energy efficiency, new technologies and improved energy management practices
- Xerox’s original target for reduction of greenhouse gases for 2012 was 10%
- The company exceeded this target by 80%, five years early. So, a new target has been set at 25% reduction by 2012
- Energy reductions have saved Xerox $18m in one year, with a natural gas consumption that has been cut by 25%
New Xerox MFP products launched in 2007 that qualify for Energy Star rating was 80%, down 20% from 2006 due to the new ENERGY STAR specification (for further information, see "New Energy Star standard", "New Energy Star - what manufacturers say", "New Energy Star - tightens up on power consumption" and "New Energy Star - requires duplex printing option". Products that meet the 2007 ENERGY STAR standard are on average 30% more energy efficient than previous models.
Xerox has also been very active in environmental giving, the the Xerox Foundation. Giving totalled $12.5m in 2007, including $2m to the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, which will provide programs that embrace the principles of sustainability in product development.
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