Toshiba has announced that its pioneering Carbon Zero scheme is now an official partner to the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is now listed on its website. This significant achievement is the latest development in Toshiba’s longstanding objective of reducing its environmental impact, as well as helping its customers lower their own carbon footprints.
In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 universal goals consisting of 169 individual targets, that frame their agendas and political policies until 2030, with the aim of ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all. The Partnerships for SDGs online platform functions as a tool to inform all stakeholders on initiatives carried out by multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of SDGs and links progress of those initiatives to various follow up mechanisms.
Responsible business and investment are considered essential to attain transformational change through the SDGs. For companies, successful implementation will strengthen the enabling environment for doing business and building markets around the world. At present there are 2,179 partnership initiatives and commitments listed on the website, including Toshiba’s Carbon Zero scheme.
An industry first when it launched in 2009, The Carbon Zero Scheme offsets the carbon generated from parts procurement and manufacture of devices through to delivery to the customer, through a range of projects coordinated by CO2balance, the leading global carbon management company. All carbon emissions have been offset through projects that help benefit the lives of individuals in developing countries.
Initiatives include an energy efficient stoves project, in which villagers in Kenya reduce their use of wood for fuel through the provision of highly efficient stoves. Further projects currently underway include the creation of boreholes in Uganda that supply clean, safe water, as well as work on reducing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The Carbon Zero Scheme therefore aligns itself perfectly with the three SDGs relating to no poverty, zero hunger and clean water and sanitation.
The UN believes that a company’s entire supply chain can make a significant impact in promoting environmental progress. However, it also states that supply chain practices are the biggest challenge to improving sustainability performance, and encourages companies to make it a priority from the top of an organisation.
