Konica Minolta Given the Highest Evaluation by CDP and Included on the Climate A List 2022

Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has been awarded a global leadership position on the Climate A List by CDP, an international not-for-profit organization engaged in activities to realize a sustainable economy, for the seventh time.

The Climate A List is composed of companies that have been recognized as global leaders in terms of goals set and actions taken to combat climate change and disclosure of information. Of the more than 18,700 companies around the world that were covered by CDP’s survey, 283 companies (including 74 Japanese companies) were included on the Climate A List this year in recognition of their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, mitigate climate change and contribute to a low-carbon economy.

Transition Plan for Shifting to a Low-carbon Society

Konica Minolta has set a medium-term Science Based Targets (SBT) for CO2 emissions reduction in 2030 with the aim of helping to build a low-carbon society. As part of its efforts to achieve these targets, the Company has drawn up a transition plan to reduce CO2 emissions for which it is directly responsible by: developing production technologies that require less energy consumption; procuring electricity from renewable energy sources; promoting a shift to paperless business operations; and considering the introduction of CO2-free fuels.

Konica Minolta is transitioning to a DX business in anticipation of a change product services and is formulating a business plan to both generate sales and reduce CO2 emissions.

Specifically, Konica Minolta will promote Sustainable Solution activities that incorporate value for decarbonizing products and services at the planning and development stage, Sustainable Factory activities to achieve decarbonization during production, carbon neutral partner activities to achieve decarbonization together with suppliers, and sustainable marketing activities and the environmental digital platform to support customers’ decarbonization in sales and services.

Accelerating a Shift to Renewable Energy

In January 2019, Konica Minolta joined RE100, a global leadership initiative that brings together businesses committed to sourcing 100% renewable energy for their operations. Konica Minolta aims to procure 100% of the power used in its own business activities from renewable energy sources by 2050. Starting with countries and regions where renewable electricity is relatively widespread, Konica Minolta has been reviewing its power procurement contracts one by one at its production and sales sites and switching over to renewable electricity where possible.

Following the two MFP production sites in China, two toner production sites of Konica Minolta achieved the 100% renewable energy goal in FY2021. They are Konica Minolta Supplies Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc. and Konica Minolta Supplies Manufacturing France S.A.S., which switched over to electricity with the green energy certificate. The new plant of Konica Minolta Mechatronics Co., Ltd. completed in Aichi Prefecture, Japan in 2021 sources approximately 11% of electricity necessary for its operations from solar energy.

The process of shifting to green energy is underway also at Konica Minolta’s sales sites in 10 countries in Europe, while its American sales company, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., covers all of its electricity needs with renewable energy by generating electricity with solar panels and procuring green electricity from diverse sources, such as biomass, geothermal power, hydropower, solar power and wind power, through the Renewable Energy Program. This sales company also joined the Green Power Partnership program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May 2022.

Enabling Carbon Neutrality Program

Since 2015, Konica Minolta’s sales companies in Europe have been carrying out the Enabling Carbon Neutrality program to use carbon offset credits to offset CO2 emissions over the lifecycles of its office and production printing systems, from procurement of raw materials to use by customers. This program has been introduced in 11 countries including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and contributed to offsetting CO2 emissions at each stage of the product lifecycle. The European sales companies combined have offset more than 57,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from their corporate activities, including commuting, business trips and international trade shows and other events, across Europe.

In launching its digital printing system, the AccurioPress series, Konica Minolta started a service that allows CO2 emissions to be offset over the product lifecycle under the J-Credit Scheme* in 2022 in Japan.

About CDP

CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000 and working with more than 680 financial institutions with over $130 trillion in assets, CDP pioneered using capital markets and corporate procurement to motivate companies to disclose their environmental impacts, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2022, including more than 18,700 companies worth half of global market capitalization, and over 1,100 cities, states and regions. Fully TCFD aligned, CDP holds the largest environmental database in the world, and CDP scores are widely used to drive investment and procurement decisions towards a zero carbon, sustainable and resilient economy. CDP is a founding member of the Science Based Targets initiative, We Mean Business Coalition, The Investor Agenda and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.

Find out more at https://cdp.net/en

Reference: Evaluation by External Parties

Konica Minolta is currently included in global ESG indexes and is ranked high in the ESG ratings, as shown below.

FTSE4Good Index Series (UK) Included in the index consecutively since 2003
FTSE Blossom Japan Index (UK) Included in the index consecutively since its establishment in 2017
FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index(UK) Included in the index since its establishment in 2022
MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index (USA) Included in the index consecutively since its establishment in 2017
MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (USA) Included in the index consecutively since its establishment in 2017
Dow Jones Sustainability Index (USA) Asia Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific): Included in the index consecutively since 2009
S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index (USA, Japan) Included in the index consecutively since its establishment in 2018
S&P Global (USA) Included in SAM Sustainability Award consecutively since 2013(Four times as Gold and five times as Silver)
Corporate Knights (Canada) Ranked among the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World (2011, 2019-2022)
ISS ESG (USA) Maintained the highest Prime Status since 2011
CDP (UK) Included on the Climate A List(2013-2014, 2016-2017, 2020-2022)

*1 The J-Credit Scheme is a system administered by the Japanese government to certify, as credits, the amount of CO2 and other emissions reduced through the introduction of energy-saving equipment and the use of renewable energy, as well as the amount of CO2 and other emissions absorbed through appropriate forest management.