Canon and Singapore: The Journey So Far
Over the years, Canon Singapore has grown right alongside the city-state. As Singaporeans celebrate our contributions to nation building, Canon Singapore would like to take this opportunity to look back at some of the positive changes the organisation has made as a member of this community.
Timeline of Events
Established in 1979, Canon Singapore was Canon’s regional headquarters for South & South East Asia. In January 2004, however, it was merged with the local sales and marketing company to form the entity we are familiar with today.
More than just an expert in digital imaging equipment and office solutions, however, Canon Singapore has also been putting kyosei, the company’s philosophy of living and working together for the common good, to practice over the last decade. Here are a few examples:
2006: Canon Photography Exchange
Just because a person may be physically or intellectually impaired does not mean that he cannot express himself through photography. Drawing on its expertise in digital imaging, Canon Singapore started the Canon Photography Exchange 10 years ago to bring photography workshops, contests and outings to intellectually challenged individuals. The programme now encompasses students from five special-needs schools, including APSN Centre for Adults, APSN Katong School, APSN Tanglin School, APSN Delta Senior School and Metta School.
2008: Partnership with Singapore Bowling Federation
Canon Singapore has been a sponsorship partner of Singapore Bowling since 2008. Not only this a show of Canon Singapore’s commitment to the local sporting industry, but the agreement also highlighted the company’s dedication to nurturing young sportspeople in Singapore and at the same time elevate the popularity of the sport in Singapore.
2009: Partnership with Singapore National Olympic Council
Doubling down on its commitment to local sports, Canon was the first corporate entity to participate in the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) Official Partnership Programme (SOPP) in September 2009. The partnership worked to promote Olympic values and raise the profile of the Olympic movement by working with six national athletes from the swimming, sailing, football, bowling and shooting arena to inspire youth and promote sports.
2010: Participation in Earth Hour 2010
To cultivate staff awareness and habits to protect the environment, Canon Singapore, as well as all the offices under Canon Asia Marketing Group joined have participated in the Earth Hour Campaign since 2010. At the company level, outdoor signage in the region were turned off during Earth Hour to help bring awareness to help bring attention to climate change. Participating staff also pledged their support, turned off their home lights and helped to raise the awareness of the cause.
2011: Partnership with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE)
Canon Singapore worked with ITE’s School of Design and Media to train young talents in the area of photography, production and graphic art. This was accomplished through module development and training on emerging digital printing technologies, digital imaging management, digital photography, as well as visual communications.
2015: The Green Technology Award
A big part of kyosei is also about environmental sustainability. That is why, over the years, Canon Singapore has gone the extra mile in terms of energy and resource conservation, transportation efficiency and CO2 emissions reduction. These efforts were recognised by the Singapore Business Federation in 2015 when Canon Singapore was given the Green Technology Award at the 2015 Singapore Sustainability Awards.
2016: Continued commitment to the Arts and the Community
Canon Singapore has been the presenting sponsor for a major international musical since 2012. Besides doing its part to promote the arts, the company also took the opportunity to contribute to society by embarking on fund-raising activities for the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) during the run of the musical, since 2013. All proceeds collected from a public photo booth set up by Canon for theatre-goers went towards funding SCS Public Education community outreach programmes and services.