01732 759725 44 VOX POP continued... and Germany. Remote work is popular within the IT industry in Germany, and those living close to the office are free to decide whether they work from home or the office. Additionally, SYNAXON offers tax relief on bike leasing for all its German employees. Gillian Anderson: The world is united as never before to take on the challenge of climate change, with governments, businesses and individuals all playing their part. Mitigating climate change is one of the main goals in Konica Minolta’s ESG strategy and is therefore firmly anchored in our group charter of corporate behaviour, specifically through addressing environmental issues. Engaging our employees through various initiatives and programmes is essential to us delivering our long- term vision. This year our technology innovation programme invited employees to collaborate cross functionally on a European and global level to innovate on set challenges including ESG topics. As part of the six-month programme, employees both in the UK and globally were given the opportunity to explore the topics in depth and provide innovative solutions. In the UK, our recently established social impact working group is helping to embed and realise our social impact commitments and develop our partnerships across the UK. This commitment to people, places, and the environment is ingrained in Konica Minolta as a global business, but it is also vitally important at even the most local of levels. This is just the start, but through engaging our employees, we are able to further understand the most challenging issues and opportunities in the communities where our employees and customers are and collaborate with others to make the biggest impact. Steve Kendall-Smith: Lexmark employees are engaged in aspects of our operational sustainability. There is a great deal of excitement around our carbon neutrality goals. Some of our sites have award programs where employees can offer environmental improvement suggestions and earn awards or points toward incentives. Volunteerism, charitable giving, education and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion are part of the Lexmark culture. This genuine sense of connection makes us stronger as a business and empowers employees, while supporting the areas in which we live. We engage with our employees to give their time, talent and resources through programs such as volunteer time off and flexible work policies. Lexmark’s annual presentation of the volunteer of the year award to an employee who demonstrates excellence in volunteerism helps support the causes that are most important to the winning employee. From tree and mangrove plantings to rubbish collection and clean-up efforts, over the years, Lexmark employees have used these initiatives and programs to invest time to help the environment in their local communities, as well as raise awareness for environmental stewardship. Our commitment to local and global communities is visible in the contributions of financial, product, and volunteer support to organisations working to help meet the challenges and needs of modern society. We apply the same standards of excellence to our contribution and community support activities that we use in our business operations. PrintIT Reseller: Have you partnered with any groups/ organisations to support your key sustainability initiatives? Sabine Heine-Bickle: Our partnerships are targeted at areas where both expertise and credibility are key to avoid any greenwashing claims. We’ve partnered with myClimate to validate our carbon impact calculations and support our carbon offset programme for our UK operation and the products we sell to customers. We are also members of the Living Wage Foundation who certify that we pay a living wage to all staff and have joined the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) to certify working conditions in our factories in Asia. Finally, via our direct business, Annodata, we sponsor the GLL foundation who support promising athletes to allow them to focus on their sport. James Epton: We work with a wide range of suppliers and other organisations that prioritise sustainability, but perhaps the two key relationships are with Epson and Ecologi. Epson has invested heavily in developing game-changing heat-free print technology. ‘Game-changing’ is used, all too often, inappropriately, but in this instance, it is an accurate assessment. From procurement to operation, Epson’s credentials are validated by receiving the EcoVadis Platinum award for sustainability for the last three years in a row. Epson’s heat-free print technology dramatically reduces consumables waste. Epson RIPS ink cartridges provide a higher yield, resulting in less than half the ink related consumable replacement volumes over a contract term in comparison to laser technology. Epson’s business inkjet printers provide a vastly simplified mechanical system, not requiring heat fusers, or as many other replacement components, significantly reducing the overall number of replacement parts, packaging, and storage. This also reduces the number of delivery journeys for parts and ink, as well as the number of service appointments needed to maintain the devices, reducing the required transport related carbon. Lower energy consumption saves money too. A desktop laser device consumes over a kilowatt (1,000 watts) when heating the fuser before starting to print, whereas an Epson device will use less than 30 watts. As Epson’s heatfree devices do not require a warm-up routine before they start printing, when assessed alongside a comparable laser device, they use up to 83 per cent less energy and lower CO2 emissions, produce up to 96 per cent less consumable waste, start printing sooner and provide increased productivity. In 2022, XBM partnered with Ecologi, who use climate solutions which already exist to avoid or remove billions of tonnes of emissions, as well as restoring nature and positively transforming society. Ecologi was initially founded by a group of environmentalists in Gillian Anderson Our commitment to local and global communities is visible in the contributions of financial, product, and volunteer support to organizations working to help meet the challenges and needs of modern society
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