Brother Australia’s approach to sustainability starts with the global Group 2050 Environmental Vision, which recognises the key social issues of climate change, resource depletion, environmental pollution, and destruction of the ecosystem as business risks for the Brother Group. This long-term commitment aims to achieve carbon neutrality across all business operations, reduce CO2 emissions throughout the entire value chain, promote sustainable resource use and minimise waste, while actively restoring and conserving ecosystems beyond the impact of our operations.
As a wholly owned subsidiary, Brother Australia sources products from manufacturing facilities within the global Brother Group, including those in Vietnam, the Philippines and other global facilities. More information on these facilities is available below and via the Brother Group website.
Our Focus
Our local environmental sustainability efforts focus on supporting a circular economy and reducing carbon emissions across the full life cycle of our products.

Circular Economy
The circular economy is a system where materials are kept in continuous use, avoiding waste through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling and composting (Ellen MacArthur Foundation).
Brother Australia is contributing to a more circular economy by refurbishing products, recycling printer cartridges, supporting e-waste recycling and through packaging innovation.

Carbon Mitigation
Brother Australia monitors carbon emissions across the full lifecycle of our products, including their manufacture, transport and distribution, use and disposal. More than 99% of our carbon footprint comes from our Scope 3 emissions, the indirect impact from how our products are made, shipped, used and eventually recycled. We are developing Scope 3 emissions reduction targets for our three-year business strategy through to 2027.
Key Initiatives
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Product Refurbishment
Brother’s refurbished products provide the same reliable performance and great value as our regular products, while also supporting more sustainable choices. By choosing a Brother certified refurbished product, you’re helping extend the life of materials, reduce waste, the need for new resources and associated carbon – all without compromising on quality or functionality.
Browse our range of refurbished printers
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Printer Cartridge Recycling
Brother has been a full funding member of the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark (‘C4PA’) recycling program since 2003. This Australia-wide program collects and recycles used printer cartridges, diverting 100% of the cartridge from landfill.
The C4PA program covers a wide range of Brother genuine consumables, including inkjet and laser cartridges, drum and fuser units, print heads, waste containers, and kits. All cartridges collected through the program are recycled by Close the Loop using a certified zero waste-to-landfill process. Recovered materials are repurposed into new products, such as e-wood for outdoor furniture and TonerPlas®, an innovative asphalt additive made from residual toner and recycled soft plastics.
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Packaging Innovation
In early 2019, Brother Australia identified an opportunity to respond to customer and end user concerns by phasing out EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) and EPE (Extruded Polyethylene) packaging. In collaboration with major stakeholders and with the support of our parent company’s Research & Development, Design & Engineering, Procurement and Sales & Marketing departments, we developed EPS-free packaging, a world first for the Brother Group, for our printer range and later extended this across a suite of products.
This innovative, compact and lightweight moulded pulp cushioning material, which reduces material use, cuts carbon emissions and is made from 100% recycled and 100% recyclable materials, won APCO’s 2023 Sustainable Packaging Guidelines Award, the Japan Packaging Contest 2024 Award and the WorldStar Award 2025 for its innovative, more sustainable design. This collaborative effort required operational adjustments, including:
- Sourcing new suppliers capable of providing alternative materials
- Modifying production lines to accommodate new designs
- Conducting extensive drop testing to ensure product protection
- Training staff to manage the new processes
- Redesigning carton sizes to further minimise material use
Australia served as the pilot country for this initiative, providing valuable insights that are now being used to expand the program to other regions. Our ‘Expanded Polystyrene-Free Packaging’ logo is now included in marketing materials, enabling customers to make more sustainable choices. We continue to work closely with our parent company to explore ways of increasing the circularity of all our packaging materials. More details of Brother's moulded pulp development efforts are featured on its SDGs special website, "Brother SDGs STORY," which also includes interviews with project members and the video below that highlights the development process using simulation technology.
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Carbon
As a sales and marketing company, Brother Australia's scope 1 and scope 2 emissions are less than 0.5% of our carbon emissions footprint, so we monitor the scope 3 emissions attributable to the manufacture, transport & distribution, use and disposal of our products. Brother Australia is setting emissions reduction targets in line with the Brother Group targets and we will share our progress publicly when they are finalised.
Recognition

APCO’s Sustainable Packaging Guidelines Award
In late 2023, Brother Australia received the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines Implementation Award from the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) for phasing out EPS packaging. This effort supports Australia’s 2025 National Packaging Targets, which aim for 100% of packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable, and the phase-out of single-use plastics.
APCO is responsible for coordinating these targets and works closely with government, industry and community stakeholders to reduce the environmental impact of packaging across its lifecycle.

Worldstar Award 2025
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