Innovation

Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) Limited is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) partner specializing in document consultancy. It was established in Hong Kong over 50 years ago, and has around 900 employees currently. It is committed to providing leading-edge ICT, specializing in document management consultancy to every industry through a full range of solutions and services.

A recent innovation, "Entrak," is used to measure electricity consumption in workplaces in real-time. It not only finds out which area or device is consuming the most electricity, but also generates a detailed consumption report to motivate users to save energy.

Rex Kan, Manager, Corporate Sustainability, said, "We created ‘Entrak’ based on the key idea that "communication can have a positive impact on business, society and the environment."

Inspiration

“In my company,” Rex said, “I will use both top-down and bottom-up methods to communicate. For the former, it is good for supporting individual and collective flourishing. The latter is good for encouraging staff members to participant more."

"We would like to enlarge the scope of "Entrak,” Rex said. “We will measure all the indicators related to environment protection. We expect to create our own platform to evaluate the water consumption of each customer."

Overall impact

Entrak aims to help companies use their limited resources to save the most energy, making the most cost-efficient and energy-efficient decisions. For instance, the report might show that the central air conditioner wastes the most energy. However, if the customer cannot control their air conditioning consumption, Fuji Xerox can help them find other energy-saving opportunities which they can directly influence. In addition to benefiting customers, Entrak helps Fuji Xerox staff members to learn how to save energy. This helps to build credibility and trust with customers. Staff members will try the system first to estimate what problems customers might face, and address them before customers ask.

Fuji Xerox believes that the Entrak report can provide a down to earth energy management method, saving human resources and lowering the evaluation error, leading to broader benefits beyond individual departments or businesses. This is already enough to motivate management/users to implement measures to manage the use of energy. This is an intangible benefit to society. For instance, some managers already knew that staff members forget to switch off the lights, but they do not have any evidence or supporting data. Thus, they do not have strong management approaches to make energy-related changes. But now, guided by the data, customers are using various administration methods, such as closed-circuit television, to try to influence staff members' behaviors as well as to save money.

For the environment, if people start to save energy with the help of "Entrak,” carbon consumption can be decreased. It can contribute to the health and well-being of a system, going beyond merely doing less harm to the environment. Over time, Entrak is potentially scalable. The concept of Entrak can be applied on different energy saving areas, such as saving on the usage of paper and water.

Business benefit

Rex explained that Entrak demonstrates a net positive impact on the business, society and the environment. Fuji Xerox, a traditional IT company, was the first one to introduce an energy savings concept, so as to add value to their service and offer more to their customers.

Fuji Xerox understood that to facilitate the relationship with customers, they should know how to communicate with people on any topic. They knew that protecting the environment is an important topic of broad concern to the public; thus, they emphasized communication with Fuji Xerox staff members as well as with customers and suppliers with regards of the electricity consumption.

Rex said, “We would like to do something competitors cannot do and provide some special value (energy saving service) to our customers." Thus was born a service combining the installation of software that detects and reports energy consumption, reporting on actual consumption, applying observational techniques in innovative ways, and consulting to assess needs, interpret the reports. The software is called "Entrak.” Fuji Xerox hopes the service will positively influence behavior change -- educating them how to save and use energy and, eventually, even water.

Customers invest in the Entrak service according to the scope of physical areas to be covered under the Entrak installation. Fuji Xerox customer service and sales teams coordinate to visit the customer to install the software. Customers can generate electricity consumption reports anytime they want. This report is just like a "body-check report,” educating and reporting which part/devices consume the most energy to customers. Staff members will then act like a doctor to explain the body-check report to the customers professionally, suggesting tailor-made advice which suit customers’ company culture or environment.

For example, Hang Seng Management College intends to measure the energy used on certain floors of a building. Rex will co-ordinate with the Fuji Xerox customer service and sales teams (see photo) to visit the college, install the software and conduct an initial estimate of the volume of energy used. This can be regarded as the "body-check" before deploying a customized intervention to reduce the college’s actual use of energy.

Social and environmental benefit

Fuji Xerox represents a local breakthrough towards a flourishing world that is moving us from doing less harm to net positive, adding and enriching our world. The service innovation is able to support full-spectrum flourishing.Rex has provided ways to bring employees' whole selves to work and create a culture supporting individual and collective flourishing.

He explained, "We will have some green ambassadors to check whether staff members have switched off all the lights or devices voluntarily and give warm reminders to those who forget.” This approach is becoming more accepted in Hong Kong, with lots of green activities to educate staff members to be environmental friendly.

Interview

Rex Kan, Manager, Corporate Sustainability