For Canon Medical Systems Group, contributing to the battle against climate change is a key priority and we support the Paris Climate Agreement. We consider climate change issues very important in view of shared challenges our world is facing in the long term such as the effects of more extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels in various parts of the world.
Our objective is contribute to the battle against climate change through the following actions:
* The Canon Medical Systems Group’s production bases, which have a high environmental impact, will carry out CO2 reduction activities in accordance with Canon Inc. standards.
* The Canon Medical Systems Group’s sales bases will consider quantitative targets in 2022 and develop activities from 2023.
As a member of the Canon Group, our company’s medium-term plan is designed to achieve the medium-term plan established by Canon Inc.
We know our equipment consumes most energy when in use and we are constantly making efforts to reduce energy consumption during use. (See the ‘Our products’ chapter for more details). We are also focusing on monitoring and continuing to reduce our energy usage and CO2 emissions in the production and maintenance phases, as reflected in our carbon footprint and measures described below.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy
We have been working to improve energy efficiency in our premises and transport efficiency at our subsidiaries for over 15 years now. Many improvements have already been implemented during this period, such as improving the insulation of our office building, installing LED lighting with motion and light sensors, and buying energy-efficient equipment. In 2020 we switched to purchasing green renewable electricity, and this had a major impact on reducing our carbon footprint. Additionally, we decided to replace part of the hybrid car fleet with fully electric cars, the reason being that hybrid cars typically revert to running on their petrol engines, which vastly increased our carbon footprint and fuel costs instead of reducing them. At the same time, because of COVID-19 restrictions we had to find alternative ways to communicate with customers instead of visiting them in person, such as Teams meetings and Virtual Videos. This has reduced our carbon footprint and will shape the new normal going forward.
In 2021 we plan to install solar panels on both our office and warehouse roofs. Until recently, regulations in the UK made these kinds of initiatives expensive by restricting the amount of unused electricity that the electricity companies were prepared to take back. With regard to transporting goods from our warehouse to customers, we decided to take out a contract with a new specialized transport company that combines different loads for several clients, thus reducing the carbon footprint per product.
ISO 14001
We are ISO 14001 certified for our environmental management system, as well as ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified for quality management and ISO 45001 certified for health and safety. Apart from having a tool available to promote improvements in environmental issues such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, we saved a lot of money by saving energy and resources.
Carbon offsetting
In 2014 we decided we wanted to do more for the environment and be a carbon neutral business. We therefore decided to meet the PAS 2060 standard. This has meant calculating the residual carbon footprint of running our business in the UK and carbon offsetting by buying UN gold standard credits for projects in Kenya and Uganda. We extended this offsetting to cover the carbon footprint of production, transportation and average consumption of equipment we sell to our customers over its expected life. One of these projects is in Uganda, where maintenance of water boreholes was set up. Since many boreholes were no longer working, unsafe water needed to be boiled before consumption. With safe water available, it is not necessary to boil the water now, bringing savings in carbon emissions. Additional benefits of this project are improved health for those involved and gender equality, with women being able to work and girls going to school instead of foraging for wood to boil water.
We felt this was an interesting step to take, because we were keen to take further energy saving measures and do something meaningful.
Darryl Collin, Environmental and H&S
Manager, Canon Medical Systems
United Kingdom
© CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
© CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
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