Canon (China) Co., Ltd.: Pursuing the lowest energy consumption in the entire life cycle of products

Company Profile
Canon Inc. , established in 1937, is a most influential company in the world with its core products such as optical imaging system products, office products and industrial products. Canon started its business in China in the late 1970s. At present, it has 13 local subsidiary agencies and employs more than 40,000 people in Dalian, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Suzhou and other places.
Challenge
In recent years, China’s electronic information industry has been growing rapidly. Meanwhile, the leading enterprises in the industry have showed highly concern about the possible environmental impacts and conducted strict management in the processing, manufacture and use of products and waste treatment. What’s more, the consensus of green economy is emerging in the world. As a leading imaging solutionprovider, Canon pays great attention to environmental protection in the process of production and operation, aiming to seek a path to sustainable development.
Solution
Since 1992, Canon has taken the lead to introducing the concept of “life cycle assessment system” in the industry and extended the product evaluation to the entire life cycle of products comprised of design, production, transport, sales, use and final disposal of products. With years of exploration and improvement in its management and practice, Canon has found that most of CO₂ emission stems from customers in the life cycle of products and about 70% of power is consumed in the sleep state. For this reason, Canon works to achieve the world’s lowest CO2 emission at the stage of product use and takes it as a goal of self-challenge. Its innovative technology and design enables the year-by-year reduction of CO₂ emission in the life cycle of products. More importantly, it joins hands with customers to achieve measurable consumption and encourage more users involved to realize recycling.
Achievement
Up to now, Canon has achieved the world's lowest CO₂ emissions in the use of intelligent color laser products by improving the conversion efficiency in the circuitry and completely shutting down temporary idle functions. Through these measures, Canon (China) has been recognized by the government, the media and other stakeholders. In 2013, Canon received EPEAT gold prize for the imaging equipment and products, which marks the company have achieved the highest level of global industry in the overall environmental management and the environmental performance of products.
Prospect
In the future, Canon will set up longer-term goals and strategic plans to constantly build advantages in environmental protection and convert them into market competitiveness. It will also carry out the construction of environmental protection transparency to identify, measure, record and reduce environmental pollution. Furthermore, it will maximize the participation to encourage its partners to operate responsibly and advocate responsible consumption among customers.