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In June 2020, Konica Minolta has launched its bizhub ECO and its Enabling Carbon Neutrality programme together with our distributors NewCytech in Cyprus and SAI in Kenya.
With the Enabling Carbon Neutrality programme Konica Minolta offsets unavoidable CO2 emissions produced during office and production printing. Konica Minolta pays for manufacturing and transportation of the product, while the customer covers the cost of compensating for emissions produced while the device is being used. The customer is provided with an emissions certificate stating how much CO2 has been saved, as evidence of the carbon offsetting. Customers joining this programme support a gold-standard-certified compensation project in Aruba: a wind farm with a total capacity of 30 megawatts that effectively reduces the island's dependence on diesel and other fuels for power generation. This project in cooperation with ClimatePartner helps fight global warming in two ways: firstly, the act of burning fuel to generate electricity causes significant amounts of CO2. Secondly, the Caribbean island also has to import those fuels from abroad, which results in an additional burden for the climate. The project's positive impact extends beyond climate protection: it creates local employment opportunities and entails the modernisation and support of local infrastructure.
bizhub ECO consists of three elements: in a first step, a Konica Minolta service expert optimises the settings of the purchased device for eco-friendliness, deleting blank pages for copy and scan jobs as well as enabling a toner save mode as standard, for example. Furthermore, bizhub ECO includes the Enabling Carbon Neutrality programme. The total emissions over the lifetime of each device is calculated, which are then offset through a certified carbon offset project. The third and most prominent element of bizhub ECO is the collaboration with the online platform Treedom. For every bizhub ECO service sold, a small-scale farmer plants one tree on her own land – the initiative focuses in particular on helping women to generate their own income and support their families by planting fruit trees in agroforestry systems. In addition, the customer acquires sponsorship of the tree. They can thus track the development of the plant online and communicate it to their customers or employees.
1000t of CO2 are equivalent to:
In collaboration with Treedom, a total of 170 trees were planted in the Konica Minolta Kenyan forest and the "Bwagamoyo Women Group" supported – Kenian female small-scale farmers, their children and their education.
Konica Minolta and our distributors – Together we contribute to generate a social and environmental impact, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
Giulia Milioto, Business Support Manager, Distributor Sales Group (DSG), Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe: “Each of us can make a difference for the environment and introducing the bizhub ECO and Enabling Carbon Neutrality programme at DSG was the first step towards a change. We care about generating a tangible and sustainable impact, and this is the time in which our involvement for a more sustainable world is needed at most. We are looking forward to further introduce these programmes to our other DSG distributors located worldwide."
NewCytech office in Cyprus
SAI Office in Kenya