Canon Eco Technology Park opens as environmental activities focal point for Canon Group, which achieves high level of resource efficiency

The Canon Eco Technology Park, which strives to reduce waste and make effective use of limited resources, comprises a showroom and a cutting-edge plant pursuing further resource efficiency through re-use and recycling. The facility aims to maximize resource efficiency through such initiatives to enable the repeated re-use of used products as the Canon Automated Recycling System for Toner Cartridges* (CARS-T), the Canon Automated Recycling System for Ink Cartridges* (CARS-I) and the remanufacturing† of multifunction office devices.

The work environment inside the plant has been developed under the concept "clean and silent," taking employees' ease-of-work into consideration. What's more, with such features as an air conditioning system that makes use of a double-skin construction^‡, which blocks heat in the summer and retains heat in the winter, the plant building has been designed to save energy and take into account the building's impact on the environment and has obtained an A rank in the Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency^§ (CASBEE).

Additionally, as the focal point of the Canon Group's environmental activities where the Group's environmental technologies are concentrated, the Canon Eco Technology Park has established a plant field trip course so the facility can be used as a place where such groups as elementary and middle school students can learn about the environment.

Through technological innovation and improved management efficiency, Canon aims to realize its "Action for Green" environmental vision: a society that promotes both enriched lifestyles and the global environment. Canon strives to reduce the environmental burden throughout the entire product lifecycle—Produce, Use, Recycle. Under this vision, Canon set a goal of a 3% improvement per year in the lifecycle CO₂ emissions improvement index per product, and in 2016, lifecycle CO₂ emissions per product were approximately 34% of those in 2008—successfully achieving an average reduction of approximately 5% a year. Canon will continue to support a future that promotes both enriched lifestyles and the global environment through technological innovation.

Canon Eco Technology Park overview

• *CARS-T: Closed-loop recycling that collects and re-uses plastic extracted from used toner cartridges as the raw material for new toner cartridges. 
  CARS-I: a process in which of collected ink cartridges are sorted by model, disassembled, crushed and washed.
• †The collection and restoration of used products. Collected products are disassembled to part level, worn or deteriorated parts are removed, and parts are cleaned until they meet our internal standards for re-use. Remanufactured products that are shipped meet the same levels of quality and reliability as products that were manufactured using only new parts.
• ‡Refers to the glass of the outer wall comprising two panes.
• §A method to rate the environmental efficiency of a building employed by the Japan Sustainable Building Consortium (JSBC). The method is a comprehensive evaluation system that takes into account energy efficiency and the use of materials with a low impact on the environment as well as rating the surrounding landscape and comfort inside the building.