Fuji Xerox: Finding solutions to reduce environmental burden created by businesses

MANILA, Philippines - As the world faces the stark reality of the damages that can be inflicted on human lives, properties and the environment by the dire consequences of global warming and climate change, pressure continues to mount on how companies can help reduce the negative impact they create on the environment by finding innovative eco solutions to help address these global problems.

At the forefront of this global effort, Japanese giant Fuji Xerox Co Ltd is constantly looking for ways to provide its customers with products and services that not just reduce carbon dioxide emission but also offer improvements in general efficiency and productivity in the workplace.

 ‘’By listening to the voice of its customers and grasping their business issues, Fuji Xerox proposes to redesign and redefine people’s work space and working style, which will achieve a balance between protecting the environment and enhancing their businesses,’’ said Fuji Xerox president and representative director Tadahito Yamamoto in a recent media tour attended by journalists from Asia Pacific countries.

According to the company’s 2010 Sustainability Report, Fuji Xerox’s global warming efforts have always gone far beyond simply focusing on the environmental impact of its production sites and offices. Rather, the report said, Fuji Xerox has sought to reduce carbon dioxide -- the chief greenhouse gas that results from human activities--emissions by examining the different aspects of its products’ life cycles including the power consumption of its multifunction devices and the reuse of parts in customer offices and businesses.

Attesting to the company’s strict adherence to energy conservation and efforts to provide products that are in line with its goal to reduce carbon footprints generated by its customers, Fuji Xerox was awarded the much coveted Energy Conservation Grand Prize for 11 years in a row, which is the industry first, by the Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry of Japan for its four types of its Apeos Port IV Series full-color digital multifunction devices and four types of its DocuCentre IV Series devices.

Global action

Fuji Xerox was one of the major companies in the world that responded swiftly to world leaders’ call at the G8 Summit to achieve the long-term objective of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050. According to its 2010 Sustainability Report, Fuji Xerox aims to reduce by 30 percent the greenhouse gas emissions throughout the lifecycle of its products from the 2005 level by 2020. According to the company, these targets have two central components. The first is the shift to low carbon alternatives for all the company’s products, services, and other business activities including research, development, procurement, production, distribution, and other aspects of customer use ranging from electricity consumption to recycling. It involves reducing carbon emissions by 30 percent compared to the 2005 levels, or an estimated total carbon reduction of approximately 500,000 tons.

The second component of the company’s goal involves the reduction of annual carbon emissions by seven million tons by contributing to greenhouse gases reductions in customer offices and businesses worldwide. Fuji Xerox aims to achieve this by changing the way customers use its products and by meeting its customer needs in the form of a service business. With the changing tide of the business environment, Fuji Xerox also want to take on an expanded role of being able to provide its customers effective energy-saving measures through its Energy Managed Office service.

Energy Managed Office service

Fuji Xerox has been implementing eco-conscious initiatives not only on its own business activities but also at its customers’ offices. With an increasing need to protect the environment while generating a healthy bottom line for businesses, Fuji Xerox has developed ways to help companies face the challenges of adjusting and coexisting with nature by redesigning the workspace through the company’s Energy Managed Office Service. So how does Fuji Xerox undertakes this goal? According to a survey conducted by Fuji Xerox, carbon emissions from air conditioning, lighting and electronic devices account for about 60 percent of the entire emissions from an office while percentage of carbon emissions from office equipment such as copiers and printers is only 1.5 percent of the total. For this reason, Fuji Xerox’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions not only involves improving its products, but also entails contributing to the realization of low carbon environment through innovations in its customers’ work practices.

Through its Energy Managed Office Service, the company assesses current condition at customer’s office; visualizes energy consumption and analyzes how all equipment/devices are used to identify issues; plans countermeasures; and implements the countermeasures. Lastly, Fuji Xerox evaluates the results if the countermeasures worked for carbon reduction, which will lead to redesign of the workspace.

For FujiXerox, the main components of redesigning the work space include merging and removing invariably activated servers, as well as by simply turning off the power when equipment are not in use. By implementing these changes, Fuji Xerox founds out that certain customer could reduce its energy consumption by 30 percent without any additional investment.

In the recent media tour, Asia Pacific journalists have witnessed Fuji Xerox’s great stride to create a workspace that is both eco-conscious and high tech at its research and development (R&D) center in Yokohama,Japan.

To reduce carbon emissions in its R&D center in Yokohama, Fuji Xerox has developed a system called EneEyes to monitor the entire energy consumption of its new techno hub that opened in April 2010.

EneEyes visualizes energy consumption of the entire building such as electricity consumed by office equipment, air conditioning, lighting and gas used in the kitchen,etc.

 Further, EneEyes can visualize the energy consumption in details such as by floor and sub-divided areas of a floor, as well as by energy sources such as electricity and gas, usage and cost, so that Fuji Xerox can identify causes of the carbon emissions. In doing so, the company can easily visualize the energy consumption structure in the building and develop effective countermeasures in order to optimally control carbon emission.

Fuji Xerox’s shareholders are the FujiFilm Holdings Corp with 75 percent and Xerox Ltd with 25 percent. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company has six research and development centers in Japan and multiple sales and manufacturing activities around the globe.