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Environment
The Konica Minolta Group Achieves "Zero Emission Level 2*" at All of Its Manufacturing Sites in Japan
3 April, 2008
The Konica Minolta Group achieved "Zero Emission Level 2" at all of its 15 manufacturing sites in Japan. To meet the strict Level 2 criteria, it was necessary to meet the three criteria required for Level 1, while additionally reducing the volume of externally disposed waste by 30% per sales unit from fiscal 2001 levels.
Konica Minolta's zero waste activities are integrated into management, from the perspective of both risk management and economy. The manufacturing sites, which had already achieved Level 1, successively began activities to meet the Level 2 criteria starting in 2004. With Konica Minolta Technoproducts and Konica Minolta Components achieving Level 2 in March 2008, the challenge for the Konica Minolta Group to achieve "Zero Emission Level 2" at all of its manufacturing sites in Japan was achieved.
Konica Minolta Technoproducts, which manufactures and sells medical equipment, achieved Level 2 by taking measures such as reusing packaging materials and using returnable boxes between the plant and suppliers. Konica Minolta Components, which manufactures optical devices, carried out in-house recycling of leftover plastic materials produced in the manufacturing process, in addition to the use of returnable boxes.
With regard to overseas manufacturing, three sites achieved the Level 1 zero waste goal up to fiscal 2007. During fiscal 2008, the Konica Minolta Group aims to achieve Level 1 at its four remaining overseas sites. Then, it aims to achieve Level 2 at all of its overseas manufacturing sites during fiscal 2009. Even after achieving Level 2 at all sites, however, the Konica Minolta Group plans to continue reducing waste.
In Konica Minolta's medium-term business plan "Forward 08," one of the basic strategies is to "promote management to reflect a world-class level of corporate social responsibility (CSR)." To ensure maximum reliability, the Konica Minolta Group will continue to increase its corporate value in harmony with people and the environment by integrating environmental, economic and social perspectives into its corporate strategy. In accordance with this basic strategy, the Konica Minolta Group has started taking "initiatives toward building a society with an environmentally sound material cycle" as a part of its medium term business plan for environmental activities.
Based on this approach, the group has established the target of achieving a 20% reduction in the amount of waste at its manufacturing sites throughout the world as compared to the 2000 level, by means such as the Zero Emission program. The amount of waste disposal in fiscal 2000, which is referred to as the benchmark, was 31.4 thousand tonnes, and the group aims to reduce this to 25 thousand tonnes by 2010. Considering the increase in business activities and production capacity, such as in the fields of business technologies, optical instruments, and TAC film used to protect the polarising plate on LCDs, the target reduction amount is a major challenge. Nonetheless, the Konica Minolta Group is committed to working together to achieve the goal.
* Level 1 and Level 2 criteria exist for Konica Minolta's Zero Emission activities.
Level 1 consists of the following criteria:
- Resource recovery rate: Over 90%
- Final disposal rate: Less than 5% (including secondary residue)
- Cost reduction: Over 90% reduction in external payments, or the profit by recycling must exceed external payments
Level 2 consists of the following criteria:
- Reduce the volume of externally disposed waste by 30% per sales unit from fiscal 2001 levels
To achieve Zero Emission, it is necessary to meet the criteria for more than three months, with achievements at manufacturing sites carefully monitored by the relevant environmental staff.
