Production: Resource Conservation and Recycling
- Concept, Targets and Results -

Concept The Ricoh Group is working globally to maximize resource productivity, primarily by limiting the amount of matter generated that will be discharged, reducing water consumption, and reducing paper consumption. The Ricoh Group promotes Zero-Waste-to-Landfill* activities as a part of its sustainable environmental management system by efficiently using resources, improving production efficiency, reducing discharged matter disposal costs, and improving corporate quality by promoting employee awareness of environmental conservation. In fiscal 2001, the Ricoh Group achieved Zero-Waste-to-Landfill at its major global production sites. These activities are now promoted at non-production sites and sales subsidiaries worldwide. Furthermore, since fiscal 2008, new reduction efforts focusing on resource waste alleviation in the thermal media business, discharged matter generated during the production of polymerized toners, and packaging materials used in production and for transportation between sites inside and outside of Japan have been promoted. In addition, an audit system for waste disposal service providers was introduced in Japan, aiming to upgrade and expand proper waste disposal methods.

*

Zero-Waste-to-Landfill means a 100% resource recovery rate and no waste used as landfill.

Definition of Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Levels by the Ricoh Group

Targets for Fiscal 2010

Reduce the amount of discharged matter in the thermal media business by 10% from the level in fiscal 2006.

Reduce the amount of discharged matter from packaging materials by production volume in the production of imaging systems in Japan by 30% from the level in fiscal 2006.

Reduce the amount of discharged matter per production volume in production of polymerized toners by 17% from the level in fiscal 2007.

Review of Fiscal 2008 Although the Ricoh Group's amount of discharged matter increased overall (see graph (1)), some improvement has been achieved in the three priority areas. Discharged matter in the thermal media business was reduced by 8.0% over fiscal 2006. As for packaging material waste from production of imaging systems, we introduced various measures aiming to achieve the targets in fiscal 2010, after visualizing the current condition and detecting reduction potential. Discharged matter from polymerized toner production fell by 2.2% per production volume compared to the level of fiscal 2007.

Future Activities As for discharged matter in the thermal media business and polymerized toner production, the production, development, and design divisions will co-operatively select improvement themes and continue to make efforts to reduce wastage of resources. As for packaging materials used in production, steady efforts will be made to implement the introduced measures.

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The Entire Ricoh Group

Total amount of waste generated (1) The Ricoh Group (Production)

Volume of industrial water used (2) The Ricoh Group (Production)

*

As for sludge, the volume after drying is considered as its volume.

Japan

Resource recovery rate of discharged matter/
Total amount of discharged matter generated/
Final amount of discharged matter disposal

(3) The Ricoh Group (Production)

Outside Japan

Resource recovery rate of discharged matter/
Total amount of discharged matter generated/
Final amount of discharged matter disposal

(4) The Ricoh Group (Production)

*

Final amount of discharged matter disposal consists of sludge in the private sewerage systems of Shanghai Ricoh Digital Equipment Co., Ltd. used in landfills and part of sludge used in landfills as a result of Ricoh Thermal Media (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. coming on line.

*

The graphs (1) to (3) include data for Ricoh's non-production sites.

Segment Environmental Accounting

	Production: Energy Conservation and Prevention of Global Warming Production: Pollution Prevention

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