Continuing its commitment towards community development, Canon India, one of the leaders in the imaging space, introduced a unique initiative ‘Canon Impact League’, under its umbrella theme of ‘Canon India Involve’. The initiative was introduced to drive more concerted efforts towards ensuring community development through extensive employee engagement. As part of the initiative, a fund raising walkathon was organized by Canon India for its employees, wherein they were invited to walk for a cause and were also motivated to lead healthy lives. The activity was organized to drive developmental activities to further boost the impact of Canon India’s flagship project ‘Adopt a Village’, under which the organization has adopted 4 villages across India i.e. Maheshwari in Haryana, Karanjoti in Mumbai, Sol Gohalia in Kolkata and Maharaja Katte in Bangalore.
The walkathon resulted is raising INR 2.9M as the employees covered 113,000 kilometres over the course of 45 days. The sum collected was invested for developmental activities in Maheshwari Village, including setting up of rain water harvesting system & ground water recharge project, along with installation of new eye care machine at the Vision Center and revamping of toilet in the school premises. In line with its 4Es CSR policy and focusing on the Environment, the rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge project is an ambitious initiative from Canon India, benefitting almost 25,000 people. The project has been launched in alignment with the larger focus on water conservation, which is in line with ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’, an initiative by Government of India. Furthermore, the money raised was also utilized for shoe donation drives conducted for the children across Canon India’s adopted villages along with SOS village homes in Faridabad and Hyderabad.
To inaugurate the various projects and execute the shoe donation drive, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India visited Maheshwari Village in Haryana, along with Mr. Gary Lee, Vice President & CFO, Canon India and Ms. Shikha Rai, Vice-President, HR, Canon India.
Speaking about the CSR endeavors of Canon India, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO of Canon India, said, “At Canon, we are deeply involved in meaningful, welfare driven initiatives that impact lives and pave way for the holistic development of all our adopted villages. In line with our corporate philosophy of ‘Kyosei’ which is embedded in our day-to-day operations, we feel that it is our collective responsibility to give back to the society and create self-sustaining communities. Over the course of our association with the adopted villages and SOS village homes, we have undertaken several developmental activities to make the communities empowered and future ready. With the ‘Canon Impact League’ initiative, I am delighted to have witnessed such an active participation from all the employees towards the cause of community development. It gives me immense pride to see the outreach of our CSR initiatives touch more and more lives every year. Going forward, we intend to further strengthen the vibrant culture of social responsibility that already exists in the organization by involving our families in our CSR initiatives, calling it ‘Canon India Involve-Family’.”
Sharing his thoughts on the latest initiative, Mr. Gary Lee, Vice President & CFO, Canon India said “It has been our consistent endeavor through our CSR initiatives to bring forth considerable and measurable changes in the community we operate in. Through our ‘Adopt a Village’ initiative, we have been successful so far in contributing towards a sustainable future for the community, with the support of our stakeholders. At Canon, CSR is extremely close to everyone’s heart and we consider these villages as our extended families, hence each and every Canon employee is genuinely involved towards their social elevation. As an outcome, what counts the most for us are the smiles we help in spreading in the society. Going forward, we are confident that we will further amplify our CSR initiatives and empower more communities.”
Speaking about the employee engagement through Canon Impact League initiative, Ms. Shikha Rai, Vice President, HR, Canon India said “At Canon, employees have always played a pivotal role in driving our CSR initiatives in line with our commitment of giving back to the community. With their support and voluntary participation in community welfare programs, we have been able to drive positive impact across all our adopted villages. Through our new ‘Canon Impact League’ initiative, we wanted employees to take a positive step towards a healthy and fit lifestyle, along with contributing to the overall development of the villages. In line with our mantra ‘Keep Fit. Do Good’, it was heartwarming to see each and every employee enthusiastically come forward and build a closer connection with the community at large. We are positive that our endeavors will be instrumental towards a better and brighter India.”
About Canon’s corporate philosophy ‘Kyosei’
Canon India’s CSR endeavors are driven by their corporate philosophy of ‘Kyosei’, which mean the ‘spirit of living and working together for the common good’, which is considered foremost in the organization’s way of working and day-to-day operations. However, their definition of the word is much broader and encompasses “all people-regardless of their race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together for the common good.” Moving forward with this philosophy, they believe in standing in unison when it comes to their commitment to the community and strive to make a positive impact in the society and the environment. The organization is involved in various community welfare programs aligned with their 4Es CSR policy implying Education, Eye Care, Environment and Empowerment, in an effort to build progressive self-reliant communities. Along with ‘Adopt a Village’ project, the organization is also associated with SOS Children’s Village across the country to encourage and support the overall development of children in these villages.