Konica Minolta minimizes carbon footprint

The amount of CO2 offset by the company equates to traveling more than 93 million kilometers in an average passenger car - the equivalent to approximately 2,300 trips around the world along the equator.

‘We are delighted with this result. We take our responsibility to reduce our impact on the environment very seriously, and it shows that our efforts are paying off. However, offsetting unavoidable CO2 emissions is only the last step,’ said Olaf Lorenz, senior general manager of digital transformation division at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. ‘That is why we are focusing primarily on avoiding and reducing energy consumption and substituting CO2-emitting power sources with green energy.’

Customers joining the Enabling Carbon Neutrality program support a gold-standard-certified compensation project in Aruba: a wind farm with a total capacity of 30 megawatts that effectively reduces the island's dependence on diesel and other fuels for power generation. Also, for each service sold, one tree in Kenya is planted. Since 2018 the company's entire European headquarters has been carbon neutral. All emissions, from energy consumption to staff commuting and business travel, are offset.

To substitute its CO2 emissions, Konica Minolta is shifting towards the use of alternative energy sources worldwide. January 2019 saw the company join RE100, committing to source 100 percent of its electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2050. The company's European headquarters and its subsidiaries in Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, and most locations in France and Sweden, are using electricity from renewable sources. 

In terms of lowering its CO2 emissions, Konica Minolta's long-term environmental objective, Eco Vision 2050, plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 80 percent up to 2050 (compared with the 2005 level). The company was able to surpass its medium-term target of 40 percent set for 2016 with 49 percent in emissions' savings.