Environmental Targets and Achievements

Canon aims to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions from its business activities by 2050. We will steadily reduce CO₂ emissions by achieving the following targets.

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

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 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 4.6% (2008–2020). The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the rate of improvement was less than in the previous year, but the target was nevertheless met thanks to ongoing initiatives affecting the whole product lifecycle, including energy-saving measures at operational sites and in product design. The cumulative reduction since 2008 amounts to 41.3%.

Canon Group Lifecycle GHG Emissions in 2020 (CO₂ Equivalent)

Total product lifecycle CO₂ emissions in 2020 were approximately 7.72 million tons. Although we achieved a continued overall reduction in product lifecycle emissions in 2020, increased demand for industrial equipment resulted in higher figures for Scope 3 (Category 11). As a result, the decrease compared to 2019 was held to approximately 150,000 t-CO₂.

Achievement of Operational Site Targets

• Energy consumption per basic unit at operational sites
  The Facilities Management Headquarters is the primary driver of energy-reduction activities. In 2020, energy consumption per basic unit improved by 10.0% 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 production sites and recycling waste generated internally at production sites, we met our target of a 1.0% improvement with a 7.0% reduction in total waste generation over 2019.
• Water usage per basic unit in production
  Water usage per basic unit of production declined by 3.0% compared to 2019 on the strength of efforts to improve water management including more efficient water use and greater reuse of wastewater. This means that we successfully met our target of a 1.0% improvement.
• Emissions of controlled chemical substances per basic unit
  We achieved a 1.7% improvement over 2019 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.)