Canon 2005 Annual Report Download - page 24

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Canon’s corporate philosophy of kyosei embodies the very concept of CSR
and demonstrates the commitment that Canon has made to creating a better world.
Canon’s Approach to CSR
Canon formally introduced its corporate
philosophy of kyosei—“living and work-
ing together for the common good”—in
1988. This concept reaffirms the original
aspirations of Canon’s founders, and in
practice it means cooperating with the
many communities where we operate
and contributing to society, which
amounts to nothing less than fulfilling
corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Canon fully understands the impor-
tance of transparency in compliance and
corporate governance activities (see page
10). At the same time, we are firmly
committed to creating a sustainable
world by working in collaboration with
stockholders, customers, employees,
suppliers and local communities to
protect the environment and contribute
to society.
Training and Nurturing Employees
Since Canon’s founding, employees
have been trained and evaluated based
on the principle of San-Ji, or the “Three
Selfs”—self-motivation, self-manage-
ment, and self-awareness.
The Canon of today grew out of an
enterprising spirit. To keep this corporate
climate fully alive and well, the Company
respects individuality and cultivates the
capabilities of all employees, and fairly
compensates personnel who have striven
to improve their skills and achieve their
goals. While Canon has redoubled its
efforts in recent years in educating
personnel and offering specialized
training at all levels, including manage-
ment and administrative levels, as well as
training new employees, we will further
strengthen these initiatives. We are also
focusing on raising up global leaders. We
will continue to cultivate discerning
employees who are capable of prosper-
ing in all sorts of environments.
Regarding compliance, Canon
thoroughly educates its employees to
follow the principle of putting public
interests and morals ahead of profit.
Environmental Activities
Life Cycle Assessment
Canon believes that technology and
economic activity can be effectively used
to restore a healthy environmental
balance. Canon follows a system of life
cycle assessment (LCA) to ensure that our
products are environmentally friendly at
all stages, from materials procurement
and production to use and disposal.
As part of our LCA-based system, we
established the “Maximization of
Resource Efficiency” concept in 2001,
under which we seek to extract the
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
maximum value out of minimal
resources at every stage of a product’s
life cycle. LCA considerations of product
design have led Canon to develop
energy-saving technologies including
on-demand fixing and induction-heating
(IH) fixing, and are the driving force
behind our endeavors to make products
more compact and lightweight.
Consolidated Group ISO 14001
Certification
In July 2005, we obtained consolidated
ISO certification covering Canon’s 46
business sites and affiliated companies in
Japan, along with six European sales
companies. We plan to completely switch
to group certification covering all of our
production sites and sales companies
worldwide by 2007.
Vision 2010
Canon has established a medium- to long-
term environmentally conscious manage-
ment plan designated as Vision 2010. One
of the primary goals and the overriding
indicator of the plan is Factor 2: a target of
at least doubling resource efficiency associ-
ated with Canon’s entire scope of business
activities by 2010 as compared with the
baseline year of 2000. Canon continues to
develop technologies and strengthen
systems in order to meet this goal.
Global Warming Countermeasures
through Logistics
Canon conducts its environmental
activities from the standpoint of LCA,
Training of new employees
at Canon Vietnam