Manufacturing is an industry notoriously difficult to decarbonise due to the sheer amount of energy required. For technology leader Epson Group, that is around 876 GWh of electricity a year – all of which is now sourced from renewables at the Japanese giant’s global sites.
This move makes Epson the first Japanese manufacturer to achieve this feat, which should reduce CO2 emissions by 400,000 tonnes.
This is a significant milestone in Epson’s stated Environmental Vision 2050 where it intends to be both carbon negative and underground resource free. Epson will also generate more of its own power, work with partners on new power sources, and reduce the energy associated with the production of its products.
For most readers, Epson will be immediately associated with office printers and projectors. While this is still very much core to the business, which was founded in 1942, sustainability pressures and cloud computing have impacted demand for physical documents.
Or so you might think? The actual numbers are still incredibly large, boosted in part by remote working which means those that do need to print have to have their own printer.
According to research from IDC, more than 3 trillion pages were printed per year pre-pandemic, and that figure is only projected to drop to around 2.3 trillion by 2025. This equates to around 4.4 million pages being printed every single minute – enough to cover 39 football fields.
Clearly, the act of printing is far from defunct, so the fact that a market leader like Epson is making impressive sustainability strides is welcome news.
It’s not all about printers, of course. Epson is also a leading manufacturer of industrial robots, PCs, microchips and more that are powering the digital revolution and factory of the future.
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