Environmentally Conscious Management
Communications
Internal Environmental Communication
Environmental Awards and Environmental Exhibition
Canon holds an internal environmental awards ceremony and related exhibition to increase staff awareness and promote successful initiatives in the environmental field. This approach enables management to identify outstanding examples of good environmental practice and promote their companywide implementation, while also serving as a valuable opportunity to raise environmental awareness among employees. The best examples are exhibited online using Canon’s intranet, to which many Canon employees have access. This has helped accelerate the implementation of good practices across the entire organization. In 2024, one project was selected for the Grand Prize, with four entrants getting a Merit Award and another two a selection committee commendation. In addition, staff events and other activities held in Environment Month in June to help raise in-house sustainability awareness included a photography contest on the theme of sustainability and a visit to an external sustainability-related facility. The staff canteen also undertook several steps, including an initiative to cut food waste and offering low-CO2 emission menus featuring meat alternatives, while outside experts were featured on in-house channel programs.
Environmental Communication
Alongside the publication of this report, we use a range of media and platforms to keep stakeholders informed about Canon’s environmental activities. These include a dedicated environmental website, quarterly presentations and investor dialogues, and various events. We are striving to undertake more and better activities based on suggestions and opinions received from stakeholders. Canon also promotes environmental education and awareness activities for the benefit of people in regional communities, providing environmental outreach classes for elementary school students and environmental programs run in cooperation with regional organizations. Canon began holding environmental outreach classes on toner cartridges in 2011. Extended to Canon Bretagne in 2022, this program has provided more than 300 classes to over 14,000 participants (including 11 classes conducted online for over 350 participants).
Initiatives at Canon Eco Technology Park
The Canon Eco Technology Park (opened in February 2018 and operated by Canon Ecology Industry Inc.) is not only a cutting-edge reuse/recycling plant, but also serves as a focal point of the environmental activities of the Canon. In addition to the plant, which is equipped with automated toner and ink cartridge recycling systems and other functions, the facility has a showroom highlighting Canon’s wide range of environmental activities. It hosts environmental programs aimed at teaching elementary school students about the importance of resource recirculation using recycling-related science experiments. This program has attracted numerous plaudits for helping to educate many elementary school students while also enabling interactions with enterprises and organizations which are engaged in environmental education. In 2024, we began the process of renewing the showroom spaces to provide people a wider range of information on our initiatives with respect to product life cycles.
Canon Eco Technology Park Visitor Comment
Our tour and experiences onsite were part of a social studies excursion for Year 5 students. Having learnt about the SDGs in Year 4, they were now studying industrial production for this subject. Canon Eco Technology Park helped us feel the connections between what we learnt (from industrial production to caring for the environment). It was especially great to experience using such a wealth of materials in environmental lessons – materials that would have been difficult to prepare at school. The children could handle the materials and learn about sorting through trial and error. Since the school is a collection point for used ink and toner cartridges from students’ homes, it was most rewarding for the children to discover what happens to these cartridges after they are collected.
Shinjuku City Toyama
Elementary School (Tokyo)
Online Environmental Education
We are using online media to enhance the environmental education curriculum offered by the Canon Eco Technology Park. Based on the environmental education we have previously offered in face-to-face settings, we are now presenting online demonstrations of the waste sorting methods practiced at the facility. This interactive communication-style program enables children to enjoy learning and thinking about the importance of resource recycling as well as the SDGs and other environmental issues. Since the start of online environmental education, many children have been learning about Canon's initiatives and the importance of resource recycling.
