KEY POINTS:
Colouring the company green is nothing new for printer and copier-maker Fuji Xerox.
Last year, the company was accredited to use the Ecolabelling Trust environmental tick on some of its products. But Fuji Xerox New Zealand managing director Neil Whittaker says the company was conscious of environmental issues long before that.
"Fuji Xerox has always been concerned with environmental sustainability and now we are taking it a step further to obtain credits which illustrates our commitment to the environment," Whittaker says.
The environmental tick is a voluntary labelling programme initiated by the Government, recognising steps manufacturers have taken to reduce the environmental impact of their products.
In the printer and copier market that means reducing energy consumption, air emissions and noise; minimising resource use and waste through improved durability, reuse and recycling of parts and packaging; and reducing the environmental impact of hazardous substances.
Fuji Xerox rival Ricoh has also received the trust's tick of approval.
Fuji Xerox wants to be the New Zealand market leader (its motto is "Not Copiers. Leaders.") in sustainable business practices by recycling products, using environmentally friendly equipment and supporting environmental programmes.
For a maker of paper-using and power-consuming office equipment, it might seem a lost cause. Not only do printers and copiers chomp through trees, they also leave a mess behind in the form of spent ink and toner cartridges, and piles of plastic and circuit boards when the devices are worn out.
But Fuji Xerox is tackling the problem head on. Recycling is a key part of its efforts to be green.
It has a goal of "zero landfill by 2010", which isn't quite what it sounds, but does aim to "significantly reduce" the amount of waste that ends up at the tip.
Its recycling programme handles about 25,000 cartridges a year, which it calculates is keeping 520cu m of waste out of landfills.
Customers are encouraged to return empty cartridges in their original packaging for a Fuji Xerox technician or collection agent to take away.
The company also takes old printers and copiers off customers' hands.
The gear that still has life left in it is resold, but the rest is shipped to Asia, where the company has a plant dedicated to stripping down old machines into parts and recycling the materials.
The company says its new products contain up to 97 per cent recyclable or reusable materials.
Recycling packaging - including polystyrene, plastic wrap, cardboard and wooden pallets - is another way the company limits its environmental impact.
The company's New Zealand environmental manager, Robert Ramsey Turner, says the initiatives spring from the logistics side of the business. Fuji Xerox wanted to "be responsible about the impact it was having on the world".
"It's taken it on as a total corporate body and its strength has been growing over the years," he says. "We've been active on it long before governments and local businesses were asking for it."
There is a cost. The company pays for up to half a dozen containers of old printers and copiers to be shipped out of the country each month.
Steve Caunce, Fuji Xerox New Zealand marketing manager, says the company's sustainability policies don't stem from a desire to gain a marketing edge on its competitors, but nor do they hurt its image.
Increasingly, Caunce says, customers are differentiating between suppliers on the basis of their green credentials.
"It is a good message to put out there with our customers - it does give us a real point of difference."
Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland-based technology journalist
