Green procurement activities in
partnership with suppliers
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Ricoh's support for supplier's environmental conservation activities is provided in three areas: resource conservation and recycling, pollution prevention, and energy conservation and prevention of global warming. As part of this support, we have assisted suppliers in building the foundations of their environmental conservation activities,
namely environmental management systems (EMS) and chemical substance management systems (CMS) since 1998. In addition, since the results of analysis of greenhouse gases generated during the lifecycle of Ricoh products show that the emissions during upstream production, such as the production of materials and parts, account for a large share of total emissions, the Ricoh Group began to support and promote suppliers' CO2 reduction activities in fiscal 2007 by utilizing Ricoh's know-how acquired through its efforts to reduce CO2 emissions during the production process.
In fiscal 2008, about 100 of our suppliers introduced the Ricoh CO2 Reduction & Evaluation Tool (RICO2RET), which enables the visualization of CO2 emissions in the parts production process, and started initiatives for reducing CO2 emissions based on the CO2 emission level measured for each process and facility using RICO2RET.
Suppliers' activity areas and bases
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History of Green Procurement
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Activities |
| 1998 |
Started supporting the establishment of environmental management systems (EMS) at suppliers |
| 2001 |
Started a survey on environmental impact information (survey on chemical substances contained in products) |
| 2002 |
Commenced Ricoh Group's efforts toward the total elimination of environmentally-sensitive substances/Established Ricoh Group's green procurement policy |
| 2003 |
Completed environmental management systems (EMS) at 1,089 suppliers throughout the world |
| 2004 |
Issued Chemical management system guidelines for suppliers |
| 2005 |
Commenced educational activities for CO2 reduction at suppliers |
| 2006 |
Completed chemical management systems (CMS) at 734 suppliers (1,700 sites) throughout the world |
| 2007 |
Started supporting the establishment of chemical management systems (CMS) at second-tier suppliers and subsequent tier suppliers Started supporting CO2 reduction activities by suppliers (preliminary). Plan to commence the support on a fuller scale in 2008. |
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Establishing CMS at suppliers  (Ricoh Group/Global)
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Seminar for Japanese suppliers |
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To ensure that products do not contain environmentally sensitive substances, it is necessary to monitor the upstream manufacturing process at every step. To help establish a chemical substance management system (CMS) across its entire supply chain, the Ricoh Group commenced a program to train and certify suppliers' employees as CMS examiners in 2005.
In addition to internal audits facilitated by their own companies, certified examiners will conduct audits upstream at second- and third-tier suppliers that deal with important processes involving environmentally sensitive substances and will support them in establishing a CMS.
As of the end of March 2009, 1,250 CMS examiners at 597 suppliers were certified, and CMS was introduced at 1,985 sites of 944 first-tier suppliers, as well as at 147 second- and third-tier suppliers with important processes involving environmentally sensitive substances.
The suppliers' CMS is checked every two years for certification renewal, and in fiscal 2008, 181 suppliers completed the renewal procedure.
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Supporting CO2 Reduction Activities
at Suppliers
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Utilization of RICO2RET—a tool for calculating CO2 emissions during parts manufacturing
To reduce the environmental impact of its products effectively, Ricoh has developed the Ricoh CO2 Reduction & Evaluation Tool (RICO2RET) to calculate and visualize the CO2 level emitted during the manufacturing process of parts, and is promoting the use of this tool at suppliers' sites to expedite the reduction of CO2 emissions. With this tool,
the volume of CO2 emissions can be obtained by process to manufacture for one single unit of a part or by the facility used for processing, by simply entering the required information, such as the type and quantity of parts materials or manufacturing supplies, and the amount of energy consumed by the use of production equipment, air conditioners, and lighting fixtures. By visualizing the CO2 level emitted at each stage of the parts production process in this way, the tool allows suppliers to quickly identify any necessary improvement points in the production process,
and has brought about the shortening of processes, synchronization of multiple processes, and other effects that could not have been achieved if the production process had not been reviewed from the viewpoint of the environment. In addition, through the improvement activities based on RICO2RET,
suppliers have come up with new methods and technologies, and other value-added ideas that can be applied to other processes. The visualization of the CO2 level also proves to be very effective in the reduction of the environmental impact of lights, air conditioners,
air compressors, and other equipment that is not directly connected with the production process. We will continue to expand these CO2 reduction efforts throughout the supply chain.
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A seminar was organized to support CO2 reduction activities at sites of suppliers
A fact-finding survey conducted in July 2008 regarding CO2 reduction activities at 174 first-tier suppliers revealed that only about 40% of them were conducting some kind of activity aimed at reducing the environmental impact of CO2 emissions across the lifecycle of their products, while the majority of them had an environmental management system (EMS) in place as the basis of their environmental activities.
One of the main reasons CO2 reduction activities had not been progressed as intended was because there was difficulty on the part of suppliers in measuring the exact amount of CO2 emitted from their site facilities. These findings led Ricoh to organize a seminar for suppliers regarding CO2 reduction throughout their entire site in October 2008 as the first step in the company's efforts to help suppliers reduce their CO2 emissions.
The major items on the agenda included the calculation method for CO2 emissions using conversion coefficients, basic knowledge on energy management, and best practices at some sites.
We also explained effective ways of using RICO2RET, our CO2 level visualization tool, to the 66 attendants from 45 suppliers so that they can fully utilize the tool to upgrade their CO2 reduction activities.
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