Environment

2025 Goals

Epson 25 Renewed Corporate Vision: Environment

Environmental Investment and Spending

• Spend 100 billion yen over the 10 years to 2030 (items 1, 2, 4)
  • Reduce GHG emissions^*1 in the supply chain by more than 2 million tonnes
  • Use renewable energy to meet 100% of the electricity needs of the entire Epson Group by 2023 (achieved in Europe sales offices: April 2020, plan to achieve in Japan: March 2021)^*2
• Concentrate management resources on the development of products and services that reduce environmental impacts (item 3)

^*1 GHG Scope 1, 2, 3 emissions
^*2 Excludes leased properties for sales offices, etc. where the amount of electricity consumed cannot be determined

Reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

GHG reduction targets

Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions from the use of fuels, etc.
Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions from purchased energy, etc.
Scope 3: Indirect GHG emissions of the entire value chain

Epson’s Science-Based Targets (SBTs)

Epson has set FY2025 targets for reducing direct emissions associated with its business activities (scopes 1 and 2 emissions) and for reducing indirect emissions (scope 3 emissions). To achieve these SBTs, we are working in concert with our customers and partners to provide eco-conscious products and services that will both drive business growth and increase corporate value.

Initiatives to Reduce Scopes 1 and 2 Emissions

Epson has launched an Epson Group-wide SBT project under which each business has selected full-time energy conservationists. Actions to reduce emissions are being explored at model sites and then shared with others to increase the likelihood that targets will be achieved.

Main actions for reducing emissions

• Production innovations
• Investment in updated facilities and equipment such as plant infrastructure, scrubbers, and solar power systems
• Purchasing low-carbon electricity and using other forms of renewable energy
• Other reductions to be achieved by power utilities reducing their GHG emissions factors

Renewable Energy Use
Epson expects its energy use to increase as production increases in line with its long-term growth strategy. Therefore, all Epson sites and businesses are implementing energy-saving measures and increasing the use of renewable energy to achieve our SBT. In 2018, Epson decided to expand its use of renewable energy by purchasing low-carbon electricity for a new factory in Japan that is involved in the production of PrecisionCore printheads, the core device at the heart of inkjet printers. We were able to increase the rate of renewable energy use to approximately 12% and make progress in reducing the Epson Group’s total scope 2 emissions. We achieve this primarily by entering into long-term contracts for the purchase of low-carbon electricity and by generating power on-site at our plants overseas.

Carbon Pricing
Carbon pricing, an instrument that captures the costs of GHG emissions across society, is seen as a way to spur action and innovation in support of lower carbon emissions. Epson prepared payback period criteria and guidelines that incorporate carbon pricing principles to evaluate (study the feasibility of) potential investments for reducing GHG emissions. They were introduced on a trial basis in FY2018 and were formally adopted in 2020.

Reducing Scope 3 Emissions Intensity

Contributing to the environment through products and services is cited as one of the most important of Epson’s key CSR themes. Category 11 emissions (emissions from the use of sold products) represent the largest source of Epson’s scope 3 emissions, followed by category 1 emissions (emissions from the production of products purchased or acquired).
Under the Epson 25 Corporate Vision, we are seeking to provide environmental value and mitigate environmental impacts along with our customers. In each product category, we set targets (metrics) that are linked to product value. Ultimately, we have an ambitious goal of reducing scope 3 emissions per unit of value added that is linked to a management performance indicator.

Environmental Contributions
Epson’s inkjet technology saves resources. Our printers, which do not use heat to print, draw comparatively little electricity while consumables and limited lifetime parts require only infrequent replacement. Using Epson inkjets instead of laser printers can cut users’ electricity consumption and reduce the environmental impacts of society as a whole. Epson calculated the contribution of laser projectors compared to flat panel displays in addition to business inkjet printers to avoided emissions in FY2019 to be 124,000 t-CO2e.^*1
In FY2018, the Ministry of the Environment issued a call for case study presentations from manufacturers of products that avoid downstream carbon emissions. Epson answered the call and presented estimates of avoided emissions for projectors, which are Epson’s main source of category 11 emissions. We also introduced internal programs that encourage reduction initiatives and promoted the concept of avoided emissions by using business inkjet printers as an example. The expert who critiqued the presentation lauded these initiatives as progressive and agreed that popularizing products that reduce or avoid emissions is a valid and effective way to reduce emissions in society as a whole.

Find details on Japan’s supply-chain emissions accounting efforts (link to Ministry of the Environment).

In FY2019, Epson was one of five companies selected by the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) as a model enterprise in support of CO2 reduction planning for achieving the SBTs. The MoE provided support by observing sites and suggesting actions to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions. Epson also received support in formulating concrete long-term reduction plans to achieve the scope 3 target. The results were presented at a joint report meeting.

Moving forward, we will broaden the scope of avoided emissions calculations, upgrade the energy efficiency, resource efficiency, and overall environmental performance of our products, and contribute to reducing the environmental impacts of society as a whole.

^*1 Estimate of GHG emissions avoided by third parties: The emissions avoided by (1) replacing laser printers with Epson inkjet printers, (2) replacing flat panel displays with Epson laser projectors are calculated based on electricity use (flow base approach). This is different from the actual reduction amount.

Climate-Related Issues: Risks & Opportunities

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) released its final report in June 2017. The TCFD encourages businesses to publicly disclose their medium- to long-term risks and opportunities related to climate change as financial information. Epson takes this as a call to develop resilient management and corporate health, able to adapt to all sorts of transitions in the face of climate change with impacts of a scope and scale we cannot predict.

Epson considers the impact of climate change on business to be an important topic. We are responding to the associated risks and business opportunities. We will address risks arising from the effects of things such as the power consumption of our products during their production and use. As presented in the Epson 25 Phase Mid-Range Business Plan, we will also expand sales opportunities by upgrading the resource and energy efficiency of the products and services that we provide. In addition, we see opportunity in contributing to a restructuring of industry through collaboration and open innovation and in the building of a low-carbon society.

Environmental Performance

Epson consumes resources and, in the process of conducting business activities across the life cycles of its products and services, emits GHGs and other emissions to the air, land, and water.
We are working to assess the environmental impacts of our business activities across the value chain in an effort to reduce our impacts.

Material Balance (FY2019)