Doing our bit for the planet - celebrating Earth Day 2018

Protecting the environment through products, processes and partnerships is vital for business and key to any sustainability programme.

This importance is highlighted with Earth Day, which takes place on 22 April. It is an annual global event that brings attention to our environmental impact and what we can do to protect the planet.

Ahead of Earth Day, we celebrate our commitment to the environment at Brother:

1. Expanding on the traditional 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle, we approach environmental issues with the 5R approach – reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse and reform.
2. We implemented an Environmental Action Plan  to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% between FY1990 and FY2020 across eight Brother sites in Japan.
3. The target was achieved seven years ahead of schedule, in FY2013, which led to additional activities to reduce CO2 emissions even further.
4. This achievement was made through energy conservation measures including the installation of a state-of-the-art air conditioning system and the use of LEDs for ceiling lights.
5. In 2008, Brother Europe became a leading corporate partner of rainforest sustainability charity, Cool Earth, and pledged to help protect endangered rainforests and support indigenous communities.
6. We help Cool Earth through our toner and ink cartridge return and recycling scheme - a programme which has protected 2.7 million trees in the Peruvian rainforest, spanning 4,500 acres, and 1.6 million trees in Papua New Guinea, over 2,900 acres.
7. Protecting these trees has resulted in 2.1 million fewer tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. 
8. Returned toner and ink cartridges from Europe are recycled at our factories in the UK and Slovakia. Since 2004, these factories have recycled more than 15 million toner cartridges, avoiding 13,500 tonnes of materials going to landfill.
9. Through our Cool Earth partnership, we also donated three sewing machines to the JODAN sewing group in Papua New Guinea to teach children a life skill and develop the group into a fully-fledged business, selling garments to market.
10. We’re proud of our eco-credentials, designing devices that adhere to internationally-recognised environmental labels including the European Energy Star, Blue Angel and the Nordic Swan eco-labels.