Business News

Every Day is Earth Day at Xerox

Monday 21. April 2008 - With green practices that began even before the first Earth Day was observed in 1970, every day is Earth Day at Xerox. The company turned up the volume this week with special projects that encourage employees around the world to renew their commitment to the environment through their efforts at home and at work.

From planting trees and spreading the word about all that Xerox is doing to protect our planet to collecting and recycling waste, each Xerox location is celebrating Earth Day in its individual way.

Xerox is also presenting its15th annual Earth Awards, a program that honors employee teams that have not only improved the performance of the company’s operations but also helped to protect the environment through innovative actions and programs.

Here’s a quick look at some of the Earth Day activities at various Xerox locations:

In the U.K., Xerox folks are kicking off a 100-day carbon clean up campaign. They are also hosting Earth Day events at 12 sites complete with a Web-based poster competition to build environmental awareness.
Cincinnati Xerox employees are no strangers to sustainability. That’s where thousands of Xerox systems are returned for recycling or remanufacturing when their leases expire. The facility has educational displays that highlight operations to recover plastic, cardboard and electronics. In addition, employees are working with Nike to collect old athletic shoes to recycle them into sports surfaces.
Wilsonville, Ore. is scheduling earth-friendly events that impact employees’ homes and the community as well as the manufacturing site. On the schedule is a park cleanup, a native plant display, information from a local power supplier, and collection of household hazardous waste and employee electronic waste. They will also host a brown bag lunch to discuss what else can be done for the environment. The Wilsonville facility is home to Xerox’s proprietary solid ink printing technology, which generates 90 percent less waste than comparable laser printing.
In Canada, Xerox employees are planting trees in the City of Mississauga, a Toronto suburb, to offset greenhouse gas emissions, and they are participating in a clean up day with the city. They are magnifying their efforts by developing education programs to promote sustainability awareness with Xerox customers, including educational materials for the sales force as well as a special edition of the quarterly newsletter.
Rochester, N.Y. has the largest concentration of Xerox employees, and they too will be busy with roadside clean ups and tree planting in two locations, and an Earth Day “fair” for employees.
Xerox’s commitment to sustainability dates back decades and is woven into nearly all aspects of how it designs its products, selects its suppliers, and operates its business. Some of the “green” programs and products being produced by Xerox include:
Xerox’s solid ink technology used in printers and multifunction devices use cartridge-free ink sticks that generate 90 percent less waste than laser devices.
Intuitive “power down” capabilities in Xerox’s solid ink printers learn the printing patterns of an office and automatically shift into a low-power mode when it knows the printer will be in low use, like during the lunch hour.
Emulsion Aggregation toner is a major breakthrough in laser-based printing – requiring less toner to be placed on a printed page while using 25 percent less energy to print and manufacture than previous types of toner.
High Yield Business Paper uses 90 percent of a tree versus standard white office paper that typically uses 45 percent of a tree.
Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certifications branded paper products are manufactured using raw materials harvested from certified sources that can be tracked from harvest through distribution.
Research and development projects underway inside of Xerox labs include the development of erasable paper that can be reused multiple times.
In its worldwide operations, Xerox has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 18 percent since 2002, and it has set a goal of a 25 percent reduction by 2012 based on the 2002 baseline. In addition, the company has diverted more than 2 billion pounds of waste from landfills through its long-standing green initiatives.
Whether it is to develop an entire portfolio of sustainable paper, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its service fleet or to be one of the first to incorporate ENERGY STAR specification into its products, Xerox partners with customers, suppliers and stakeholders to advance sustainable business practices and make every day Earth Day.