Celebrating Environmental Sustainability With Canon
Sustainability forms a huge part of many corporations’ goals, and for many companies, it is the key to their continued growth and performance. The Guardian found that companies that adopted polices that promoted sustainability in the 1990s actually performed better than companies that did not, including when it came to return on equity as well as return on assets.
What causes this? It appears that companies that are committed to sustainability focus more on long-term outcomes and also manage to attract and keep more loyal employees and customers. This leads to them being able to perform better financially and create greater value for shareholders.
Environmental sustainability forms a major part of any company’s sustainability efforts. Canon has long been committed to environmental sustainability when it comes to their product lifecycle, consisting of the following five stages:
- The manufacture of raw materials and parts
- Operational site activities
- Logistics
- Customer use
- Recycling and disposal
Canon’s vision is based on kyosei, a concept that is based on building a society where there is harmony between mankind and the Earth.
Besides this, Canon has also consistently engaged its employees around the world when it comes to the issue of environmental sustainability. With Earth Day just around the corner, here’s some inspiration for potential activities to carry out with your employees this year.
Recycling
Recycling is a great and easy way to educate employees and reach out to the public about the costs of wastage, especially within the office itself.
Canon employee Ms Shirley Lee from the Product Regulatory department, (middle) introducing Ms Grace Fu, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources to Canon’s environmental activities.
In 2014, Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd. was part of a Youth for the Environment Day (YED) event meant to commemorate Earth Day. The event was aimed at getting youth to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. At their booth, visitors were shown how the ink cartridge recycling process was done, and a bin made available for visitors to recycle their old inkjet printers, scanners and ink and toner cartridges.
Canon U.S.A,. Inc. also had recycling as part of its Earth Day activities for both 2015 and 2016, only with used electronic equipment such as old TVs.
Tree Planting
Deforestation occurs at an alarming rate every year, with the rate in the Amazon increasing by 29% in 2016. To combat the effects of deforestation, one popular activity carried out by conservation groups worldwide is tree planting as well as encouraging individuals and community groups to do so as well.
Tree planting was one of the more popular Earth Day activities last year within Canon. Canon (UK) Ltd. and Canon Hi-Tech (Thailand) Ltd (Hi-Tech Factory) were among some of the global offices that had employees come together for a fun and meaningful activity in the great outdoors to show their commitment to environmental sustainability.
Awareness Campaigns
Finally, a simple but effective way to engage employees when it comes to environmental sustainability is to carry out an awareness campaign for Earth Day. This is also a good opportunity to keep employees in the loop about what the company has already done with regards to sustainability.
Canon South Africa (Pty) Ltd., for example, made a handprint mural with employees in 2016 as part of an internal Earth Day awareness campaign. Canon India Pvt. Ltd., on the other hand, printed Earth Day campaign posters as well as organized an internal social media contest for employees to promote the event.
If you’re interested in finding out more, follow our Canon Singapore LinkedIn page now.