The Eco Balance data on environmental
impacts caused by overall business activities are utilized for
establishing long-term targets and action plans.
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To effectively reduce the impact of
processes with larger environmental impacts on a priority basis,
the Ricoh Group identifies the environmental impacts of overall
business activities and per process using Eco Balance.*1
Eco Balance shows the numerical data of all environmental impacts
caused by business activities, such as effects on human health,
resource depletion and effects on the ecosystem. These numerical
data were obtained by applying the integrated analysis method*2
of the data collected by the Sustainable Environmental
Management Information System. Based on the evaluation of
the "integrated environmental impact" that was identified
by "the Eco Balance", "the
Year 2010 Long-Term Environmental Goals" and "the
Environmental Action Plan" are estalished.
| *1. |
Eco Balance means the preparation
of a list of input and output data on environmental impact
to identify, quantitatively measure, and report environmental
impacts caused by companies; or such a list itself. |
| *2. |
Environmental Priority Strategies
for Product Design (EPS), developed by the Swedish Environmental
Research Institute (IVL) to calculate LCA of products,
is used in calculating the Eco Balance of business activities.
Under EPS, damage caused by environmental impact on human
health, the ecosystem, non-living resources, and biodiversity
is converted into financial values using ELU (Environmental
Load Unit) as unified indicators (CO2=0.108 ELU/kg, NOx=2.13
ELU/kg, SOx=3.27 ELU/kg, BOD=0.002 ELU/kg, etc.).
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Review of Fiscal 2003
As for Eco Balance in image system-related
businesses, integrated environmental impact as a whole decreased
approximately 5% from that in the previous fiscal year. This
is mainly due to further reductions in environmentally sensitive
substances (lead, hexavalent chromium, PVC, etc.) contained
in products and progress made in the use of natural-gas vehicles
during product transportation. However, because environmental
impact caused by the production and use of resources is increasing,
measures to reduce such impact are currently underway.
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