Epson and the Environment
At Epson, we know that planning for the future requires a strong commitment to the environment. That is why we strive to create innovative products that are reliable, recyclable and energy efficient. Better products that use fewer resources help ensure a better future for us all.
Design for the Environment
At Epson, we take pride in how we design our products with an eye towards the environment. Energy Savings and Efficiency; Preservation of Resources; Elimination of Harmful Substances; and Recycleability are all hallmarks of our efforts.
Energy Savings and Efficiency
Power consumed during product use accounts for a large portion of a product's total environmental impact across its life cycle. At Epson, we set energy-conservation goals for each product and work to continuously improve upon these goals with each new product we develop.
Additionally, many Epson products carry the Energy Star logo, your assurance that the product you have purchased adheres to stringent, government directed criteria for energy efficiency.
Preservation of Resources
Recognizing that the world's resources are limited, Epson is working towards a new form of business that minimizes consumption of energy and resources, recycles materials and eliminates waste cross the entire product life cycle including production, transportation and usage.
Elimination of Harmful Substances
As concern grows over the use of harmful chemical substances in electronic equipment, Epson was a leader in reducing the use of six substances identified as being of particular concern (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in our products on a worldwide basis.
Recycleability
Epson strives to be a good corporate citizen of the communities in which we operate and environmentally responsible for the benefit of the world at large. With a commitment to extended producer responsibility, we have been building optimum recovery/recycling systems that meet local regulations and fit local customers' needs in each region in which we manufacture and sell products.
Back in FY2003, we set a recyclability (a product's calculated recyclable rate, assessed by its configuration and materials used) objective of 70% for all finished products and have had this focus ever since. We are also committed to reducing costs for disassembly and sorting. To achieve this, we incorporate suggestions from operators at our recycling sites into the design stage of new products, using 3R (reduce, recycle, reuse) Design Guide as a tool.
Epson Technology Advantage
MicroPiezo Technology
What sets Epson inkjet printers apart from other inkjets is MicroPiezo technology. This technology uses the property of piezo-electric elements that causes them to deform under an applied voltage. Mechanical pressure precisely ejects minute amounts of liquid, measured in mere picoliters (that is, a unit one trillion times smaller than a liter), to the exact location. The core MicroPiezo technology so essential to a printer like this is now being used in industrial applications and helping to reduce environmental burdens there. Specific examples include forming an alignment layer for liquid crystal panels, producing colour filters for large liquid crystal displays and drawing complex circuit boards.
Efficient Packaging
Ink cartridges come in many different types, and preparing a unique package for each is inefficient. For this reason Epson uses boxes made from 100% recycled paper, with information printed in seven languages that can be used in any market around the world. Any necessary cartridge-specific information is provided by affixing labels to the boxes. The labels are printed out in the exact number needed, so there is no wasted inventory and resources can be used effectively and efficiently. Epson, with cooperation from the WWF, published the Seiko Epson Group Paper Product Procurement Standard to further promote the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of forests. Seiko Epson and Epson Sales Japan earned Chain of Custody (COC) certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in March 2007, and they commercialized and began selling FSC-certified photo matte paper.
LED Light Sources in CCD Scanners
CCD (Charge Coupled Device) scanners usually use a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), but Epson has developed a scanner that uses a white light-emitting diode (LED). The white LEDs provide the highest level of resolution (6400 dpi) while also improving usability for customers by shrinking warm-up times and realizing steep savings in energy consumption.