While others strive to achieve net zero, Epson UK is going one step further – with a vision to become carbon negative and underground resource free by the middle of
this century, discovers Andrew Collier
Sustainability is a process and not an event. In the case of manufacturing, it has to be considered through the whole life cycle of a product, from initial design right through to final disposal. That requires a real commitment by organisations alongside vision and strategic thinking. In seeing this big picture and then putting the environment at every stage of the process, companies such as the computer printer giant Epson are leading the way.
The company is dedicated to sustainability and transparency at all levels. “Everything starts with the conceptualisation”, explains Boris Manev, Head of Sustainability and Government Affairs for Epson Europe. “Our technology helps with things such as miniaturisation as well as the energy efficiency and eco design of the product. We also look at issues such as the choosing of our supplies and where they come from – that’s very important.”
As part of Epson’s holistic approach - its spending on research and development is $1.2 million a day – the company is also committed to acting as an exemplar in the area of environmental compliance. “We continuously monitor global regulations”, says Mr Manev. “Europe and the UK are in the forefront of developing regulatory frameworks for things like the use of safe chemicals, phasing out those that are bad for the environment and for human health. In some cases in the past, we have removed these from our processes before the regulations have been put in place.”
Epson is also acutely aware of the importance of ensuring that as far as possible, its supply chain meets its own high standards. “Most of the production we undertake is in our own factories, but we also have to buy in certain minerals and other substances. So it’s very important for us to ensure that we exercise due diligence right along that supply chain. That means doing things such as ensuring that we do not use minerals from conflict zones. We are careful to audit our suppliers to ensure that they are compliant and abide by our own code of conduct. This incorporates the environment, human health and labour standards.
“When it comes to manufacturing – and this is obviously the area with the biggest considerations in terms of environmental footprint – we recognise that a lot of energy is required and industrial waste can be produced. This can pollute both the soil and the water. So stricter environmental protection methods have to be put in place.”
Epson has had a strong awareness of the importance of a sustainable strategy since it was first founded in 1942 next to a lake in the environmentally rich city of Suwa in Nagano, Japan. It has always sought to co-exist harmoniously with the communities in which it operates. Earlier this year it renewed its vision to become both carbon negative – a bold step beyond zero carbon – and underground resource free by 2050. This means, for instance, ensuring that oil is not used in the manufacture of its plastics.
It also has a roadmap up to 2025 which has set demanding targets to be met in a relatively short time. “By then, we want to achieve four things in terms of our lifecycle and manufacturing”, Boris Manev explains.
“Firstly, we want to decarbonise not only our manufacturing sites but also our global sales locations. The second is to create a closed resource loop, meaning that everything that goes into production will have to exclude materials of virgin origin.”
The third target, he adds, is mitigating the environmental impact of the customer. In order to do this, the plan is to ensure that new Epson products have a lower power consumption, a longer product life and use fewer consumables and limited lifetime parts. “We’re doing this with developments such as our heat free printing technology, such as our new EcoTank range and cutting hundreds of tonnes of plastic from our cartridges.”
The fourth target involves development of broader environmental technology including naturally derived and plastic free materials, recycling of materials and the development of ways to absorb CO2. “We also use our dry fibre technology for an in-house paper recycling system and we are looking at taking this further into, for example, materials that can be used to insulate buildings.”
Another important area to be addressed within the product life cycle is transport, including moving finished goods from the Far East to Europe. “Of course, this process emits carbon, so making our products smaller means we can get more of them into one container. “We are also looking at vessels that use less polluting technology by assessing carriers to see how they can help us cut our CO2 emissions from transportation. And we want to shorten arrival times.
“There is also a lot of discussion in the UK and Europe at the moment around repairability and extending the life of products. And when these are finally disposed of, the materials should be recycled into new ones.
“That isn’t always easy to achieve, but to do so we organise collective schemes. There is now one being developed in Scotland where all the electronics manufacturers adopt collective responsibility for this, paying a fee so that ultimately these items can be recycled.”
This article was brought to you in association with Epson UK
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