About us > CSR Activities > Environmental Report > Environment-Consciousness at the Product Use Stage > Evaluation of Environmental Impact of Products
Kyocera Document Solutions implements life cycle assessment (LCA) on all its products in order to grasp the negative environmental impact of products over their entire life cycle and then reduce it.
LCA is the method of visualizing the overall environmental impacts of each product and service, by clarifying the numerical values of the amount of consumed resources, consumed energy and generated waste at every life stage of the product/service concerned, including "resources procurement," "production," "transportation," "use," "waste disposal" and "recycling."
This visualization of environmental impacts (which take the form of global warming, depletion of natural resources, etc.) enables us to make objective evaluation of the effectiveness of our environmental action plans and achievements.
The LCA scheme is officially stipulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the calculation method of LCA is prescribed by ISO14040 and ISO14044. Also, the standardized declaration process is described in ISO14025.
We have acquired the EcoLeaf environmental label (the only Type III environmental label using the LCA tool in Japan) for our products.
Building an internal data collecting system for implementing LCA and acquiring EcoLeaf System Certification have made it possible for the company to continue implementing LCA and to release information on EcoLeaf-certified products to the public in a timely manner.
• Life Cycle Stages
Implementation of LCA is expected to produce the following effects:
As an example of reducing environmental impact, we will explain the case of our most recent MFP (multifunctional product). We compared the new A3 monochrome MFP, the TASKalfa 2510i with the TASKalfa 256i, a previous model with almost the same specifications.
Specifications of Target Products
Factor | TASKalfa 2510i | TASKalfa 256i |
---|---|---|
New product | Previous model | |
Printing speed (number of prints per minute) | 25 | 25 |
Weight (kg) | 49 | 52 |
Design life (number of prints) | 375,000 | 375,000 |
Date of release | November 2017 | May 2012 |
• Examples of Assessment Results
Compared to the previous TASKalfa256i, our new TASKalfa2510i reduces global warming-causing emissions by 17% over its entire life cycle. Most of the product's global warming impact is due to power consumed during use of the product, and consumable supplies such as toner. Our company is making various efforts to reduce global warming impact in these stages of the product life cycle. We have developed our own unique controller technology for managing power consumption, and achieved a major reduction of 30%.
In order to promote the design of environment-conscious products, it is necessary to engage in design with a full understanding of why environment-conscious design is so important.
Every year we conduct environmentally related education aimed at new employees in the Corporate R&D Division. The curriculum explores issues such as the question of, "Are the regulations regarding environment-conscious design that exist within our company related to worldwide laws, regulations, and environmental mark (label) acquisition," and ponders what kinds of social backgrounds in each country and region served as backdrops for the establishment of those environmental laws, regulations, and marks.
Main Subjects for Education
About us > CSR Activities > Environmental Report > Environment-Consciousness at the Product Use Stage > Evaluation of Environmental Impact of Products
©2019 KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.