Epson joins CSR Europe

Epson is pleased to announce that it has joined CSR Europe as a corporate member to reinforce its commitment and focus on CSR globally and within Europe. This comes at a time when CSR is becoming increasingly paramount to businesses in Europe, something both Epson and CSR Europe are dedicated to ensuring remains a focus moving forward. Furthermore, given Europe’s growing attention on the importance of the triple bottom line and the advent of the European Commission’s guidelines on Non-financial Reporting issued in June 2017, this is an important time to heighten the conversation and drive international progress in CSR.

From phasing out CFCs in the nineties, to their current goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 90% across the lifecycle of all products and services by 2050, Epson takes its commitment to environmental sustainability seriously. As a leading technology provider, with its efficient, compact and precision technologies across inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics, Epson has strived to improve its own environmental impact and that of its customers. Furthermore, Epson incorporates social responsibility and high standards of supply chain management internationally as an essential part of its corporate ethos. It continuously aims to improve business and work processes to achieve a future where people are freed from repetitive manual work and where customers benefit from innovative and high performing technologies through better productivity, accuracy and creativity.

“We believe that more needs to be done to address corporate responsibility across Europe. That is why we are delighted to join the other 48 corporate members of CSR Europe which are all aligned in a common goal of accelerating CSR principles, best practices and standards in Europe,” states Henning Ohlsson, Epson Europe CSR Director. He adds: “Together, we believe that we can move towards a more sustainable European future – and a society in which people enjoy safe, productive and healthy lifestyles.”

Stefan Crets, Executive Director CSR Europe: “Joining a leading sustainability organisation like CSR Europe demonstrates Epson’s commitment to European and global sustainability. It will provide an opportunity for further continuous improvement and mutual learning. Furthermore, it will allow engaging in leadership collaborations on key areas defined by UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are at the core of CSR Europe’s business agenda.”

Epson’s strong heritage and its core technologies have been grounded in a spirit of Japanese craftsmanship – known as monozukuri. “It is thanks to this, and our fundamental belief that excellent hardware is the key to a progressive society, that we have been able to bring innovative yet sustainable technology to the market,” adds Henning Ohlsson, Epson Europe CSR Director. He continues: “When we look at industry test results and comparisons for our inkjet printers, for example, the numbers speak for themselves. If companies make the choice to invest in inkjet printing technologies, they can achieve up to 99% less waste, zero ozone gasses, 92% less CO_2, and 96% less energy¹. If we put this in context: if all businesses switched to inkjet printing, enough energy would be saved up to run at least 507,000 households across Europe².”

About CSR Europe

CSR Europe is the leading European business network for Corporate Social Responsibility. Through its network of 48 corporate members and 42 National CSR organisations, it gathers over 10,000 companies, and acts as a platform for those businesses looking to enhance sustainable growth and positively contribute to society. In its mission to bring the sustainability agenda forward, CSR Europe goes beyond European borders and cooperates with CSR organisations in other regions across the world. CSR Europe builds on its Enterprise 2020 Initiative with the Sustainable Business Exchange which incubates multi-stakeholder initiatives that tackle the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

[1] Research conducted by BLI, 2015
[2] Figures per European country: Germany (170,000 households); UK (60,000 households); France (56,000 households); Italy (95,000 households); Spain (24,000 households); WE15 & Greece (507,000 households)