1 April 2016

TOSHIBA’S CARBON ZERO SCHEME SUPPORTS UN DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Toshiba’s Carbon Zero Scheme comprehensively supports the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals that came into force on 1st January 2016.

Neuss/Germany – April 2016. A review of Toshiba Tec’s Carbon Zero programme has revealed that it supports 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN to drive forward positive change over the next fourteen years. This set of 17 measurable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), range from ending world poverty to achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls by 2030.  They build on the work of the Millennium Development Goals and are an intergovernmental set of aspirational Goals with 169 targets.

The Carbon Zero programme, which offsets the carbon emissions from printing devices sold into the European market, has been running for over 6 years, supporting a range of projects that deliver on many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Projects include CO2balance’s Improved Cook Stove Project in Kenya, and their Community Borehole Project in Uganda, which provides families with safe, clean drinking water.

Carl Morris, Senior Vice President at Toshiba Tec said: “Our Carbon Zero Scheme has always been much more than offsetting our devices to make them Carbon Zero.  We have always chosen projects that positively impact the lives of people as well as the natural environment, so it is welcome news that our work actively supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Our support of the cook stove project in Kenya delivers on many of these goals, reducing fuel poverty and deforestation as well as providing a cleaner, quicker and easier way of cooking for thousands of families in Kenya”.

The review was carried out by CO2balance, the project developers who run the Carbon Zero programme on behalf of Toshiba Tec. It showed that the Toshiba Carbon Zero Scheme directly delivers on six of the goals and provides an active supporting role in a further eight of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Mark Simpson, Managing Director of CO2balance said: “Toshiba’s approach to their carbon offsetting programme is an excellent model of going above and beyond carbon offsetting to make a wider and deeper positive impact; their support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals underlines these impacts”.

Toshiba Carbon Zero Scheme
Since 2009 Toshiba Tec has been offsetting the carbon emissions produced by their printing systems sold in Europe to make them “CarbonZero”.  To do this Toshiba has, working with CO2balance, calculated the carbon footprint of their systems, covering production, manufacture and transportation. The carbon emissions from these machines are then offset through a selection of projects, most notably the Kenyan Energy Efficient Stove and the Ugandan Community Borehole Project. Depending on which scheme is applied up to 1,000,000 pages are offset as well, whereby the availability of schemes varies from country to country.

For more information on Toshiba Tec’s Carbon Zero Scheme visit www.toshibatec.eu

About CO2balance
Established in 2003, CO2balance UK Ltd is a leading, UK based, carbon management provider offering carbon calculation, management and reduction services to leading blue chip companies. As a project developer CO2balance UK Ltd creates African Gold Standard and CDM projects that focus on social, health and community benefits to the families within the project area, in addition to carbon savings. For more information about CO2balance please visit www.co2balance.com

About Toshiba TEC
Toshiba Tec Germany Imaging Systems GmbH is part of the globally operating Toshiba Tec Corporation, active in various high-tech industrial sectors.
Toshiba Tec Corporation is a leading provider of information technology, operating across multiple industries - ranging from retail, education and business services to hospitality and manufacturing. With headquarters in Japan and over 80 subsidiaries worldwide, Toshiba Tec Corporation helps organisations transform the way they create, record, share, manage and display information..

About Toshiba
Toshiba is a world leader and innovator in pioneering high technology, a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products spanning from information & communications systems, digital consumer products, electronic devices and components, power systems, to industrial and social infrastructure systems and home appliances.
Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more than 550 companies, with 198,741 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing 6.6 trillion yen (US$55 billion).

Visit Toshiba's web site at www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.

Further information is available at www.toshibatec.eu or from the following contact:

Toshiba TEC Germany Imaging Systems GmbH
Andreas Kleinschmidt
Carl-Schurz-Str. 7
41460 Neuss
Germany
Tel: +49-2131-1245-252
E-Mail: andreas.kleinschmidt@toshibatec-tgis.com