Konica Minolta South Africa pursues set goals to work in harmony with environment

Preserving the environment has long been an essential part of Bidvest company Konica Minolta South Africa's corporate strategy, and the organisation is committed to doing all it can to promote the restoration and conservation of biodiversity.

In order to actualise its long-term environmental goal, "Eco Vision 2050", which aims to reduce carbon emissions attributable to the life cycle of Konica Minolta products by 80% by 2050, based on 2005 levels, the organisation has formulated a medium-term environmental plan as its first milestone. Already under way, the goal is a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2015.

According to Marianna Gdanis, business unit manager at Konica Minolta South Africa, the first step in minimising CO2 emissions is reducing power consumption.

“Our bizhub MFPs (multifunctional printers) use Simitri high definition (HD) polymerised toners for low temperature fixing and are equipped with advanced sleep mode and energy-saving technologies to significantly minimise energy consumption in the office," she says.

Launched last year, the new range of colour bizhub MFPs offer extremely low TEC (typical electricity consumption) values, with between 59% and 64% reduced power consumption over their predecessors, which easily surpasses the International Energy Star's new standards. The annual reduction equals savings of between 164kg and 155kg or CO2, or to put it into context, between 11 or 12 cedar trees per annum.

The new series of colour bizhub MFPs also utilises separate developer and drum units for longer product life and better durability. "By providing long-life consumables - from the manufacturing and assembly phase to distribution and transport, right through to disposal and recycling - the amount of CO2 emitted over the entire product life cycle is curbed," Gdanis explains. "Plastic parts are made out of recycled materials where possible and are marked to indicate the type of resin. Labels that leave no adhesive residue are used and to simplify recycling, parts are designed so they can be disassembled by a single person without special tools.

In addition, we now use smaller packaging boxes and easy-to-recycle toner bottles, made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which was identified by the Society of the Plastics Industry as one of two types of plastic that can be recycled most economically, in further support of our resource conservation efforts. These toner bottles can be collected and recycled at local facilities, eliminating the fuel that would have been required if they had to be shipped elsewhere."

Keeping paper and toner usage down is another step towards reducing carbon emissions. In this regard, Konica Minolta's bizhub MFPs are available with the PageScope Enterprise Suite, a MFP management system that provides secure operations, detailed tracking and limits excessive output through user authentication. The devices also offer dual-sided 2-in-1 and 4-in-1 printing functions, while PC-FAX enables users to send outgoing faxes directly from their PCs and allows incoming faxes to be viewed on the PC screen before they are printed - so that only the necessary pages can be selected.

In operation, most Konica Minolta models optimise power consumption for each operating mode, controlling the flow of power to save energy wherever possible. The company also certifies specific brands of recycled papers for its bizhub MFPs.

What's more, recognised as a leader in the field of environmental conservation, Konica Minolta provided the printing and copying services at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), hosted in Copenhagen in December 2009. A company representative also served on the Green IT Panel, who debated the role of the IT industry in the battle against climate change.

"It is truly important for us as a company to offer eco-friendly technology and promote responsible business practices, and therefore Konica Minolta South Africa will continue to identify innovative ways in which to effectively use and recycle the earth's limited resources," Gdanis concludes.