Innovation

The “Zero Landfill Product Initiative” is a project of the whole Fuji Xerox Corporation. Cheng-Lin (Jenny) Huang, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility, identified that, “Sustainability is important. The company’s aim is to continually contribute to the development of society based on corporate societal responsibility. The company does needed innovation to achieve zero landfill.” The innovation included new business system development and redesigned products. At the same time, the company also expected to gain benefit from the new business model.

In 2004, Fuji Xerox commenced the zero landfill product system across Japan for used product collection, establishing "Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Co. Ltd." in Thailand as the primary recycling center. To reach 99.5% of their products being recycled or reused, Fuji Xerox wanted to create a system, ensuring they can collect all their used products from their customers. The integrated recycling system currently has a number of distinctive characteristics compared with the employment of separate systems in each country, as (1) it is rooted in cooperation and trust of nine Asia-Pacific countries and regions; (2) facilitates recovery and disassemble used Fuji Xerox products over the borders without the need for any intermediaries; (3) aims for "zero landfill" by steadily improving recycling rates; (4) boosts productivity through economies-of-scale; and (5) minimizes environmental impact by recovering and separating components that include hazardous materials. All these efforts help to create a new industrial system.

In the recycling center, used products need some processes to make them reusable. First, operators clear the used products and remove their cases. Second, these cases are classified based on the type of plastic used in the product. Third, operators compress the skeleton, metal parts, and other compressible materials. After the process flow, all recyclable resources are dismantled and classified into seventy categories of materials, including iron, aluminium, lens, glass and copper, for recycling. These resources can be used to manufacture new products or other valuable uses. For materials that cannot be recycled, Fuji Xerox has a system to repurpose these materials. These resources can be applied to other useful purposes, such as building materials or synthesis gas. A tracking system ensures that there is no illegal dumping following the whole recycling process by any business partner.

Inspiration

In the past, IT companies focused on improving product performance, in an attempt to design faster and more attractive products. There are few companies that seriously care about responsible production. In addition, the products were often discarded without proper recycling treatments. "In our industry," Huang noted that, "copiers and printers typically contain various pollutants and are difficult to be recycled. However, Fuji Xerox believes that used products are not waste but rather valuable resources."

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability is synonymous with corporate management. Huang explained, "the essence of Fuji Xerox policy is a commitment to solve customer's business challenge and contributing to social development in a sustainable environment." As a for-profit corporation, Fuji Xerox reuses the resources from discarded products, such as copy machines and printers, from nine Asia-Pacific countries and region. This plan has been embedded in the business processes of Fuji Xerox and has significantly benefited the company.

Overall impact

Huang explained that the success of the "Zero Landfill Product Initiative" certainly provides a strong overall impact to the business environment. As one of the leading brands in the technology industry, Fuji Xerox believes that the company must do more on sustainability than other competitors do. Fuji Xerox delivers a message, which “achieving zero landfill in the IT industry is possible”. When a leading brand achieves the highest standard of used products treatment, it will take the entire industry in the same direction. Many IT companies focus on how to develop software to provide a net positive impact to the society. However, regarding the hardware, most IT companies only focus on reducing the use of pollutants in production, and most companies have no complete solution for recycling or reused products. Therefore, the key impact of the "Zero Landfill Product Initiative" is the concept that responsible production should encompass the entire product lifecycle. Fuji Xerox believes its mission is providing their clients the whole sustainable product.

Business benefit

Since sustainability has become a trend of the world, Fuji Xerox is gaining new customers from its’ corporate image. These new customers generally have the same corporate value of sustainability as Fuji Xerox. Especially since becoming the first IT company achieving zero landfill creates corporate differentiation with other competitors. "Developing zero landfill product is an important part of our Corporate Social Responsibility. By doing that, we have attracted more companies to cooperate with us; companies that agree with our effort and value." Huang stated. According to the sales department's return, Seventy-seven percent of Fuji Xerox’s clients recognize the effort of Fuji Xerox Corporate Social Responsibility. More importantly, sixteen percent of the competition win is the clients notice Fuji Xerox’s contribution of environmental protection. Since the zero landfill project is one part of Fuji Xerox’s Corporate Social Responsibility, it is hard to assess how much money the company has saved by this project. However, the project is important to the whole Corporate Social Responsibility plan, and it creates significant business uniqueness when comparing with other competitors.

Social and environmental benefit

Besides Thailand, Fuji Xerox began to build another recycling plant in China in 2008. After the establishment of the zero landfill recycling system, 9,000 tons of resources have been processed in three years of operation. Also, Fuji Xerox reached 99.9% recycling rate for the toner cartridges and 99.5% for other products. This data shows that the zero landfill product initiative reduces the generation of hazardous substances and has a positive impact on the environment.

As UN Global Goal 12 mentioned: “sustainable growth and development require minimizing the natural resources and toxic materials used”. Through the zero landfill project, Fuji Xerox controls the material footprint and the material consumption of their whole product life cycle, representing responsible production. Fuji Xerox supports the UN Global Compact and became a signatory in fiscal 2002. The company has been a sustainable enterprise, and they will continually devote resources to raise the net positive impact to all the stakeholders.

Interview

Cheng-Lin (Jenny) Huang, Manager of Management Quality Promotion Department