The Ricoh Group introduced the concept of Eco Balance in fiscal 1998 to clarify the environmental impact caused by all its businesses and effectively reduce it. We have mapped out environmental action plans based upon environmental loads identified by stage under the concept of Eco Balance since fiscal 2002 and have applied the concept in the formulation of Ricoh Group Environmental Goals

Since we know that procurement of raw materials and parts is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions by studying the amount at output at each stage, we have been working hard to cut down the input of resources so as to reduce the corresponding emissions. Emissions due to the use of Ricoh products are equivalent to emissions from the business sites. Taking that into consideration, we are improving energy efficiency of our products.

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Eco Balance

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Input

		Unit	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017	FY2018
Procurement of raw materials and parts	Paper	1000t	240	247	246	248
	Iron	1000t	61	60	59	63
	Resin	1000t	50	50	51	56
	Other	1000t	26	27	26	26
Production sites	Energy	TJ	4,712	4,693	4,702	4,430
	Water	1000m³	4,775	4,829	4,575	4,518
	Water reused and recycled	1000m³	928	1,035	811	698
	Chemical substances	t	1,487	1,426	1,573	1,673
Logistics and transportation	Fossil fuel(oil equivalent)	1000㎘	174	176	178	185
Use	Electric power	GWh	1,093	1,002	851	784
Collection and recycling	Amount reused and recycled to product	1000t	8	8	7	5

Output

		Unit	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017	FY2018
Procurement of raw materials and parts	Greenhouse gases	1000t-CO₂	768	746	746	761
Production sites	Greenhouse gases	1000t-CO₂	498	486	472	362
	Chemical substances discharge/transferred	t	300	286	288	292
	NOx	t	64	71	65	65
	SOx	t	3	4	4	3
	Water discharged	1000m³	3,651	3,312	3,204	3,071
	BOD	t	7	7	5	4
	Total amount of discharged matter generated	1000t	74	74	71	68
	Total amount of landfill waste	1000t	1.7	1.6	0.8	0.6
Logistics and transportation	Greenhouse gases	1000t-CO₂	441	440	436	453
Use	Greenhouse gases	1000t-CO₂	564	490	426	375

Procurement of raw materials and parts

The products subject to accounting consist of copiers/multifunctional copiers, printers, production printers, digital duplicators, facsimiles, peripheral equipment, office equipment supplies (including toners, toner cartridges, copier paper, etc.), digital cameras, electronic devices, embedded modules, thermal media, gas alarms, projectors, video conference system, and LED lighting.
Greenhouse Gas emissions coefficients are calculated according to the original database^* developed by our company.

Business sites

Regarding the amount of chemical substances handled, discharged and transferred, data on substances covered by the Japanese PRTR Act is collected from the Group’s sites inside and outside Japan.
Tabulated environmental impact data obtained from individual sites is separately provided on our website.

Logistics and transportation

Data for Japan covers transportation of cargo shipped by Ricoh or our sales campany, Ricoh Japan. For data outside Japan, international transportation as well as some transportation within the same area/country is also subject to the calculations.

Use

Products subject to accounting include copiers/multifunctional copiers, printers, production printers, digital duplicators, facsimile machines, projectors, video conference/web-based conference systems, and LED lighting.
For calculations, regional greenhouse gas emission coefficients (kg-CO2/kWh) for electricity that are latest available are used.
Sources: (Japan) The Electric Power Council for a Low Carbon Society, FY2018　Follow-up Results; (outside Japan) IEA “CO₂ Emissions from Fuel Combustion 2018.”

Collection and recycling

To promote reuse business, collect the used products including copiers and toner cartridges, and use them for reuse and material recycling.
63 thousand tons of iron and 56 thousand tons of resin in the procurement of raw materials and parts, including both 2.7 thousand tons of recycled materials (managed under the resource conservation targets of products) respectively.

Change in calculation methods and data reporting (fiscal 2012)
The Ricoh Group is aware of the importance of lifecycle environmental impact evaluations and has adopted its own accounting method that incorporates a lifecycle perspective in the early stages. To step up its efforts, the Ricoh Group revised the accounting method in fiscal 2012 in light of the Scope 3 accounting standard of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, which is an international accounting guideline.

*Original database developed by our company
To calculate Greenhouse Gas emissions arising from the Procurement of Raw Products and Parts and Use stages, we use data prepared by Mizuho Information Research Institute, Inc. based on the LCA database (fiscal 2009, version 2) published by the Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan (JLCA). Mizuho Information & Research Institute organized the data by expanding the system's boundaries and supplementing missing data.