E Ink and ITOCHU Group Further Their Collaboration in Moving Towards a Sustainable, Paper-Free Office

New eNote Targeted To B2B Industries to Helps Businesses Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

E Ink (8069.TWO), the originator, pioneer, and global commercial leader in digital paper technology, today announced the launch of the ALTERIC NOTE by their customer ITOCHU Corporation for the Japanese Business to Business (B2B) market.

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E Ink and ITOCHU Group Further Their Collaboration in Moving Towards a Sustainable, Paper-Free Office (Photo: Business Wire)

In December 2021, E Ink announced that ITOCHU had joined the ePaper ecosystem, with ITOCHU’s first project to be their own branded eNote device, based off the product developed by Linfiny, a joint development between E Ink and Sony Semiconductor Solutions. The ALTERIC NOTE is the first product from the collaboration, and will be sold in Japan by Conexio, a group company of ITOCHU, to address the needs of businesses undergoing their digital transformation from a paper-intensive environment, to one that focuses on a more sustainable solution with increased efficiencies.

E Ink’s electronic paper, with its extremely low power consumption, can help businesses meet their goals of building products that help to improve the environment and that can achieve their carbon neutral goals. ITOCHU has a corporate strategy to conduct business under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mandates, and believes that E Ink’s ePaper technology aligns closely with this corporate direction.

“We are excited for this first eNote device launched with ITOCHU,” stated Naoki Sumita, President, E Ink Japan. “Japanese businesses are looking to increase their efficiencies, and reduce waste, and this product can help them do both. We look forward to new products with ITOCHU in the coming years.”

“We are delighted to announce ALTERIC NOTE as the first collaboration product with E Ink,” mentioned Hiroshi Kajiwara, COO, ICT Division, ITOCHU, “ITOCHU and Conexio will each distribute the device through their respective network to meet the customer needs of digital transformation through ALTERIC NOTE.”

Electronic notebooks, or eNotes, with E Ink’s display technology, offer customers a similar writing experience as that of writing on paper, in addition to being lightweight and easy to carry. In addition, E Ink’s reflective technology works off the same premise as paper, reducing eye-strain to the device user. In November 2021, E Ink was awarded the “Paper-Like Certification” from TÜV Rheinland, certifying that ePaper products offer a high level or reading and visual comfort.

In 2021, the COP26 international climate conference took place with the goal to secure global net-zero emissions by mid-century and keep a maximum of 1.5 C degrees of warming within reach. Net zero means total emissions are equal to or less than the emissions removed from the environment. E Ink’s technology can help organizations reach their net-zero goals by saving electricity, and by reducing their paper usage in note taking and paper printing within an office or school.

E Ink has been studying the CO₂ effects of displays using paper or LCD vs. electronic ink displays. Findings have shown significant CO₂ savings with the use of E Ink displays. As an example, a financial institution with 125 branches saves 16.5M of A4 paper sheets each year when they adopt an eNote using E Ink’s technology, and contributes approximately 1,100 tons of CO₂ reduction each year. In the past 5 years, 130 million eReaders have been in use globally, replacing the purchase of paper editions of books. It is estimated that paper books would emit more than 100,000 times the CO₂ vs. eReaders with an E Ink display and LCD devices would emit more than 50 times the CO₂ vs. eReaders throughout that time. Over the past seven years, 600 million ESLs of around 3-inches in size have been installed worldwide. If it is assumed that the price and information changes 4 four times a day, single-use paper price tags would create 32,000 times CO₂ versus ESLs using E Ink’s displays. In the last 5 years, 900k digital signs have been deployed; those using LCD displays emit 20 times the level of CO₂ vs. digital signage using E Ink displays.

About E Ink Holdings

E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TWO), based on technology from MIT’s Media Lab, has transformed and defined the eReader market, enabling a new multi-billion dollar market in less than 10 years. E Ink’s low power products are ideal for IoT applications ranging from retail, home, hospital, transportation and more, enabling customers to put displays in locations previously impossible. The Company’s corporate philosophy aims to deliver revolutionary products, user experiences and environmental benefits through advanced technology development. This vision has led to its continuous investments in the field of ePaper displays as well as expanding the use of its technologies into a number of other markets and applications including smart packaging and fashion. Its Electrophoretic Display products make it the worldwide leader for ePaper. Its Fringe Field Switching (FFS) technologies are a standard for high-end LCD displays and have been licensed to all major liquid crystal display makers in the world. Listed in Taiwan's Taipei Exchange (TPEx) and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world's largest supplier of ePaper displays. For more information please visit www.eink.com.

About ITOCHU Corporation and Conexio Corporation

ITOCHU Corporation (8011.TSE), one of the leading sogo shosha, engaged in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textile, machinery, metals, minerals, energy, chemicals, foods, general products, realty, information and communications technology, and finance, as well as business investment in Japan and overseas. The company was founded by Chubei Itoh in 1858 and is headquartered in Osaka, Japan.

Conexio Corporation (9422.TSE) is a group company of ITOCHU, dedicated to business fields of retail/wholesale of mobile phones and provision of mobile, device and IoT solutions for B2B clients.

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