A sustainable and successful enterprise

A case study of sustainable companies

The first step to embracing a greener future for organizations is to see what the biggest players in the market are doing. For those in the printing industry, there’s a lot more to sustainability than merely investing in recyclable paper or seeking out ink stocks with less impact on the environment. Here’s what global brands are doing to reduce their carbon footprint:

• Siemens: An industrial giant that has operations across multiple industries, Siemens was recently named the most energy-efficient enterprise in its sector. The company is continually investing more resources into eco-friendly customer solutions such as green heating and air conditioning.
• Panasonic: This technology behemoth incorporates sustainable practices into their day-to-day operations, such as by requiring employees not to drive to work, as well as partnering with green organizations to build a fully sustainable smart town in Japan.
• Adobe: Named the ‘greenest IT company’ by Newsweek just a few short years ago, Adobe continues to break boundaries and sets ambitious targets: they have an ongoing goal to achieve net zero energy consumption, they have reduced their product-packaging needs, and they have so far reduced their water consumption by over 60% since the year 2000 – despite employee growth.

Organizations in the Middle East have much to look forward to with a sustainable future. The UAE, for example, was one of the first nations to ratify the Paris Agreement in 2015, and the country plans to hit 27% of its green energy targets by 2021, and 50% by 2050.

This shift towards a more sustainable business models isn’t strictly for the benefit of the environment – although it’s a social cause that many business leaders agree is worth striving toward. Rather, it can also unlock massive bottom-line potential for enterprises that embrace green practices.

The Better Business, Better World MENA report found that “an accelerated and radical shift toward sustainable business strategies could unlock more than US$637 billion and generate 12.4 million jobs across the [Middle East] region by 2030.” And for those in the printing sector, US$229 billion of that total economic value could be derived through the “Energy & Materials” segment.

The future of document and data management is sustainable

Canon is leading the sustainability charge for all organizations in and around the printing sector. Canon Therefore is an efficient document workflow solution that streamlines day-to-day activity while helping organizations reduce their carbon footprint – thanks to real-time, web-based access on any device, consolidation of paper and digital documents in the cloud, and automated functions such as data analysis and reporting.

Canon’s Managed Print Services (MPSs) are also solving business problems while reducing the carbon footprint of participating companies. Many organizations are unable to monitor every device across their entire print infrastructure, which means they are unable to control their employees’ printing habits. With Managed Print Services, those worries are eliminated. Moreover, Canon’s optimized technologies mean reduced waste, energy and paper consumption.

The future of all industries is green. And for printing businesses in the Middle East, embracing sustainability can mean a wider audience, reduced traditional business expenses and more streamlined (and therefore more productive) in-house operations.