Ricoh Europe Takes the Lead in Making Everyday Business Processes More Sustainable

By Ricoh Europe Plc, PRNE
Sunday, April 3, 2011

Multimedia release: https://blogit.realwire.com/Ricoh-Europe-takes-the-lead-in-making-everyday-bus iness-processes-more-sustainable

LONDON, April 4, 2011 - Ricoh Europe, a specialist in office solutions, managed document services
and production printing, today launched its unique Sustainability
Optimisation programme. The offering, accredited by the British Standards
Institution (BSI), helps businesses to improve the efficiency of their
document workflows while at the same time taking a carbon balanced approach
to managing information.

The Sustainability Optimisation Programme (
www.ricoh-europe.com/reduce2grow) is available as a part of Ricoh's
Managed Document Services and builds upon its successful Pay Per Page Green
consultancy. Sustainability Optimisation enables medium to large
organisations to reduce environmental impact and Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) by more than 30 per cent, govern the sustainable performance of their
business documents, and neutralise any remaining, unavoidable carbon
emissions.

The programme is a continuous improvement cycle consisting of five
stages. First, Ricoh analyses a business's existing document workflows and
fleet, to understand the baseline TCO and carbon emissions from paper and
energy consumption. Second, a plan is designed to reduce TCO and carbon
emissions, setting clear objectives including optimising the fleet, workflows
and end-user behaviour. Third, the plan is implemented. Devices with Eco Mode
energy-saving settings are installed, workflows are optimised, and end users
are educated to enhance their environmental awareness and to understand how
to use the devices in the most sustainable way - resulting in an average
energy reduction of 36%.

The fourth stage of the programme is governance, which involves
continuous tracking of actual carbon emissions versus set goals. By analysing
this data Ricoh can identify how each printing device is being used and
implement improvements to drive further reductions in carbon emissions.

The final step is to neutralise remaining unavoidable carbon emissions.
Businesses can offset the unavoidable carbon emissions through carbon
credits[1] generated by clean energy projects in which Ricoh has invested,
creating a carbon balanced printing environment.

Generali Switzerland, part of the Fortune 500 global insurance and
financial products company Generali Group, is already benefiting from Ricoh's
Sustainability Optimisation programme. Through carbon balanced printing,
Generali Switzerland's 30 million pages of printing annually - equating to
452 tonnes of carbon - will be neutralised.

"The launch of the Sustainability Optimisation programme is timely, given
the increasing pressure on businesses to lower not only costs, but their
environmental impact," said Yuji Koyanagi, Vice President Group Marketing,
Ricoh Europe. "The workplace is changing, driven by powerful trends - new
technologies, changing demographics, globalisation and other economic
developments - and Ricoh is committed to helping its customers manage these
challenges. Sustainability Optimisation is just one way we're helping our
customers be more efficient and sustainable."

Listed for the 7th consecutive year as one of the Global 100 Most
Sustainable Corporations[2], Ricoh is a recognised leader in the development
of innovative green offerings. With aggressive targets to be more sustainable
and to lower carbon emissions, Ricoh is both reducing the environmental
impacts of its own business, and helping its customers do likewise.

Hans Breuker, Senior Manager, BSI, the world's first national standards
body which is renowned for its vigorous testing, says: "Our independent audit
conclude that Ricoh's method for analysing, continuously optimising, and
neutralising carbon emissions from document processing is transparent and
robust. Ricoh has developed a best practice offering for businesses seeking
to optimise their sustainability."

To find out more about how Ricoh's five step Sustainability Optimisation
programme can help businesses save money and reduce carbon, visit
www.ricoh-europe.com/reduce2grow

For video, images and other materials about Sustainability Optimisation,
visit the Ricoh media centre: www.ricoh-europe.com/press

About Ricoh Europe

Ricoh Company, Ltd ("Ricoh Company") is a global technology leader,
specialising in the office and production printing markets. Ricoh works with
organisations around the world to modernise work environments and optimise
document efficiency.

With over 108,500 employees worldwide, it operates in Europe, the
Americas, Asia Pacific, China and Japan. Ricoh Europe Holdings Plc is a
public limited company and the EMEA headquarters of Ricoh Company with
operations located in London, United Kingdom and Amstelveen, the Netherlands.
In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2010, revenues from Ricoh's EMEA operations
totalled over YEN 458.5 billion ($4.5 bn) Ricoh Company's worldwide sales
totalled over YEN 2,016 billion ($21bn) during the year ended 31 March 2010.

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

[1] Carbon credits are generated from UNFCCC-approved clean energy
projects in developing countries.

[2] Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. Visit
www.global100.org

Home page: www.ricoh-europe.com

Register for the Ricoh media centre at: www.ricoh-europe.com/press

For further information, please contact: Ricoh Europe PLC, Janice Gibson, Tel.: +44 (0)20 7465 1153, E-mail: press at ricoh-europe.com

YOUR VIEW POINT
NAME : (REQUIRED)
MAIL : (REQUIRED)
will not be displayed
WEBSITE : (OPTIONAL)
YOUR
COMMENT :