Ricoh becomes carbon neutral

Ricoh Australia has become the first IT services company in the country to achieve carbon-neutral status.

Since establishing operations in Australia 50 years ago, Ricoh has consistently searched for ways to reduce consumption and improve the efficiency of its operations and products.

In April 2013, the company became the first technology services organisation in the country to achieve a carboNZero certification. This internationally accredited certification required detailed external auditing of the company’s existing greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint and its ongoing emission reduction plans.

“Every aspect of our national operations was put under the microscope so we could understand the sources of all our existing GHG emissions,” said Tori Starkey, General Manager – Marketing, Ricoh Australia.

“Taking such a holistic approach meant we would be well placed to make our subsequent activities as effective as possible.”

As part of the review process, strategies were identified that could assist Ricoh to reduce its footprint while also helping customers to reduce their own. To meet these goals, Ricoh worked closely with not-for-profit Enviro-Mark Solutions to develop a multipronged GHG reduction strategy. This strategy covered a number of key areas including:

• Electricity consumption: A reduction in overall power consumption of 26% was achieved through the consolidation of Ricoh’s national offices and shifting the company headquarters into a more energy-efficient building.
• Freight and fuel usage: All components within the company’s supply chains were examined and steps taken to consolidate freight shipments, thereby reducing fuel usage. The program focused on how consumables were distributed to customers.
• Staff air travel: To reduce emissions associated with staff air travel, a new telephone system was implemented with the capability to connect laptops for videoconferencing sessions. Rather than needing to travel for meetings, staff are now able to instead join a video discussion from their current location.
• Waste to landfill: Careful evaluation has also been completed relating to the amount of waste ending up in landfill as a result of company operations.
   

“Our recycling, consumption reduction and emission reduction programs all exhibit elements of the reduce, re-use and recycle approach and align to our product stewardship policy and our ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ principle,” said Starkey.

Ricoh’s recycling programs are not limited to machines and consumables. Ricoh operates a parts recycling program whereby service parts replaced by technicians during the servicing of machines in the field are either recycled using the collection boxes at the customer’s premises or removed and returned to the Ricoh branch into designated recycling receptacles. These programs have combined to successfully divert tonnes of Ricoh trade waste from landfill to date.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/jianghaistudio

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