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Development of Low-Environmental- Burden Materials
Canon seeks to lower the burden its operations place on the environment by suppressing the volume of
CO2 it emits and the amount of resources it consumes. In addition, we are promoting the development of
materials with low environmental burden for use in our products.
Contributing to Global Warming Prevention through the Introduction of Biomass Plastics
In its drive to adopt low-environmental- burden materials, Canon
Inc. is focusing on biomass plastics, which are a type of plastic
with a plant-derived component. In 2008, we achieved practical
realization of a biomass plastic, jointly developed with Toray
Industries, Inc., with the world's highest level of flame redardance.
This new material gained the BiomassPla Mark, based on the
BiomassPla Identification and Labeling system of the Japan
BioPlastics Association, and is already in use in the exterior parts
Examples of parts that incorporate biomass
of the imageRUNNER ADVANCE series of office MFDs. plastics
Biomass plastics, which curb increases in CO2 and reduce the
consumption of oil resources, offer material properties that
effectively reduce environmental burden. To date, however,
biomass plastics have not performed as well as conventional
petroleum-based plastics in such areas as flame retardance,
impact resistance, heat resistance and formability, and therefore
their use in products had been limited.
Using new material design and molding technologies, the new
biomass plastic realizes broadly enhanced material
characteristics. This is the world's first biomass plastic applicable
for use in exterior parts of office MFDs.
This biomass plastic also is expected to contribute to the
achievement of Canon's fixed CO2 emissions targets, because the
biomass plastic realizes a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions during
the manufacturing process in comparison with the petrochemical-
based plastics used in producing MFDs up to now.
In addition, we believe that deploying biomass plastic for
operational switches and other components with which users
make direct physical contact provides an invaluable opportunity to
heighten user environmental consciousness.
We will continue to develop this technology to improve biomass
plastic and expand its applications and uses.
 Biomass Plastic Material Cycle

Introduction of a Design for the Environment Method that Considers Product Lifecycles

Canon is striving to link its cost engineering framework to reducing the environmental burden. We
introduced a new Design for the Environment (DfE) method in 2009 and are pursuing environmental
designs that take into account entire product lifecycles.
Specifically, during product design we establish CO2 emission reduction targets for each stage of the
product lifecycle, including production and use. While still under development, we monitor the degree of
attainment of these objectives and implement improvements for products that are showing under par.
Conventionally, Canon would set CO2 emissions reduction targets that were assessed on fruition of
product development. However, it is difficult to integrate improvements for under-achieving products
using this method. The new design method involves evaluation at the design stage, making it simple to
incorporate improvements.
As a result of the introduction of this method, the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5000 series of office MFDs
cut up to 50% from CO2 emissions over the entire lifecycle compared with conventional models. Similarly,
the C9000PRO/C7000 series shaved of approximately 30% from emissions.
In the future, we will extend this method to other products in pursuit of further CO2 emission reductions.

Resource-Efficient Product Design

To help build a recycling-oriented society, Canon focuses on the development of resource-efficient

products characterized by reduced sizes and weights, as well as easy-to-recycle designs.

Smaller, Lighter Products

Canon aims to make its products among the smallest and lightest in each product group. To improve
functions and usability while requiring fewer resources, we focus on reducing weights and sizes from the
development stage.
In addition to cameras, this approach includes business machines, mirror projection aligners and medical
equipment, overcoming design issues.
During 2009, we reduced the weights and sizes of such products as the LiDE 700F personal-use
scanner, the WUX10 MKII liquid crystal display projector and CXDI-60G medical-use x-ray imaging
equipment.

Recycle-Conscious Designs
At the development and design stages, Canon strives to attain 65% recyclability and 75% recoverability
for its products, as stipulated by the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE
Directive*1 ). *2
As a result, we again achieved our targets in 2009 for recyclability, recoverability, and ease of
processing*3 for all products covered by WEEE.
The Company was already gathering basic information relating to waste and recycling required to
conform to the WEEE Directive and other regulations from the design stage onward. However, during
2009 we have taken measures to make this information more detailed and refined, in addition to
incorporating higher levels of IT. This has enabled us to make simple and accurate measurements of
emission and recycling volumes and to realize more precise data management.

*1 WEEE Directive
This EU directive requires manufacturers to recover or recycle devices after use to prevent environmental pollution caused
by waste electrical and electronic equipment.
*2 Recyclability and recoverability apply to products falling under WEEE Directive Category 3 (IT and Telecommunications
Equipment) and Category 4 (Consumer Equipment).

*3 Ease of processing
Ease of breaking down main products into their constituent parts as designated by the WEEE Directive regarding the
disassembly process.

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