Print.IT Reseller - issue 71

VOX POP PRINTITRESELLER.UK 45 James Pittick, Partner Channel Director and Sustainability Lead, Canon UK “Sustainability is an increasingly important topic and businesses are looking for more environmentally friendly ways to operate – from the supply chain to the manufacturing process. As a result, it’s important for suppliers to adopt a leading position on this. “Our sustainability initiatives are embedded in our ‘Kyosei’ corporate philosophy, which means living and working together for the common good. For this reason, our products, services and solutions are designed and manufactured to reduce the need for new natural resources. This minimises energy consumption throughout the product’s lifecycle. “Some of the initiatives we’ve launched to help our partners and customers reduce their environmental impact include a remanufactured printer range (the imageRUNNER ADVANCE EQ80), as well as a pan-EMEA toner cartridge recycling programme. By encouraging customers to reuse and recycle products, we’ve been able to drastically reduce our impact on the environment – for example our toner cartridge recycling programme has helped us to save over 601,000 tonnes of CO2 since it was launched in 1990. “We also promote ‘sensible’ printing and print management, through a combination of our device capabilities, recycled paper and materials from certified producers. With Canon printer drivers and solutions, we enable users to control how much they print, which in turn helps to avoid wasting paper and printing resourcing. “We’ve seen the rising demand from customers for low-cost, sustainable products. This trend is in line with our environmental vision: a society that promotes both enriched lifestyles and the global environment. We are committed to promoting this vision thorough technological innovation and improved management efficiency, which is why we opened the Canon Eco Technology Park in Japan in 2018 as a focal point of our environmental activities. Popularity for environmentally friendly products will only continue to grow, which is why it’s important for partners to recommend and offer sustainable technologies.” www.canon.co.uk Al Coyne, General Manager, Print, Exertis “The channel and its supply chain will need to ensure that products are sourced, manufactured and transported in a sustainable way. Naturally, that includes all aspects of the supply chain where organisations will want to ensure that their suppliers are also engaged in programmes to reduce carbon emissions. Those suppliers that have a poor Jeremy Spencer, Marketing Director, Toshiba Tec “At Toshiba, we aspire to minimise the impact of everything we do within all aspects of our business, from the products we offer through to our local business activities. All are measured and offset to support the common drive to achieve carbon neutrality and a sustainable future. “Back in in 2009 we launched our Carbon Zero scheme in order to mitigate our own environmental impact, and the scheme was then offered up to our partners, so they could do the same. From there, we started working with clients to expand on the carbon neutrality of our products and services to consider other green initiatives that helped further. “The success of the scheme has been tremendous, even being recognised by the UN in 2016 as supporting their Sustainable Development Goals. Wanting to go further, we then took the significant step of making our own business more environmentally friendly with the successful adoption of the stringent PAS 2060 standard. “Working towards clear and defined environmental accreditations and standards is a great discipline and one that I believe will increasingly become necessary to meet regulatory requirements, as the UK strives to meet its stated claim of being emissions ‘net zero’ by 2050. “I personally believe that smart organisations will elevate sustainability as a key business focus, undertaking voluntary objectives and putting them at the centre of their operations now, before it becomes mandated.” www.toshibatec.co.uk continued... James Pittick Jeremy Spencer Working towards clear and defined environmental accreditations and standards is a great discipline and one that I believe will increasingly become necessary to meet regulatory requirements The channel and its supply chain will need to ensure that products are sourced, manufactured and transported in a sustainable way