We closely work together with a wide range of stakeholders, united by the desire to improve patients’ lives.

‘Our continuous focus on meaningful innovation and solid scientific foundation ensures we can provide these services and promises to all our stakeholders. It’s this foundational integrity that makes Canon Medical Systems truly live by its ‘Made for Life’ philosophy.’

- Joanna Schuijf, member of Global Research & Development Center and Global Marketing, about CSR and meaningful innovation

First and foremost, we collaborate closely with our customers, doctors and other specialists at hospitals and medical clinics. We also work closely with universities and research institutes in a constant quest to improve our products and services (see the ‘Our products’ chapter for more details).

To produce the right products, we make efforts to select the right suppliers.

Our suppliers
We carefully select our suppliers using the following criteria:

• The company complies with laws, regulations and places emphasis on human rights and environmental consciousness.
• The company has sound business operations.
• The company has the ability to supply goods and/or services to Canon Medical Systems with emphasis on appropriate quality, price and delivery lead-time.
• The company is capable of providing a stable supply of goods and/or services. Also the company must have the flexibility to respond quickly to supply/demand fluctuations.
• The company possesses technology that contributes positively to Canon Medical Systems products.
• The company has a plan for providing an ongoing supply of goods and/or services in times of unexpected circumstances that may affect the company and its supply chain.

We deliver our products and services in cooperation with our suppliers, which all meet our standards on corporate social responsibility. From safe working conditions to sustainable procurement, caring for the environment and thoughtful manufacturing: we ask our suppliers to commit themselves to our policies.

Together we work on improving our mutual environmental, social and governance performance. Examples of our investments in our supply chain are supplier assessments on sustainability criteria, management of our regulated substances, policy on conflict minerals and procurement policies on the prohibition of forced labor. For more information please see here.

As we continue to work on disclosing our environmental footprint, we will also motivate our suppliers to disclose their environmental performance, including scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

‘In terms of our own place in the supply chain, we are also subjected to audits ourselves. In the UK we obtained a Silver Medal status during last year’s Ecovadis ESG audit. We are proud to contribute and play a role in improving the whole supply chain through CSR.’

- Darryl Collin, UK on the supply chain and quality

Our supply chain
The products we sell worldwide through our subsidiaries are made in our own factories in Japan, China, and Brazil. This integration of part of the supply chain with our company ensures that we can make and supply the best possible products. Resources and products, including semiconductors, magnets, and various raw materials, are procured by production units from a variety of suppliers. These suppliers are subject to a set of requirements in the areas of quality, reliability, price, environmental management, health, safety, and possible social effects. These requirements are set out in our management system, green procurement standards, Supplier Code of Conduct and Procurement Policy. Additionally, key suppliers are regularly subjected to supplier audits.

CSR developments in the supply chain
Requests and requirements from our customers and prospects regarding environmental, social and governance issues increase every day. We analyzed this development on a global level and found that the demands placed on our subsidiaries varied from modest to extremely stringent requirements. The same is true of public online demands such as for evidence of our action plan, evidence of our commitment to the SDGs, and detailed demands on a product level.

‘Another example of reaching out related to CSR is the do-no-significant-harm principle from our government. This principle requires us to share detailed environmental information about the products that we sell. Think about correct treatment of waste, tools for energy efficiency during use of the equipment as well as eco-design. It also allows for dialogue between funder, us as a commercial provider and our manufacturer. These dialogues are relatively new, but in our opinion a standard for the near future. CSR is and will be a major topic.’

- Luigi Mirco Amoreo, Italy, about CSR and demands from the supply chain

We strive to collaborate with local communities in the countries where we have branches. Given our Made for Life philosophy, we focus not only on improving patients’ lives but also on improving opportunities for less privileged individuals and communities. Each branch of Canon Medical Systems has a budget for contributing to the most relevant target groups in the country or region where it operates.

Specific examples of our contributions to the people, planet, and prosperity issues of communities in 2022 include:

1. Employees in Australia and New Zealand get two days leave each year to volunteer and contribute to society at the organization of their choice.
2. UK placed solar panels wherever it can: from warehouse to roofs in the off-setting projects in Uganda, which are partly funded by UK’s employees as well.
3. Singapore donated equipment to hospitals next to monetary donations.

‘One of the bigger examples of working with a community in 2022, has been Canon Medical Ltd providing the funding and building the UK’s first carbon-neutral built community arena, called the Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield on the Olympic Legacy Park. I’m particularly proud of this project as it is a multipurpose sports facility as well as an integrated Medical Imaging Diagnostics Centre aimed at improving health and wellbeing. It’s a unique collaboration in South Yorkshire with the Arena having a multipurpose facility the size of three full-size basketball courts, designed to accommodate 2500 spectators. The arena will offer huge potential for wider sporting, business, and community events. Canon Medical have facilitated the opening of a state-of-the-art Medical Diagnostic Centre to bring healthcare closer to disadvantaged people and boost health outcomes through access to screening and disease prevention.’

‘This is in synergy with national health strategies to create ‘one-stop-shops’ for healthcare checks, scans and tests outside the traditional hospital environment to overcome Covid-19 pandemic backlogs, improve earlier diagnosis and contribute to NHS carbon net-zero ambitions by reducing patient journeys.
We’re offsetting the CO2emissions via a big windfarm project in India, which in turn contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goal on clean energy. All in all, a true ‘Made for Life’ gift to the community and global society to be realized in 2023.’

- Darryl Collin, UK, on CSR and sponsorships