Canon Emirates yesterday announced plans to launch a carbon neutral toner and ink cartridges recycling program in the UAE. The program will be launched with the support of Industryre, a sustainable management consultancy firm.
Shadi Bakhour, GM, Canon Emirates, said, “This announcement is part of our on-going commitment to be a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable company. At Canon, we continue to become more environmentally efficient across all our operations and to develop innovative technologies that can reduce the environmental footprint of our products and services. We are very pleased that the UAE market is setting a precedent in the region with this pioneering project. This is in line with our corporate philosophy of ‘Kyosei’, which means living and working together for the common good, and given that the UAE is a commercial hub for the Middle East, we feel that it is only fitting that we start the roll-out with the Emirates”.
In the long term, Canon Middle East plans to expand the program to all markets in the region. However, during the initial rollout in the UAE, Canon Emirates will be aiming to cater to Canon’s corporate customers from all sectors in the UAE, the company said.
A unique feature of the scheme is that any CO² emissions generated as part of this process, for example, during the transportation of the collection boxes, will be estimated and offset through a carbon credit offsetting procedure, it was reported.
Carbon credits are similar to certificates that represent a reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Projects that prevent the generation of greenhouse gases or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere earn these credits, which can in turn then be “sold” to other businesses and individuals to “offset” the emissions they generate. One carbon credit is the equivalent to a saving of one tonne of CO².
“We are delighted to partner with Canon on this project. At Industryre we are committing to help companies meet their sustainability and business objectives. We are looking forward to bringing together our world-class expertise across the different sustainability disciplines to help launch this initiative in the UAE”, said Ahmed Detta, managing partner at Industryre LLC.
