Konica Minolta pursuits Sustainable Development Goals as part of 50 Climate Leader project

Climate crisis is one of the most immediate global concerns. Companies worldwide are realising their crucial role in achieving social and environmental goals, particularly in combating climate change. As part of Konica Minolta’s sustainability strategy the company pursuits the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and participate in the 50 Climate Leaders.

With the 17 SDGs the United Nations have developed a global holistic strategy to overcome the current main global challenges. The SDGs are a wide framework with defined targets that tackle problems on an environmental and social level. Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe conducted a thorough analysis of the 17 SDGs for optimising the sustainability of their activities, particularly on a European level. As a result, six particular goals were placed in focus for Europe: Climate Action, Responsible Production and Consumption, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth as well as Partnerships for the Goals. Konica Minolta defined climate action as one of the most important SDGs.

Here, the company set up three goals: avoiding and reducing energy consumption, substituting CO2 emitting power sources with green energy and compensating unavoidable CO2 emissions.

(1) Avoiding and reducing energy consumption

According to its Eco Vision 2050 Konica Minolta aims to reduce their CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to 2005. In Europe, the overall consumption of energy has been reduced by transporting goods via inland vessel or train and through the consolidation of shipment. With bizhub ECO Konica Minolta contributes to a greener office by effectively reducing energy and resources consumption through smart printing rules. In general, Konica Minolta develops products that combine unique customer benefits with improved sustainability such the smart glasses AIRe Lens, for example. This wearable augmented reality solution enables remote support and thus significantly cuts service times and reduces the need for travel by service employees.

(2) Substituting CO2 emitting power sources with green energy

Where energy is needed, Konica Minolta aims to substitute CO2 emitting power sources with green energy. Konica Minolta joined RE100 and commited to source 100% renewable electricity for their global operations by 2050. With the overall goal of having 100% renewable energy at major European sites, the major sites like the European and German headquarters Langenhagen, one server facility in Hannover and all German offices are already supplied with 100% green energy. In 2020, the Austrian and UK sites will follow.

(3) Compensating unavoidable CO2 emissions

In case of unavoidable CO2 emissions, Konica Minolta aims to compensate them while increasing turnover for sustainability solutions. Therefore, they partner with ClimatePartner since 2015 to support Gold Standard-certified projects. Since 2015, more than 19 million kilograms of CO2 have been compensated and Konica Minolta currently support the project of a wind energy park in Aruba. Additionally, Konica Minolta Europe is a carbon neutral company since 2018.