Konica Minolta : Environmental Digital Platform Increases Its Membership to 68 Companies

Tokyo (June 30, 2022) - Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) is pleased to announce that the number of companies participating in its Environmental Digital Platform reached 68, more than four times the initial membership of 16 when the platform was founded in June 2020. The Environmental Digital Platform is an ecosystem designed to reduce environmental impact nationwide by bringing together expertise in environmental activities across different industries in Japan.

A leader in environmental management, Konica Minolta has a track record of carrying out innovative environmental initiatives. By launching the Environmental Digital Platform, the company aims to facilitate the sharing and effective use of knowledge and expertise in environmental activities among companies in diverse industries, to bring new value to those companies, thereby contributing to a decarbonized and recycling-oriented society.

Konica Minolta is determined to co-create innovations and deliver solutions to global environmental issues as part of its commitment to "addressing climate change" and "using limited resources effectively," two of the five material issues defined by the company for creating new value. In doing so, Konica Minolta hopes to accelerate environmental initiatives involving many companies and significantly reduce environmental impact, while increasing profitability to ensure sustainable growth.

Today, there are growing demands in society for decarbonization and more effective use of limited resources to ensure environmental sustainability, while many countries have strengthened their environmental laws and regulations. Moreover, ESG investment and SDGs-oriented business practices are gaining in importance. In response to such external factors, companies must optimize their efficiency and develop innovations that enable them to grow in compliance with the SDGs, while addressing increasingly complex and challenging environmental issues. While each company is working on environmental activities to support sustainable growth, the expertise and efforts of one company alone can achieve only limited results.

While many companies have difficulty in planning and implementing environmental strategies, Konica Minolta launched the Environmental Digital Platform and has since been expanding its activities with a view to compiling environmental knowledge and expertise shared among the participating companies and co-creating new value to help the companies enhance the efficiency of their environmental management. To be specific, the Environmental Digital Platform assists each company to address their individual environmental issues through three means: Workshop, Navigation MAP, and Solution Provision Services.

1. Workshop: The participating companies share environmental issues, focusing on the four main themes of environmental strategy, renewable energy, energy conservation, and effective use of resources, and bring their technologies and expertise to co-create solutions.
2. Navigation MAP: The strategies and initiatives of the participating companies are classified according to the strategy development process, and expertise in environmental management is compiled as ready-to-use knowledge.
3. Solution Provision Services: Companies needing solutions with immediate effect are matched with companies possessing the required technology and expertise.

Workshop provides opportunities for the participating companies to discuss and address issues of concern, while information available in the Navigation MAP, such as successful cases, allows participating companies to identify approaches for developing and implementing environmental strategies and policies, and expedite the decision-making process. The number of proposals offered under the matching service has increased to nearly 230 since June 2020. Moreover, new solutions that benefit the participating companies, such as a system to collectively purchase renewable energy, have been co-created and made available on the Environmental Digital Platform.

Environmental Digital Platform as of May 2022

By offering its own environmental experience and expertise, Konica Minolta has forged relationships of trust with more than 500 corporate customers (sustainable marketing customers). The Environmental Digital Platform has been expanding its membership by garnering support from these existing customers as well as potential customers from a broad range of industries, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing, including the insurance and IT industries.

By sharing, leveraging and integrating environmental technologies and expertise to co-create new value, Konica Minolta hopes to help the participating companies solve their environmental issues and achieve growth.

Companies participating in the Environmental Digital Platform as of May 2022 (Companies in green are solution providers.)

Environmental Digital Platform website
https://edpf.konicaminolta.com/ (in Japanese)

Konica Minolta remains committed to fostering close relationships with people throughout society through environmental management to create new business value. The company is also determined to contribute to the well-being of society by striving to solve environmental issues while creating new businesses, thereby ensuring a healthier global environment for the next generation.