Epson Matches 10 Sites' Power With Renewable Certificates
The certificate purchase covers March 2025 to April 2026 and is an accounting measure in place now, not a new technology.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Environmental
Live Poll
Do you trust large companies to deliver on their environmental promises?
Epson META-CWA has expanded its Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) initiative to 10 sites by purchasing 416 MWh of certificates, covering the March 2025 to April 2026 reporting period. The initiative is an operational accounting measure in place now, not a planned technology.
Why it matters
The purchase matches the electricity consumption of the covered sites with an equivalent amount of renewable energy supplied to the grid, a certificate-based approach that companies across the region are using to account for emissions while on-site generation scales up. It fits Epson's 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets, which are aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative.
Epson reports a purchase of 416 MWh of Renewable Energy Certificates covering 10 sites for March 2025 to April 2026, with no baseline comparison given. The source does not state the sites' total consumption, so the share of their electricity covered by the purchase cannot be determined.
The players
Epson META-CWA
The regional arm of Seiko Epson covering the Middle East, Turkey, Central Asia, and Africa, known for its inkjet printers and EcoTank refillable ink systems.
Science Based Targets initiative
A global body that sets science-based emissions reduction standards that companies can adopt for their climate targets.
The details
Renewable Energy Certificates are tradable instruments, each representing one megawatt-hour of electricity generated from a renewable source and fed into the grid. Epson's purchase supplies an amount of renewable energy to the grid equivalent to the combined electricity consumption of the 10 sites, which allows the company to account for that consumption as renewable. The covered locations include Epson's Dubai headquarters, the UAE Experience Centre, and offices in Türkiye, Kenya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ukraine, and Israel.
Timeline
March 2025 to April 2026: reporting period covered by the REC purchase.
2030: target year for Epson's greenhouse gas reduction targets.
2050: target year for becoming carbon negative and eliminating underground resource use.
The Tech Race
Epson's efficiency claim rests on its heat-free MicroPiezo inkjet technology, which the company says uses up to 85% less energy and CO2 than laser printing. The REC purchase extends that positioning from the product to the electricity its offices consume, though the source gives no comparison with other printer makers' sourcing.
The change applies to Epson's own operations at the 10 covered sites and does not alter the printers or ink products customers buy today. Customers can already use the EcoTank range, which the company says incorporates 30-35% recycled materials and whose one set of ink bottles equals 79 traditional cartridges.
The takeaway
The initiative will be judged on whether Epson discloses the share of its total electricity use the certificates cover and what it does after April 2026. Watch for the company's progress against its 2030 targets as the next verifiable measure.
Further reading
For broader context on how companies account for their electricity use, see the Environmental section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Africaprint.
Live Poll
Do you trust large companies to deliver on their environmental promises?
