January 2016 marks the first month of a 15 year journey towards the United Nation’s (UN) newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike its predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs call upon governments, businesses and civil society to foster productive public-private partnerships to tackle some of the world’s most urgent development needs.
The SDGs have been universally adopted by the UN General Assembly. That means the 17 goals and 169 targets are applicable to all countries and have global reach. Businesses were an important stakeholder in designing the agenda and will similarly be crucial to the implementation and success in achieving the ambitious goals by 2030. Konica Minolta Australia sees the SDGs as timely and unique opportunity to pursue our agenda of innovation and collaboration. Engagement with the SDG agenda will further bring to life our company philosophy, the creation of new value. Like Konica Minolta Australia, the SDGs will grow and evolve overtime. As the year progresses we will identify opportunities for alignment and engagement, while considering elements of the SDGs in planning and actions. In an important first step, we have reflected on our 6 core values and addressed each through the lens of the SDGs:
Intuitively, there are broad goals that Konica Minolta Australia is aligned to. Like many businesses around the world, we see it as our responsibility to meet some of the targets under Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; Goal 8 Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; Goal 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns; and to be an active participant of multi-stakeholder partnerships. In partnership with our Business Innovation Centre, Konica Minolta’s healthcare initiatives also coincide with Goal 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. Some of our existing actions correlating to specific targets are outlined below:
We already collect and recycle equipment at the end of its contract life in all of our branches around the country.
This recycling of equipment is done with SIMs recycling solutions. After recycling, everything is certified as recycled with SIMs, providing us with detailed reports for each batch of electronic waste recycled.
The Sustainable Development agenda is an exciting opportunity for Konica Minolta Australia to leverage our experience, networks and business solutions to meet both our clients’ needs and contribute, in part, to addressing some of the world’s most acute problems. We encourage our solutions partners, industry peers and suppliers to develop their own agenda, no matter how large or small, or join together with Konica Minolta Australia as we undertake this journey. For more information contact Laura McManus, Ethical Supply Chain Management, at laura.mcmanus@konicaminolta.com.au
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