BUSINESS BRIEFING 01732 759725 36 It’s been a busy year for the Epson community. We’ve ridden the waves of the pandemic together with our partners and have seen it through what we hope to be the worst of things, however, remain ever cautious and vigilant of the coming months and to ensuring we’re meeting the increasing demand for business inkjet printing. A year reinforcing the importance of the environment In May this year we announced a new partnership with National Geographic to promote the importance of heat-free technologies such as business inkjet as a preventative to permafrost thawing and the subsequent implications this has on climate change. And later we announced a new European-wide partnership with iconic athlete Usain Bolt, who is helping us to educate a wider audience on the cost and energy-saving benefits of the cartridge-free EcoTank printer. In June Epson was selected for inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index Series for the 18th Consecutive Year, and in October Epson received its second consecutive platinum rating by independent assessors EcoVadis, placing Epson in the top 1% of companies in the industry for sustainability. More recently, Epson was named as the most sustainable company in Japan by Forbes Japan magazine and at the beginning of November, Epson become the first1 company in the Japanese manufacturing industry to convert to 100% renewable electricity for all its domestic sites2. But commenting on the highlights is nothing if we’re unable to provide more tangible information on how we’re progressing against our greater commitments, which is why Epson Europe has just launched its latest Green Choice report. A global spotlight on Glasgow But to the public eye, the true culmination of this year as far as environmental sustainability goes was COP26 in Glasgow over the first two weeks of November. This may not have given the world a great sign of relief, particularly with the infamous resistance met by phasing out fossil fuels, but certainly provided a wake-up call that now is the time to act. We had the privilege of being in Glasgow for COP26 where we met with partners as well as members of the education and public sectors to understand the trajectory of environmental sustainability in Scottish education, and how technology can help. Key takeaways from this were clear. Firstly, education needs to be further optimised to teach students how to make practical considerations around climate change, and the technology sector has an open invitation to play its part in supporting this. Secondly, environmental sustainability needs to play a more critical role in the buying criteria from public sector organisations and the outcomes need to be made more publicly aware to those reaping the benefits. Polls we ran on social media with the Herald ahead of COP26 revealed that 46% of people believe manufacturers should be taking the most responsibility for Scotland’s fight against climate change, while a separate 46% believed this should be the Public Sector. The majority (55%) said more renewable energy was the biggest improvement needed in Scotland to tackle climate change, while only a quarter (25%) said they were reducing their energy consumption in order to address the crisis. For me, this only reinforced our responsibility as a vendor to drive awareness around energy efficient solutions and that we should never stop challenging the status quo for what more we can do to tackle climate change. Making incremental changes What’s been clear over the last two years is that the technology industry, and the And what a year it’s been for reinforcing the values of environmental sustainability. In February, the announcement of Yoshiro Nagafusa as the new President for Epson Europe was shortly followed by Epson 25 Renewed, a new corporate vision for solving societal issues in the new normal. At the same time, Epson also renewed its Environmental Vision 2050, committing Epson to reducing carbon emissions in line with the 1.5°C scenario by 2030, committing to 100% renewable electricity by 2023, investing 100 billion yen (approx. £350 million) on decarbonisation before 2030. Richard Wells, Head of Office Print Sales, Epson UK Ltd. Yoshiro Nagafusa, President for Epson Europe EEB.
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