Enabling Sustainable Business: How Kyocera's ESG Initiatives Support Healthcare | Kyocera

If you work in healthcare, you’ll know how important sustainability goals are. But, often reaching these goals are made harder from the materials supplied to you. “Scope 3” emissions—defined as indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur across a company’s value chain from third-party collaborators—can be around 26 times higher than your direct operational emissions, according to research from CDP and Boston Consulting Group. 

Since EU regulation holds you accountable for your Scope 3 emissions, it’s vital you find business partners that you can trust. This article explores how to do that, with a focus on print and document solutions. By its conclusion you’ll understand how to fulfil ESG criteria based on your print providers’ energy use, materials, lifespan and environmental certifications. 

We’ll also see how Kyocera healthcare sustainability extends beyond emissions data to social commitments and long-life components, resulting in a complete ESG profile that fulfils your procurement requirements. 

Environmental: The Four Things to Check in a Print Provider

For print and document infrastructure, useful Scope 3 supplier data comes down to four key datapoints: 

1.   How much energy the devices draw 

2.   What the consumables are made of and where they end up 

3.   How long the hardware lasts 

4.   Whether any of it has been certified by someone other than the manufacturer. 

Let’s take a look in more detail. 

1. Energy use

Energy use is the criterion your own facilities team can verify, because it lands on your electricity bill and inside your Scope 2 figure. You should ask for the Typical Electricity Consumption (TEC) rating of each model rather than a general efficiency claim, since TEC is a standardised figure you can compare across manufacturers and total across a fleet. 

Kyocera devices carry ENERGY STAR certification, and the low-temperature toner used across the ECOSYS range reduces the energy needed at the fusing stage, where most of a printer's power is consumed. Standby behaviour matters as much as peak draw in a hospital, where devices sit idle for long stretches between clinical bursts. 

2. Materials

Materials determine both what you throw away and what you are able to report as recycled. Ask what proportion of a device is made from recycled material, whether packaging is recyclable, and above all whether the supplier operates a take-back route. 

Kyocera's toner and hardware recycling scheme gives your organisation a documented path for end-of-life consumables and devices, which turns recycled volume into a figure you can cite. Without a scheme of that kind, end-of-life treatment is one of the hardest Scope 3 categories to evidence at all. 

3. Lifespan

You should know how long a device will last. It’s the criterion most often overlooked and the one with the largest effect on your numbers. Every replacement device carries its full manufacturing footprint again, so a fleet refreshed every three years reports roughly twice the embodied carbon of one refreshed every six. Ask suppliers for expected component life and the replacement model, not simply the warranty period. 

Kyocera's ECOSYS design is built around long-life components and durable amorphous silicon drums with toner-only replacement, so routine servicing consumes a cartridge rather than a cartridge and a drum. In a clinical setting, this has a second benefit: fewer consumable changes mean fewer engineer visits into restricted areas. 

4. Environmental certifications

Certifications are what allow your reporting team to defend a figure it did not generate itself. Ask whether a supplier's targets have been externally examined, and whether product-level assessment is routine or occasional. 

Kyocera's target of a 46 per cent reduction in Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions by fiscal year 2031 against a fiscal year 2020 baseline sits alongside CDP A List recognition in 2020, 2021 and 2023. A Life Cycle Assessment methodology is applied to every new product rather than to a flagship few. The Blue Angel eco-label first awarded in 1997 places that practice in a long line rather than a recent one, which carries weight when a tender asks how established a supplier's environmental record is.  

Governance: Protecting the Data Behind the Documents

Governance is especially important in healthcare because documents often contain sensitive clinical and personal information. Your supplier should be able to show you where your records are stored, who can access them and when they have been accessed. 

When choosing a document solutions provider, ask where your data is stored and whether an on-premise option is available if certain records need to remain within your country or organisation. It is also worth checking whether access is logged at the device level, not just across the network. This gives you a clearer record of who has accessed sensitive documents and when. 

Where Kyocera fits in

At Kyocera, we’ve achieved formal ESG Certification from the ESG Benchmark Group, through an audit process validated by the Green Futures team at the University of Exeter. We also hold internationally recognised ISO certifications, including ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 27001 for data and information security. In addition, our ESG assessment and business practices are founded on the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, of which the company is a signatory. 

Our governance initiatives have resulted in software that keeps data compliant and retrievable, such as Kyocera Cloud Capture, Kyocera Cloud Information Manager and Kyocera Enterprise Information Manager. Each converts scanned records and administrative files into searchable digital records, either in-cloud or on-site, depending on the product and your repository needs.  

Social: The Commitments That Rarely Reach the Tender Document

The social side of ESG can easily be overlooked when choosing healthcare technology. But it is still important to consider both the people using the equipment and the people who make and support it. Ask whether the equipment is accessible and easy for everyone who needs to use it. You should also look at how the supplier treats its own employees and whether it can provide evidence to support its claims. 

Where Kyocera fits in

The same ethical philosophy that drives Kyocera's environmental programme applies here. Standard Kyocera multifunction printers support between 10 and 23 languages, an accessibility point for an increasingly international healthcare workforce. 

In terms of business practices, we have internationally recognised standards and transparent business practices. This includes the ISO 45001 certification for occupational health and safety, helping ensure safe and well-managed working environments across operations; ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for ensuring that customer data and information assets are protected through robust security governance; and recognition for our efforts to combat modern slavery, promote diversity and inclusion, address gender pay gaps and improve transparency across our supply chain. 

A Summary of What to Consider for Sustainable Healthcare Procurement

·Energy use: The TEC rating for every model, so energy consumption can be calculated rather than estimated.  

·Materials and waste: Recycled content, packaging recyclability and a documented take-back route for consumables and devices.  

·Product lifespan: Expected component life and replacement model, rather than simply the warranty period.  

·Carbon impact: Externally verified emissions targets and Life Cycle Assessments covering the product range.  

·People and supply chain: Evidence of safe working conditions, diversity and inclusion, modern slavery prevention and responsible sourcing.  

·Data and governance: Relevant security certifications, clear ESG responsibilities and transparent reporting of progress against targets.  

Working with a supplier that can provide clear evidence of its sustainability performance does not remove your organisation’s own reporting responsibilities. But it can give you a stronger starting point. Having reliable information about your suppliers can make it easier to understand and report your Scope 3 emissions, while giving your team evidence they can confidently use when reporting to senior management. 

You do not need to tackle every ESG challenge at once. Start with the areas you can influence today and choose partners who can help you make practical progress. With Kyocera, you can take steps towards more sustainable, efficient and resilient healthcare operations while preparing for what comes next. 

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