2. Scale-up eco-innovation:
challenges and opportunities for a major corporation
Kyocera Corporation
Core competence: fine ceramics
Global headcount: 71,500
Revenue: € 11,172 million
Profit: € 745 million
“We produce fine ceramics that are more resistant to heat, wear and
corrosion than plastics, metals or other conventional materials.”
4. Long-life components > greater resource efficiency
Components of a Kyocera laser printer consumable
5. Resource efficient design creates less waste and
reduces lifetime environmental impact
Waste produced during a 300,000 page test conducted by Druckerchannel.de
Analysis by Best Foot Forward concluded that the carbon footprint of a remanufactured
laser cartridge is 46% lower than a corresponding new cartridge, and that the carbon
footprint of a Kyocera toner-only cassette is 55% lower than a corresponding
conventional cartridge
Analysis by TCPGlobal calculated whole-life cost savings of typically 50%
6. Optimising product design is only the start …
1. Design based on lifecycle analysis – identify and design out high impact materials
and design features, considering their impacts at every lifecycle stage
2. Streamline manufacturing processes – minimise energy/materials waste
3. Optimise transport and distribution – packaging, routes, modal shift
4. Understand customers’ contribution to use-phase impacts – introduce measures
to promote responsible use
5. Close the loop where appropriate – create takeback programmes
that offer the most environmentally efficient outcome
7. Optimising Business Models
Example: Managed Document Services
Paradigm shift – moves the focus from devices to documents
The aim of an MDS project is to deliver efficient document flows with
• The smallest number of devices, appropriately located in the organisation
• Proactively maintained to maximise longevity
• Document management software to reduce the need to print
• User training to promote the use of energy/paper saving features
• Management information to continuously optimise the system
• Free takeback and recycling of hardware and consumables
• Pay-per-page pricing to discourage wasteful use
Kyocera is working with Forum for the Future
to understand why the Product-Service Shift
has worked in our industry, so as to transfer
the learning to others.
8. Eco-innovation demands disruption
The mainstream laser printer industry is based around a fundamentally wasteful
product design – the single process cartridge – and a “razor and blade” business model
The market has settled for a solution which seeks to mitigate the waste impact by re-
manufacturing consumables, rather than challenging the fundamental design flaws in
the product design and business model
Innovators in our industry have numerous barriers to overcome:
• Their competitors are not just printer vendors, but also cartridge remanufacturers
• Legislation specifically promotes remanufacturing and disregards resource-efficient
product design
• Established procurement processes focus on securing deep hardware discounts (cap-
ex) and rarely consider whole-life costs (op-ex)
• Silos in customer organisations don’t support the level of collaboration required to
take advantage of innovative consumption models
9. Exploring innovative business models
Made to order
Collection of used
products
Peer-to-peer
Incentivised return lending
Long-term leasing to manufacturer
with linked service
Short-term rental Incentivised return Reducing
Service system to third parties consumption
Peer-to-peer
based on existing
rental
product
Dematerialised
Durable products
service
Long-term leasing
Asset
Conventional hire
management Closed loop
recycling
WRAP’s Innovative Business Model Map
10. The Opportunities for Eco-innovation
Opportunity 1:
Design products to be more resource-efficient throughout their entire lifecycle
Opportunity 2:
Design products to be more easily dismantled and reprocessed for resource recovery
at end of life
Opportunity 3:
Create new business models that uncouple functionality from physical goods
Opportunity 4:
Work with customers to ensure they understand how to benefit from the resource-
efficient features of the product or service during the use phase
Opportunity 5:
Collaborate with providers of resource recovery services to close loops locally
11. The Challenges (From a B2B perspective)
Challenge 1:
Manufacturers can only sell in innovative ways if customers are geared up to
purchase in innovative ways
Challenge 2:
Designing-in longevity incurs a price premium which can make hardware appear
expensive when in fact whole-life costs (direct and indirect) are lower
Challenge 3:
Few manufacturers are able to deliver every link in a product-service system – we
must learn to collaborate with new partners and in new ways
Challenge 4:
Resource recovery/recycling infrastructures are immature and continuity of supply of
post-consumer materials is unreliable
Challenge 5:
Policy landscape doesn’t support disruptive innovation
13. A word about public sector procurement
The tender process stifles innovation:
If an invitation to tender is written around a hardware specification, the supplier
cannot bid a dematerialised or service-led offer – he’ll simply be disqualified
• Outcome based tenders would provide the freedom to innovate around a goal
Hardware cost has disproportionate influence on procurement:
Sustainability data gathered as part of the vendor selection process rarely plays a
part in the final procurement decision
• Whole life costs – both direct and indirect – could be embedded in the targets of
procurement professionals
Smokestacks prevent collaborative consumption:
Emerging business models provide extensive opportunities for government
departments to share hardware and services, cutting both cost and carbon
• A more holistic approach to ICT infrastructures can enable collaborative
consumption, dematerialisation of services and improved efficiency
14. In conclusion
Resource inefficiency is a systemic problem which is best addressed by going back to
product fundamentals and designing out waste from product designs, supply chains
and business models
This cannot be resolved by manufacturers alone – we need to collaborate with
service providers, policymakers and customers to create conditions that foster
disruptive innovation
Kyocera is working with Green Alliance on the
Circular Economy Task Force – to try to
understand how circular business models can
be developed in a way that keeps companies
profitable, and how the policy landscape can
better help to foster a circular, resource secure
economy
15. Title
Your text
THANK YOU!
Tracey Rawling Church
Kyocera Document Solutions (UK) Ltd
trc@duk.kyocera.com
