Canon Inc., in collaboration with Teijin Limited (“Teijin”), has invested in working towards research, and developing insights and guidelines, for calculating CO₂ emissions from virgin plastics using primary data under the SuMPO Environmental Label Program administered by the Sustainable Management Promotion Organization (SuMPO).The teams set about understanding and developing an international framework administered by SuMPO that quantitatively calculates, verifies, and discloses environmental information on products using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method.
Through this initiative, Teijin obtained the first-ever SuMPO Environmental Product Declaration (SuMPO EPD) certification in Japan for this category.
In response, Canon incorporated Teijin’s actual environmental data, such as CO₂ emissions from its plastic materials, into the life-cycle CO₂ calculations of its own products, and subsequently registered and disclosed its own SuMPO EPD.
The SuMPO EPD is a framework that quantitatively discloses environmental information throughout the entire life-cycle of registered products in conformance with ISO 14025. Although this type of framework is becoming more widely adopted, a key challenge has been that CO₂ emissions for conventional plastic materials have relied on industry-average emission factors, making it difficult to accurately reflect the emissions-reduction efforts undertaken by individual suppliers.
Higher level of accuracy
To address this issue, Canon and Teijin worked together and discussed with SuMPO to make available the calculation rule of CO₂ emissions (Product Category Rule (PCR)), using primary supplier-specific data, for the virgin plastic material under the SuMPO EPD framework. Based on this initiative, Teijin calculated CO₂ emissions and other information relating to its plastic materials using actual operational data and registered the first SuMPO EPD in this materials category in February 2026.
Furthermore, Canon incorporated the primary emissions data for these plastic materials into the life-cycle CO₂ emissions calculations for two Canon products, the imagePRESS V900 commercial production printer and Canon imagePRESS V800. SuMPO EPDs for these products have been registered and made publicly available.
As a result of this initiative, a foundation has been established in order to more accurately reflect suppliers’ emissions-reduction efforts in CO₂ emissions calculations. In addition, the development of standardised calculation rules for the virgin plastic materials category will enable other companies and organisations to conduct emissions calculations using primary data and it is expected to accelerate efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions across the entire supply chain.
Canon will continue to invest and promote in sustainability initiatives
Going forward, Canon will expand the scope of raw materials and components subject to primary-data-based CO₂ emissions calculations beyond the plastic materials category. Through collaboration with a broader range of suppliers, Canon will continue to promote initiatives to calculate emissions based on actual operational data.
In addition, by progressively expanding the range of products for which supplier-provided primary data on raw materials and components is incorporated into life-cycle CO₂ emissions calculations, Canon aims to advance decarbonisation across the entire supply chain.
