Environment

Ricoh and the circular economy

The Ricoh Comet Circle, established in 1994, represents the circular economy in practice within our organisation and across our wider economic activities, supplier network and product lifecycles. We aim to:

Reduce environmental impact
First we identify environmental impact at each stage of the product lifecycle, considering all parties involved – the Ricoh Group, suppliers, customers and recycling companies. From here we promote the development of environmental technology and the reuse and recycling of our products to reduce their total ecological impact.

Promote a multi-tiered recycling system
Used products are valuable resources. We recover our used products and reuse and recycle their parts. Parts that can’t be reused are recycled as high quality materials. We repeat the cycle as many times as possible to reduce the need for new materials and minimise waste.

Establish partnerships with like-minded businesses
We work with our partners to reduce environmentally sensitive substances in the manufacturing process, improve transport efficiency and promote green marketing. And we help our recycling partners improve the quality of recycled resources and minimise the energy and costs involved in the process.

Once our products go to market, we provide solutions to customers and communities to help minimise the environmental impact of their activities.

Ricoh and a sustainable society – our strategy

Our internal strategy is to reduce our CO2 emissions to 1/8 of our year 2000 levels by 2050, addressing three key areas:

1. Resource conservation and recycling
Through our lifecycle design system, we minimise component use and invest in alternative resources like Plant Based Plastics and Biomass toner. We work to make devices smaller, simpler and lighter and recycling and reuse is key to component design. Since 2001, our factories in Europe have a zero-waste-to-landfill policy, meaning that 100% of our resources are recovered. Consumables like toner cartridges are reborn as garden planters and equestrian equipment. And our green-line machines are manufactured from end-of-life equipment, resulting in a 40% carbon emission reduction over their lifetime.

2. Energy conservation
We use solar power and other renewable energies for electricity generation and continually evolve our production processes to realise low carbon manufacturing methods. At the distribution stage, we carefully monitor CO2 emissions and continually improve distribution efficiency within our distribution chain.

3. Pollution prevention
Our concern is with both the environment and the health of the people who make and use our products.

All our products comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive, ensuring that electrical and electronic products aren’t put onto the market if they contain six key hazardous substances. We’ve also banned an additional six substances not currently included in the list.

We adhere to REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), and register and carefully manage all chemical substances used in our business. We’ve also imposed our own strict Chemical Substance Management System across our supply chain.

Ricoh contributes to the development of a sustainable society with the Comet Circle

Ricoh and Biodiversity

Ricoh is committed to conservation of biodiversity and believes that not only reducing environmental impact, but also maintaining and improving the Earth’s self-recovery capabilities play important roles toward building a truly rich society that is founded on the sustainable global environment. Biodiversity, which is short for biological diversity, is used to describe the whole variety of life on earth. It is well documented that the world’s biodiversity is under threat from various dangers, the majority of which have been caused by humans.

Primary causes to biodiversity loss:

• Habitat Loss and fragmentation
• Invasive alien species
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Over Exploitation
• Human Populations 
  
  

Ricoh Group started biodiversity conservation activities in 1999 with the Forest Ecosystem Conservation Project around the world. To find out more about biodiversity conservation, please click here.  

Also read our Ricoh Groups Biodiversity Policy

Commitment to the planet

Our commitment to sustainability is a part of our heritage and touches every part of our company, from manufacturing to distribution, business sites to recycling. Environmental awareness underpins everything we do.

WEEE Information for Recyclers

In compliance to the WEEE directive requirements, and to provide more detailed information and the answers to questions about dismantling Ricoh products, please visit the WEEE Recycle Information database.

You will need to login or create a new user account to access the WEEE Recycle Information Database