Kyocera and the Environment

Sustainable Research

Kyocera's R&D focus can be divided into two broad categories:

• Products whose primary aim is environmental protection, such as solar cells or heat exchangers; and
• Products which offer an environmentally-gentle alternative to an established technology.

Kyocera’s worldwide operations are extremely diverse, but all share the common thread of ceramics, our core technology. The company makes everything from costume jewellery and home karaoke machines to replacement hip joints and silicon chip components.

Kyocera invests approximately £8M per month into researching more efficient and reliable printers and multifunction copiers for general business use.

Long-Standing Commitment

Fifteen years ago Kyocera introduced ECOSYS, the first (and still the only) alternative to the traditional cartridge-based design for laser printers. This approach sits firmly in the “Reduce” category of the “Three Rs” mantra (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle). By designing a drum and developer which were durable enough to last the life of the printer, we removed the need to replace them every time the toner runs out.

Of course we manufacture to ISO 14001 and comply with all relevant environmental standards, but the unique benefit offered by Kyocera equipment is derived from using a totally different type of print engine. This not only delivers tangible benefits to the customer, it also provides a clear point of differentiation in an increasingly commoditised market. This makes it more sustainable in commercial terms as well as from the environmental perspective.

ECOSYS

The core of the ECOSYS principle is that when a machine’s toner runs out, users should only have to replace the toner cassette. With cartridge-based machines from other manufacturers, users replace the drum and other components at the same time (although they are often unaware of this).

Kyocera’s ECOSYS design has created 15 years of drastic reduction of both newly input resources and industrial waste. The revolutionary amorphous silicon drum has incredible long-life properties - typically lasting 10 times longer life than a conventional organic photoconductor (OPC) drum. Because the manufacturing process requires only a single coating process of the photoconductor layer it reduces C02 emissions by one third.

RoHS : Reduction in use of Hazardous Substances

To comply with the EU Reduction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), Kyocera conducted surveys measuring the chemical content of 16,000 parts. When Kyocera’s Green Purchasing System was set up in April 2006 about 70% of the parts used already met RoHS criteria.
Since then, all Kyocera printers and multifunction copiers have been made RoHS-compliant.

Waste Reduction

The cartridge-free design of ECOSYS machines dramatically reduces the waste produced by printers and multifunction copiers. When a machine’s toner runs out, all the user replaces is the toner cassette.

Recycling

The simplicity of the Kyocera toner cassette makes it easy to recycle. A UK partner granulates our empty cassettes. The resulting plastic is used in the manufacture of a variety of plastic products.

“Recycling” is a poor description of what happens to the toner cartridges used in many other laser printers; “remanufacturing” would be more appropriate.

A toner cartridge cannot be recycled like a sheet of paper. It has to be sent to a suitable processing plant and broken apart; the parts have to be separated, replaced or re-worked, then re-assembled, refilled, repackaged and returned to the supply chain.

It might be better than not recycling at all, but can that process be described as environmentally-friendly?

Power Consumption

Kyocera products are Energy Star compliant.

Energy Star products automatically enter power-saving ‘sleep mode’ after a period of inactivity. This feature can reduce a multifunction copier’s annual electricity costs by over 60%.

A large machine is more energy efficient than several small ones; staff should be encouraged to use departmental or workgroup multifunctional devices as often as possible.

Kyocera’s ECOfuser

All laser printers use a fuser to permanently fuse the image to the page. Because high temperatures are used in this process, fusing consumes more energy than any other part of the printing process.

Kyocera’s ECOfuser is a smaller, thinner fuser that heats up and cools down rapidly, reducing energy consumption.

Kyocera has reduced its machines’ typical power consumption in sleep mode by 98% since 1995.

New toner technology

Kyocera’s latest machines employ a new type of toner that has been developed to fuse to the page at a temperature 20o lower than earlier toner. This reduces the power consumed by the fusing process by 15%.

Double-sided printing

The latest Energy Star standard requires machines to be able to print on both sides of the page. The FS-1100 personal printer is the only Kyocera printer that does not offer this as standard and is therefore the only Kyocera machine that is not Energy Star compliant.

“It takes 10 times more energy to manufacture a piece of paper than it does to copy an image onto it. Therefore, using less paper also means decreased energy consumption. If everyone used ENERGY STAR copiers, the amount of paper used would amount to a savings of 1 million tons of paper, enough to go around the world 1,400 times.”
Source: Energy Star

Ozone Reduction

Our fifth generation printers boast the world’s first positively charged roller. This means no ozone is produced. The roller is charged directly so electrical charges are not lost in the air. As a result, no ozone is created, and therefore there is no requirement for an ozone filter on the outward fan. A fine brush that automatically cleans the roller on every pass takes care of the longevity and high print quality of the system.

Re-usable Materials

Kyocera machines re-use many components that are not subject to mechanical wear and tear:

• Optical parts, the imaging section, paper and fixing related materials are all designed for reuse.
• Some housing units are made from the recycled resin of plastic drinking bottles - a genuine application for discarded bottles.
• Packaging is from pulp mould made from recycled paper.
• To promote recycling, parts are labeled with the raw material name.

Reduced servicing requirements

An often overlooked benefit of the long-life components used by Kyocera machines is that they require less frequent servicing. This, in turn, reduces the environmental impact of servicing organisations.

Fewer on-site visits are required and fewer parts are replaced. The preventative maintenance schedule of Kyocera machines can require 3 times fewer visits than its competitors.

Packaging

Polystyrene has been completely eliminated from the packaging in all Kyocera products: machines, accessories and consumables.

Packaging is made from pulp mould derived from recycled paper.

UK Green Card Network

In the UK, Kyocera runs the Green Card Network, one of the longest-established networks dedicated to environmental sustainability.

The goal of the Green Card Network is to promote environmental best practice. It is open to any organisation: public or private sector, large or small, Kyocera customer or not.

Membership is free and, while Kyocera products may sometimes be discussed, the Green Card Network is not a part of Kyocera’s sales process!

Members of the Green Card Network enjoy:

• A web portal through which they can exchange ideas and obtain useful information on sustainability (www.thegreencard.org.uk).
• monthly e-shots
• three issues of the Green Light magazines per year
• 2 Green Card conferences per year
• the Green Light awards programme which rewards environmental best practice in four types of organisation:
• public sector
• private sector (enterprise)
• private sector (small business)
• Kyocera channel partners

Renewable Energy Partner

KBH Consultants specialise in the design, specification and Project Management of Renewable Energy Installations. They work with both public and private sector clients, to help make their projects successful.