In the third installment, we spoke with Takeshi Yasue, president of Epson Brazil. Epson, a global technology leader, sees Brazil as a strategic market and is focusing on home and office printers, textile printers, and video projectors.
"Efficient, compact and precise" technology that matches the SDGs
The Epson Group, known worldwide as a leader in the printer industry, is headquartered in Japan's Seiko Epson Corporation and has annual sales of approximately 1 trillion yen worldwide.
After opening a sales base in the United States in 1975, the company expanded into South America, and in 1982 established Epson do Brasil in Sao Paulo and began selling its own products, mainly small printers.
In terms of manufacturing, Epson opened Epson Paulista in 1997 in Barueri, Sao Paulo State, where its current headquarters and factory are located, and began producing inkjet printers with approximately 50 employees.
The company then began producing commercial printers, and in 2020 Epson Paulista was absorbed into Epson do Brasil, which is now responsible for sales and manufacturing. Approximately 60% of employees in Brazil are women.
Inside the headquarters and factory in Barueri
Epson will utilize its core "efficiency, compactness, and precision" technologies and digital technologies to connect people, things, and information, and work to co-create a sustainable and prosperous society.
"Save" refers to eliminating waste, increasing efficiency, and reducing energy consumption, while "small" refers to minimizing resource usage and production processes through miniaturization, and "precision" refers to creating intricate and precise devices and processes. Even before SDGs business was advocated, the company has been committed to developing energy- and resource-saving printers.
The Japanese spirit of "mottainai" (waste not, want not) and Epson's strength of "frugality, miniaturization, precision" are essential to protecting the global environment, a trend not only in Brazil but around the world, and are believed to enrich people's lives.
A smart approach to environmental protection
Epson has made environmental initiatives a key theme in its long-term vision, "Epson 25 Renewed," which was formulated in 2021. The company aims to cover all electricity used at its facilities around the world with 100% renewable energy by 2023, to achieve "carbon negative" status by reducing total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions below zero by 2050, and to eliminate the use of petroleum and metals.
To achieve this, we will focus even more on developing products and services and providing customer support that contribute to reducing the environmental impact.
Epson is currently running a collection program in Brazil to ensure proper disposal of end-of-life equipment and consumables. There are approximately 130 collection locations, and in 2020, approximately 41 tons of Epson equipment and consumables were recycled.
Last year, the company also launched the "Turn Down The Heat" campaign in collaboration with National Geographic, aimed at raising awareness of scientific research into the preservation of permafrost, an underground layer in the Arctic.
Epson printers' heat-free technology eliminates the need for heating when ejecting ink, making it more advantageous for reducing CO2 emissions than other printers that require heating.
Currently, the most popular Epson printer in Brazil is the Eco Tank type, which was developed with the environment in mind. This type of printer offers lower printing costs than conventional cartridge types and can be used without worrying about remaining ink.
Support for sports and cultural projects also raises brand awareness
Since 2015, Epson has served as the main sponsor of the Barueri women's volleyball team, led by coach Jose Roberto Guimarães, who is also the head coach of the Brazilian national volleyball team. As a partner of the team, which was on the verge of closure due to a lack of funds, Epson has supported more than 400 athletes and over 50 staff members to date.
Recently, the company donated two interactive video projectors to the Japanese Immigration History Museum for its renovation of the ninth floor in 2022. In addition, the company donated 50 immersive projectors to the Portuguese Language Museum, which reopened in 2021 after a fire, allowing visitors to take a journey through the history of the Portuguese language.
The company's brand awareness has increased not only through technology but also through social development activities, such as cultural projects, protecting socially vulnerable young people, and supporting COVID-19 countermeasures.
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Epson Brazil |
*This article is reprinted from Brasil Nippou (May 6, 2023).
© 2023 Tomoko Oura
