Environmental Targets and Achievements

Overall Target

Canon takes account of environmental impacts at each stage of the product lifecycle and works to reduce them. This applies not just to our own development,production and marketing activities but also includes the production of raw materials and components by suppliers, the transport of products to retail outlets, and even customer use, disposal and recycling.

To gauge our progress in reducing these impacts over the entire product lifecycle, we convert each type of environmental impact to CO₂ equivalents, and, using these as benchmarks, we set an overall goal for our Medium-Term Environmental Targets of achieving an average 3% per year improvement in the index of lifecycle CO₂ emissions per product unit.

We have broken down the overall target into product targets and operational site targets. We have established a product target of an average 3% improvement per year in the raw materials and usage CO₂ emissions improvement index per product, and operational sites have unit improvement targets covering energy consumption, total waste generation, water usage, and emission of controlled chemical substances.

Review of the Overall Target from a Long-Term Perspective

A 3% average yearly reduction in product lifecycle CO₂ emissions, which is the overall target set in 2008, would, if sustained, mean a roughly 50% reduction from 2008 levels by the year 2030. We recognize this to be in line with the level of reduction called for by the Paris Agreement. We will continue to undertake target reviews from a long-term perspective as a way of checking our contribution to the realization of a low-carbon society.

Achievement Relative to the Overall Target

Lifecycle CO₂ Emissions Improvement Index per Product

We achieved our target of improving lifecycle CO₂ emissions per product by an average 3% per year, recording an average improvement of 4.7% (2008–2019) thanks to the ongoing efforts of our business units throughout the entire product lifecycle. This represents an improvement of 40.0% compared to 2008.

Canon Group Lifecycle GHG Emissions in 2019 (CO₂ Equivalent)

Total lifecycle CO₂ emissions in 2019 were approximately 6.09 million tons, a decrease of roughly 0.96 million tons compared to 2018. This figure reflected initiatives at all stages of the product lifecycle, from the manufacture of raw materials and components by suppliers through activities at development, production and sales sites to logistics operations and customer use. The figure in turn corresponds to approximately 0.02% of the 2018 world total CO₂ emissions volume of approximately 33.1 billion tons as reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Achievement of Operational Site Targets

• Energy consumption per basic unit at operational sites
  Energy consumption per basic unit at operational sites primary driver of energy-reduction activities. In 2019, energy consumption per basic unit improved by 4.5% over the previous year, exceeding the 1.2% improvement target.
• Total waste generation per basic unit
  As a result of such initiatives as reducing waste at manufacturing sites and recycling waste generated internally at manufacturing sites, we met our target of a 1.0% improvement with a 4.4% reduction in total waste generation over 2018.
• Water usage per basic unit in production
  Water usage per basic unit of production declined by 0.2% compared to 2018 on the strength of efforts to improve water management including more efficient water use and greater reuse of wastewater. However, technical difficulties at certain production sites.
• Emissions of controlled chemical substances per basic unit
  We achieved a 7.9% improvement over 2018 in emissions of controlled chemical substances per basic unit, attaining our target of a 1.0% improvement, by reducing chemical substances used in manufacturing processes and reusing materials.

Environmental Targets and Achievements

• The basic unit denominator is decided according to the characteristics of each operational site (production volume, effective floor area, workforce, etc.)

In 2020, we will work for future improvements in performance across the board, with targets set at the same level as in 2019.