Xerox has detailed its sustainability roadmap through its 2025 Corporate Social Responsibility report, articulating the company’s commitment to reducing emissions throughout its operations and supply chain while advancing circular economy practices, energy efficiency improvements, and ethical sourcing standards.

The organization has established a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, with intermediate goals set for 2030 that serve as guideposts for its sustainability strategy. Chief Executive Officer Steven Bandrowczak has connected these environmental objectives to the company’s broader transformation initiative, emphasizing that Xerox’s values form the foundation of its strategic reinvention. He notes that this transformation requires both concrete actions and meaningful dialogue to address global trends, streamline business operations, and create value for clients and partners.

Emissions Reduction Progress

According to the CSR report, Xerox has achieved a 59.2% decrease in combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions since 2016. Scope 1 encompasses direct emissions from company-owned or controlled facilities, while Scope 2 covers indirect emissions generated by purchased electricity and energy. Additionally, the company recorded a 9.8% reduction in Scope 3 emissions—which represent all other indirect emissions throughout its supply chain and value chain activities—since 2023. These climate targets have received validation from the Science Based Targets initiative, confirming alignment with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The company’s efforts were recognized when it achieved a ranking of 59th on Sustainability Magazine’s 2025 list of the top 250 most sustainable companies globally.

Climate and Waste Management Targets

Xerox has committed to reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 60% by 2030, using 2016 as its baseline year. The organization also pledges to decrease water consumption by 20% compared to 2020 levels. Additional commitments include implementing complete waste diversion strategies at facilities worldwide and achieving zero landfill status for all returned equipment, components, and materials.

Chief Sustainability Officer Wendi Latko has underscored that achieving these goals depends on employee engagement across the organization. She highlights that sustainability represents a collaborative endeavor, with workers playing essential roles in advancing environmental practices within operations, supporting client sustainability efforts, and contributing to community initiatives. Latko attributes the company’s progress toward its 2040 net zero objective to the commitment of global teams and the effectiveness of its strategic framework.

Circular Economy Implementation

Xerox’s circular economy strategy concentrates on maximizing the useful life of products and materials. Since 2009, the company has prevented more than 600,000 tonnes of returned equipment, parts, and supplies from entering landfills by implementing remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling programs. In 2024 alone, Xerox manufactured 1.7 million toner cartridges incorporating recovered materials, surpassing its objective of 75% post-consumer material reuse and achieving a 90% average reuse rate by weight. The company reports that only 5% of non-hazardous solid waste escapes reuse.

Product design improvements have enabled up to 95% of machine components to be reclaimed and reused across product families that now utilize standardized parts. Since 2021, Xerox has progressively increased the proportion of recycled plastic in new products, incorporating up to 47% post-consumer recycled plastic in printers, multifunction devices, and toner cartridges.

Supplier Oversight and Ethical Sourcing

Xerox has intensified its responsible sourcing initiatives, with particular attention to materials connected to mining operations. The company expanded its supplier due diligence program to encompass 132 suppliers in 2024, representing 80% of global procurement spending. This effort achieved a 90.5% response rate from participating suppliers and prioritized organizations with the most significant impact, notably in the Asia-Pacific region.

During 2024, independent auditors conducted twelve on-site facility assessments. Xerox reported zero significant non-conformances related to child labor risks, with 78% of evaluated facilities attaining Silver or Platinum certification under the Responsible Business Alliance Validated Assessment Program. The company also achieved complete RBA membership status.

Looking forward, Xerox has announced plans to adopt the Extended Minerals Reporting Template beginning in 2026, enabling enhanced transparency in tracking minerals such as cobalt, which carry known ethical sourcing concerns. According to Alissa Weathers, Supplier Connection and Sustainability Manager, Xerox remains dedicated throughout procurement processes to establishing collaborative relationships that generate mutual business benefits.

Xerox Charts Aggressive Path to Net-Zero by 2040 in 2025 Sustainability Report

On 17 December 2025, Xerox released its 2025 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report outlining how the Norwalk, Connecticut–based technology company will drive its global operations to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2040, beginning with a pledge to cut direct (Scope 1) and purchased-energy (Scope 2) emissions 60 percent by 2030 while deepening circular-economy and ethical-sourcing programs link.

The annual filing consolidates the company’s environmental, social and governance data and serves as the main scorecard by which investors, customers and regulators can track Xerox’s progress. Coming amid intensifying scrutiny of corporate climate promises, the 2025 document provides detailed interim targets, independent validations and year-over-year metrics that together paint a fuller picture of how the 117-year-old firm intends to remake itself for a low-carbon economy while safeguarding its supply chain.

Chief executive Steven Bandrowczak ties the environmental roadmap directly to the company’s wider restructuring. “Our values ground every aspect of Xerox’s transformation,” he writes in the report, adding that the strategy requires “concrete actions and meaningful dialogue to address global trends, streamline business operations and create value for clients and partners” link. By embedding climate goals into the business plan, Xerox positions sustainability as a driver of its turnaround agenda.

Progress to Date

The 2025 CSR shows Xerox has already achieved a 59.2 percent decline in combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions compared with its 2016 baseline, leaving just under one percentage point to reach the 60 percent milestone five years early link. Indirect, value-chain emissions (Scope 3) fell 9.8 percent since 2023, an area many manufacturers struggle to influence because the activity occurs outside their direct control.

Those figures were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative as consistent with a 1.5 °C warming pathway, the report notes, and contributed to Xerox securing No. 59 on Sustainability Magazine’s 2025 list of the world’s 250 most sustainable companies link.

Climate and Resource Goals

Beyond emissions, Xerox commits to cutting water consumption 20 percent from 2020 levels, diverting all waste from landfills at its own sites and achieving zero landfill status for returned equipment and materials. The company views waste as a hidden cost: turning discarded machines into feedstock for new products reduces raw-material expenses while lowering environmental impact.

Chief sustainability officer Wendi Latko credits employees for the gains, calling sustainability “a collaborative endeavor” in which workers embed greener practices into manufacturing, logistics and community programs link. Latko says staff engagement has been pivotal to staying on course for the 2040 net-zero finish line.

Circular-Economy Engine

Xerox’s circular model hinges on longevity, reuse and recyclability. Since 2009, more than 600,000 tonnes of returned equipment, parts and supplies have been kept out of landfill through remanufacturing and recycling schemes. In 2024 alone, the firm produced 1.7 million toner cartridges containing recovered materials, surpassing its 75 percent post-consumer material goal with a 90 percent average reuse rate by weight link.

Design upgrades also play a role: up to 95 percent of machine components in new product families can be reclaimed and redeployed, aided by a shift to standardized parts. Since 2021 Xerox has steadily increased the share of recycled plastic in new hardware, now reaching 47 percent in certain printers, multifunction devices and toner cartridges.

Responsible Mineral Sourcing

Recognizing that climate leadership extends beyond carbon, Xerox has intensified oversight of minerals tied to human-rights risks. In 2024 the company expanded its due-diligence program to 132 suppliers—covering 80 percent of global procurement spend—and achieved a 90.5 percent response rate to its surveys. Twelve facilities underwent independent, on-site audits; none produced significant non-conformances related to child labor, and 78 percent earned Silver or Platinum status under the Responsible Business Alliance’s validated assessment program link.

Looking ahead, Xerox plans to adopt the Extended Minerals Reporting Template in 2026 to better track cobalt and other conflict-affected minerals. Supplier Connection and Sustainability Manager Alissa Weathers says the ultimate aim is to “establish collaborative relationships that generate mutual business benefits” by making transparency a two-way street.

How Xerox Plans to Hit Net-Zero

While the report offers granular data, its broader strategy rests on four pillars:

1. Operations: Accelerate energy-efficiency upgrades at manufacturing plants and offices while procuring more renewable electricity.
2. Products: Engineer devices for lower power consumption, longer life and easier remanufacture.
3. Value chain: Partner with suppliers on emissions audits, material traceability and logistics optimization.
4. Innovation: Invest in print-on-demand, digital workflow and 3D-printing solutions that help customers reduce waste and travel.

Bandrowczak argues that each pillar reinforces the others. For example, product design that favors modularity simplifies end-of-life recovery, which in turn lowers material throughput and Scope 3 emissions.

Stakeholder Response

Investors increasingly weigh environmental performance in capital-allocation decisions; regulators in key markets such as the European Union are tightening disclosure rules; and large enterprise customers often run their own supplier-carbon audits. By publishing quantitative targets and third-party verifications, Xerox seeks to demonstrate that its commitments rest on concrete foundations.

Still, watchdog groups caution that achieving net-zero depends on credible Scope 3 reductions and not merely offsets. Xerox’s 9.8 percent drop is a start, but the hardest work—decarbonizing global freight, raw-material extraction and end-user electricity—lies ahead.

Comparison with Peers

Across the hardware sector, companies such as HP Inc. and Canon have declared similar 2040-ish net-zero aims, though methodologies differ. Xerox’s near-term 60 percent cut in direct and purchased-energy emissions is more aggressive than some rivals that target 50 percent by 2030. Whether the firm can extend its early momentum will be closely watched.

Potential hurdles include volatile energy prices, evolving regulatory frameworks and the complexity of tracing thousands of components through multi-tiered supply chains. The CSR acknowledges these risks and says the company will revisit its roadmap annually to adapt to “new science and policy signals.”

Why It Matters

Printers and production presses sit at one of the more carbon-intensive junctures in office and industrial settings: electricity use and consumables. By tackling energy demand inside its devices and facilitating cartridge reuse, Xerox seeks to influence a segment of emissions that customers themselves can feel and measure.

Moreover, the firm’s focus on responsible minerals echoes a wider sectoral push to prevent human-rights abuses in the tech supply chain. As cobalt, tantalum and other critical raw materials feed rising demand for electronics, corporate audits can serve as early-warning systems for unethical practices.

Outlook

With five years remaining to close its 60 percent emission-reduction gap and 15 years to neutralize residual emissions, Xerox’s trajectory will hinge on execution and transparency. Annual disclosures like the 2025 CSR provide the accountability mechanism; independent validation supplies credibility; and employee engagement underpins implementation.

If the company maintains its pace—already within striking distance of its 2030 interim target—it could free up capital sooner for the harder challenge of absolute Scope 3 cuts. Conversely, any plateau in efficiency gains or supply-chain cooperation could slow progress. Investors, customers and regulators now have a detailed playbook against which to measure the firm’s claims.

In the broader context of climate action, Xerox’s 2025 CSR report offers a case study in how legacy manufacturers can pivot toward sustainability without discarding their core business. Whether the blueprint scales will become clear in the next round of disclosures, but the current document sets transparent benchmarks and invites scrutiny—two prerequisites for any credible net-zero agenda.

Sources

• https://www.news.xerox.com/news/xerox-publishes-2025-corporate-social-responsibility-report