Each of Konica Minolta’s products and policies is designed to reduce energy consumption and paper wastage. The production process for its proprietary polymerised toner technology, Simitri HDE, reduces the carbon footprint and sulphurous/nitrous emissions and consumes minimal energy.

For such consistent efforts, Konica Minolta was recently awarded the Grand Prix award at the first Nikkei SDGs Management Grand Prix. The platform recognises businesses that are actively addressing environmental, societal, and economic challenges, and taking this a step further by integrating SDGs in their corporate practices to enhance corporate values.

The assessment was made based on the company’s responses to the Nikkei SDGs Management Survey with questionnaires in four categories — SDGs strategy and economic value, social value, environmental value and governance. Konica Minolta was rated highly across all four categories after a comprehensive evaluation of the initiatives it has implemented at multiple levels.

Konica Minolta engages in green supplier activities, linked to its green factory activities. Under the initiative, environmental experts from Konica Minolta visit supplier production sites to evaluate existing setups and propose suggestions for improving processes/ workflows, as well as outlining cost reduction benefits, investment rationale, etc. They also provide assistance to suppliers to implement the relevant measures, thus helping them simultaneously reduce both the environmental impact and their operating costs.

In line with the latest achievement, the company is now working towards furthering its vision and efforts towards achieving the SDGs by creating new values and developing solutions in association with its customers in India. As an ethical and environmentally conscious organisation, Konica Minolta India has been compliant with the norms and guidelines mandated under the eWaste (Management) Rules, 2016, by the Government of India. The brand has also initiated a collection drive to enable its production printing customers to achieve the same compliance with the rules pertaining to eWaste. To facilitate this, it is conducting a collection of empty toner bottles and used/defective spare parts from customers. The drive began on 15 January 2020, and is being carried out in all metro cities to create an avenue for customers to do their part for the larger mission to build a greener, more sustainable future.