Konica Minolta’s Environmental Activities
Connecting for Environmental Management Issues
(Environmental Digital Platform)
Background and Issues
The increasing severity of global environmental problems demands more sophisticated and diverse environmental responses from companies, including climate action, information disclosure, and legal compliance. In this context, companies must implement company-wide initiatives with limited resources, involving not only environmental departments but also business divisions and supply chain partners.
Vision
Staff members who are serious about environmental issues face various challenges daily. "How should we map out a roadmap to net-zero?" "What’s the best way to collaborate with our suppliers?" "Is our current approach truly sufficient to meet new European regulations?" "How do we evaluate and approve unprecedented proposals?" These are difficult questions to solve within a single organization. However, when looking beyond internal boundaries, one finds many others tackling similar issues through trial and error.
This is why cross-company collaboration is key to accelerating and streamlining environmental solutions.
The Environmental Digital Platform provides a space where practitioners can share their insights and experiences, supporting corporate initiatives and ultimately contributing to the resolution of environmental issues across society.
Key Measures and KPIs
The Environmental Digital Platform will focus on the following initiatives for member companies:
- Creating and expanding opportunities for environmental professionals to interact and exchange opinions with their peers at other companies on the environmental issues they face.
- Providing actionable insights to support decision-making in environmental management.
Through these efforts, Konica Minolta aims to enhance each company's environmental responsiveness, improve the speed and quality of problem-solving, and elevate the industry as a whole through inter-company knowledge sharing—ultimately contributing to the overall sustainability of society.
Overview of the Activities
The Environmental Digital Platform provides opportunities for gathering environmental information and interacting with other members. A key feature of the platform is that it goes beyond passive information sharing. It encourages active participation, enabling members to efficiently access real-world examples and connect with practitioners who have tackled similar challenges firsthand.
The insights gained through interaction with other companies are often the key to identifying the next course of action in addressing environmental issues.
Regular working groups cover topics commonly faced by many companies, such as information disclosure, regulatory trends, carbon neutrality, and the circular economy. These sessions include case sharing, Q&A, and lively discussions. The platform also supports decision-making in environmental management by helping members understand their position relative to others through anonymous surveys.
Additionally, the platform can facilitate meetings between companies facing similar challenges, offering a forum for exchanging ideas and information.
By connecting efficiently to the right people and information, these interactions provide valuable insights that strongly drive the acceleration of environmental management.
Activities
Opportunities for Customer Interaction (Symposium)
In December 2024, an Environmental Digital Platform Symposium was held, with 89 participants from 44 companies. All participating companies delivered two-minute speeches introducing their use cases and challenges related to the Environmental Digital Platform. This provided an opportunity for deeper communication among participating companies on "the characteristics of their environmental activities," "current challenges," and "messages to other participating companies."
Many comments were received, such as "We found a company to benchmark for environmental management," "Practical examples for strengthening supplier collaboration regarding Scope 3 were helpful," and "We were able to network with other companies, leading to business opportunities." A social gathering allowed participants to exchange business cards and deepen their relationships to solve problems through cross-company collaboration.
Each company gave a two-minute speech (left), and cross-company exchange took place at the social gathering (right).
Opportunities for Customer Interaction (Factory Tours)
As part of the Circular Economy Working Group of the Environmental Digital Platform, a factory tour was conducted at Green Cycle Systems Corporation, an affiliate of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, with their cooperation. Eighteen environmental planning and promotion staff from nine companies participated in the visit, where they observed the plastic recycling process for home appliances.
The tour deepened participants’ understanding of material recycling processes for home appliance plastics and prompted discussions on key points for utilizing such recycling. Companies shared their challenges and practical knowledge regarding the use of recycled plastics and gained valuable insights for their initiatives. This tour also contributed to enhanced use of information and faster problem-solving within each company.
Discussion on plastic recycling examples
Plastic recycling process tour
Voice of a Customer | Azbil Corporation
The Azbil Group aims to realize people’s “safety, comfort, and fulfillment” through human-centered automation while contributing to the global environment. We promote three core businesses globally: Building Automation, Advanced Automation, and Life Automation. Through these businesses, we strive to deliver value unique to the Azbil Group in various settings, including offices, production sites, and everyday life, in collaboration with our customers.
We had been interested in Konica Minolta’s environmental management and were informed of the concept of the Environmental Digital Platform (DPF) even before its official launch through our communications with them. As environmental information is constantly evolving, we recognized the limitations of working alone and were seeking opportunities to network with a diverse range of companies. This led us to join the platform from its inception. To address a top-priority issue regarding supplier engagement in Scope 3 Category 1, we took the initiative to host a discussion with volunteers from companies facing similar challenges. With Konica Minolta’s support in selecting participants and setting the discussion themes, we were able to facilitate efficient and meaningful conversations. This experience also allowed us to build valuable connections with other companies, which has proven to be highly beneficial.
Ayako Nagayama,
Sustainability Promotion Department,
Azbil Corporation
Azbil Corporation
