Identifying the
environmental impact of business activities
as a whole and translating it into numerical
figures to be used in planning an environmental
action plan
The Ricoh
Group calculates the environmental impact
and cost of each process based on data collected
from the
environmental management information system
to identify the Eco Balance1
of the Ricoh Group's business activities
as a whole. All kinds of business activity-related
environmental impact, including global warming,
ozone layer destruction, and ecosystem damages,
are identified and translated into numerical
figures using the integrated analysis method2.
The Ricoh Group makes environmental
action plans based on these figures.
Ricoh calls the environmental accounting
based on these Eco Balance figures "Eco
Balance Environmental Accounting."
Eco Balance Environmental Accounting focuses
on the environmental impact of each product
and division as well as the cost and effect
of individual environmental measures, enabling
a stricter control of each product and division.
In the future, each division will be evaluated
by specific environmental management indicators,
and numerical targets for all Ricoh Group
business activities will be set in the environmental
action plan as general environmental indicators.
| 1.
|
Eco Balance
is a system that involves the listing
of environmental impact input/output
data to identify, quantitatively measure,
and report the environmental impact
of companies. |
| 2.
|
Environmental
priority strategies (EPS) for product
design, which was developed by the
Swedish Environmental Research Institute
(IVL), is used in calculating the
Eco Balance of business activities.
Under EPS, damage caused by environmental
impact on human health, ecosystems,
non-living resources, and biodiversity
is convert-ed into monetary value
using factors (CO2=0.108 ELU/kg, NOx=2.13
ELU/kg, SOx=3.27 ELU/kg, BOD=0.002
ELU/kg, etc.) to calculate environmental
load units (ELUs) of products. |
| *
|
Data collection
is limited to the image-related product
business in Japan.
The environmental impact of upstream
and downstream activities is roughly
calculated based on the environmental
impact data of specified models. (Blanks
indicate environmental impact that
is approximately zero or unknown.)
|
|
