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Carrying Out Activities to Promote Use of
Energy-Saving Modes
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A survey at Ricoh Technology Center showed a 40% increase in use rate of energy-saving modes.
The Ricoh Group aims to raise the use rate of the energy-saving modes to help our customers reduce their environmental impact. Before recommending our customers to use energy-saving modes, we need to know in detail what inconvenience or dissatisfaction our customers might face.
So the Group carried out activities to promote use of energy-saving modes in its own offices, and surveyed the effects to identify problems. At Building D of Ricoh Technology Center (Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture), which is a designing and development base, the 39 copiers were put into energy-saving mode after stickers saying "Currently in energy-saving mode" were attached to them,
and monitoring was carried out for a month. As a result, the use rate of energy-saving modes rose by about 40%. Many positive opinions were provided: "Unlike the waiting time of copiers, the waiting time of printers didn't bother me," said one user. Another said,
"I want to know more about the reduction effects of the energy-saving modes." In the meantime, other users pointed out some problems. One of them said, "There are several energy-saving modes and it's difficult to understand them."
"It's off when I give instructions for printing, which worries me," says another. The Ricoh Group will promote such surveys in its own offices, and reflect their results in our activities to promote use of energy-saving modes at our customers' sites.
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CO2 reduction effect of Super Fresh-up Day  (Ricoh/Japan)
Ricoh designates the third Wednesday of every month as a "Super Fresh-up Day," aiming at the prevention of excessive overtime work by employees, physical and mental refreshment, and the reduction of environmental impact at business sites.
On a Super Fresh-up Day, employees are supposed to leave office and put out lights by 19:30. Our calculation of the effects of this measure at the Head Office where 1,624 employees work showed that
CO2 emissions were reduced by about 0.12 tons on average on a Super Fresh-up Day, or about 1.42 tons per year.
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CO2 emission reductions due to Super Fresh-up Days
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Creation of new office environment (Ricoh Head Office/Japan)
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Select the document to be printed after confirming on the control panel |
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Ricoh Head Office has introduced some measures using Ricoh's office equipment and IT solutions, aiming to realize an office environment with less environmental impact and higher operational efficiency.
Each floor of the Head Office has a space where all the office automation appliances are placed, so that higher efficiency and a reduction in paper use can be realized.
We provide directions for printing using the desk computers and print documents after confirming which documents will be printed using the operation panels on office automation appliances, which leads to a reduction in paper wastage and energy caused by printing errors.
The default is double-sided/multi-page printing, which helps us save paper. As part of recycling efforts, waste is divided into 11 types and Zero-Waste-to-Landfill has been achieved.
In addition, leftover food from the cafeteria is recycled as organic fertilizer after the reduction of volume. Other energy-saving activities include individual
setting of temperatures for each section on each office floor, putting out of lights during lunchtime, reduction of light (energy use) using automatic dimmers, and turning on lights only when there are people present using human detection sensors.
Thorough efforts are being made for such activities while operations are carried out efficiently, aiming at further energy savings. Ricoh has organized eco tours to offer information on such efforts and opened the Head Office to the public for that purpose.
In fiscal 2008, 15 groups, including customer companies and students/people from educational organizations, visited the office.
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Introduction of electricity-assisted bicycles
(Ricoh Technosystems Co., Ltd./Japan)
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Electricity-assisted bicycle |
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After the amendment of the Road Traffic Law in 2006, Ricoh Technosystems Co., Ltd. (RTS) started introducing electricity-assisted bicycles to replace the three-wheelers, which had been used by customer engineers as a means of transportation.
Electricity-assisted bicycles allow us to be considerate of the environment without losing mobility. As of the end of March 2009, a total of 146 electricity-assisted bicycles were in operation mainly in the Tokyo area. They have been favorably accepted by engineers, who have made comments such as,
"They are easy to park and offer us greater freedom of movement" and "We can shorten travel times when we visit customers." More electricity-assisted bicycles are planned to be introduced in the future.
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Surveys of soil and underground water contamination at 1,022 non-production sites completed  (Ricoh Group/Global)
The Ricoh Group started surveying the history of all Group business sites including non-production sites in fiscal 2004, aiming to establish a soil/underground water contamination risk management system on a global scale. The survey of owned and leased land at 1,022 non-production sites worldwide—
including those for sales, logistics, services and technology development—
was completed in September 2006, and it was confirmed that there were no contamination risks. As a result of completing the surveys, the Ricoh Group now understands and manages soil contamination risks at all its sites, including production sites.
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