Canada's Greenest Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 24
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CANADA'S GREENEST EMPLOYERS (2025)
Canon Canada is putting in the work on sustainability
W
hen Diana
Kouril’s parents
immigrated
from what’s
now the Czech
Republic in the 1980s, they bought
a Canon camera to document
their new life in Canada. The
camera captured the family’s most
important moments — and was
part of the reason Kouril took a
job with Canon Canada in 2018.
Working for a company like
Canon makes you feel proud
that you’re working for a
responsible company.
that looking at sustainability is
always a moving target — the job
is never quite done. The world is
changing, technology is changing,
and the business is evolving
toward that,” she says. “It does
require this multi-disciplinary
thinking behind how we approach
it.”
Justin Lam, executive vicepresident of the business
operations group, says Canon
Canada’s approach to environmental stewardship is guided by
its parent company’s philosophy
of kyosei, a Japanese term for
living and working harmoniously
together for the future.
At the local level, the company’s
Branch Out program gives
employees paid time off to
volunteer with local environmental organizations, including
building rain gardens, restoring
parks, planting trees and shrubs,
rooting out invasive species and
more. Canon marked the 10th
anniversary of Branch Out in 2024.
“Our president is out there,
planting trees and getting blisters.
I’ve stood in streams counting fish
and invertebrates in the water.
We’ve done some really cool
things,” Lam says. “At the end of
the day, it’s great to bring it back to
that hands-on level. For employees to be able to get out from their
desk and volunteer, it makes it
very real.”
At the global level, Canon has
made a commitment to reach
net-zero carbon emissions by
2050, with a detailed corporate
plan for making progress every
year. The company’s annual
sustainability report details how it
delivered against its yearly goals,
such as sourcing more recycled
materials for its products,
engineering products to be lighter
and use less materials, reducing its
energy consumption, and cutting
the emissions involved with
transporting products across the
globe.
The company is also thinking
critically about how it can extend
the lifespan of its products — but
that’s certainly not new. Take
Kouril’s parents’ camera: it’s still
capturing important family
memories today, nearly 40 years
after they bought it.
— Justin Lam
Executive Vice-President, Business
Operations Group
“That camera was always part of
our childhood,” says Kouril. “I had
this connection to the brand, and
to me that’s an important piece, to
feel connected to the brand and
the products, where you do feel
motivated to push the company in
a positive direction.”
That’s now a central part of her
job as a senior specialist of
environmental, social and
governance (ESG). Kouril’s role
involves maintaining Canon’s
certification under the stringent
ISO 14001 framework for
implementing sustainability
practices and continuously
improving each year, as well as
overseeing community partnerships, the company’s net-zero
activities, and other company
social and governance
commitments.
“The exciting part of my job is
Mikio Takagi, president and CEO at Canon Canada, participates in the Branch Out program with other
employees.
