Environment

It was as if I’d died and gone to digital print heaven. In a well-lit warehouse at Ricoh’s Green Centre in Wellingborough, digital printers spread out as far as the eye could see. These were old machines taken out of printing firms, in-house sites and offices. But they had not come back to Ricoh to be scrapped; they were to be reused and recycled, forming a key part of the manufacturer’s environmental policy.

Print companies are under increasing pressure to be greener, so it’s reassuring to see one kit manufacturer practising what it preaches. While the Japanese firm may only just be starting to make serious inroads into the commercial print sector, it’s taken a lead compared to the rest of the market on the environment.

It opened the Green Centre back in 2004, to manage the return of all machines, parts and supplies for recycling purposes. That covers pretty much the whole of its product portfolio, from multifunctional office printers to mid-volume digital presses. The centre has a wide-ranging remit and ensures that the company adheres to the European Union’s recently introduced Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

Being green has been high on Ricoh’s list of priorities since the mid-1970s. By 1992, it had formed its Green Principles, which include being carbon neutral, employing zero-waste techniques, providing advanced recycling programmes, designing environmentally conscious products and reducing CO₂ emissions.

Carbon neutral
“There are so many companies out there hopping on the bandwagon and simply using the environment as a marketing tool,” says Chas Moloney, Ricoh UK’s marketing director. “But you actually have to go out there and make a difference.”

Moloney says that Ricoh’s products are designed to save energy. The company claims that its printers and presses are currently among the lowest for energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. It also claims that ozone output from its products has been “virtually eliminated”, and that output is now “just 2%” of the government’s maximum recommended levels.

Fast duplexing, quick start-up, organic toners and ultra-low sleep mode are some of the energy-saving features on Ricoh’s products. “A lot of time has been taken to develop technology that keeps a machine’s temperature very low on standby, but it powers up very quickly,” adds Moloney. By Ricoh’s calculations, its machines are able to reduce energy consumption by 40% (according to the Carbon Neutral Company, even a 20% saving can have the same effect as a 5% increase in sales).

Saving energy for customers is one thing, making sure that the manufacturer itself reduces CO₂ is another – and it’s pretty important. Ricoh is already a carbon neutral company, but that’s not the be-all and end-all. The demands for reducing CO₂ come from the very top of the organisation and affect all staff. Indeed, it even affects directors’ pay packets.

“Our approach is that offsetting is not the only solution,” says Moloney. “You have to actually reduce CO₂. We offset and look to reduce CO₂ even further. Part of my bonus is based on the UK division’s reduction of the gas. That’s also the case for our European directors.”

With that kind of approach, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ricoh has its own site dedicated to being green. The Green Centre falls under the umbrella of Ricoh’s Group Centralised Services (GCS) division, and recycles and reuses pretty much anything and everything.

There are three sites in Wellingborough, with one storing hundreds of used printers and presses. Before any of them get near the scrapheap, they are stripped and any working parts are reused as spares.

Minimum impact
“If a part is needed, we try to recycle it from an old machine,” explains Michael Nixon, general manager for the GCS division. “It saves us buying a new part and keeps costs down.”

And the manufacturer doesn’t just take charge of its used machines. “We recycle the cardboard used in the packaging of new machines,” adds Nixon. “This is not left at a customer’s site and thrown away. It is brought back to the Green Centre.”

Once returned, the cardboard is baled ready to be picked up by paper mills. Empty toner bottles are also sent back to the centre for recycling. These are purged of any toner residue through Ricoh’s dust extractor facilities. They are then crushed in layers together with other plastic material and compacted into bales. The company claims that since 2005, around 65 tonnes of waste plastic has been dispatched for reuse.

Ricoh is working on making the plastic it uses on machines greener as well. Petroleum-based resins used in the manufacture of plastics are a problem, one the firm is attempting to solve by taking the petrol out of the process and including alternative raw materials, such as plant-based oils.
“We are making an effort to reduce petroleum in plastic,” says Ricoh’s UK environmental marketing manager Matthew Smithurst. “When a product is designed, it is done to keep the environmental impact to a minimum.”

While the boffins in Japan are attempting to limit the environmental impact of the design of the firm’s products, the UK division of Ricoh is also keeping tabs on what it does. One of the Wellingborough sites is an eco plant, which not only measures its environmental impact, but gives an educational insight into being green. Local schools often visit the site and students are given information on how to be greener.

Ricoh hopes its green efforts don’t go unnoticed by the rest of the corporate world. Indeed, the firm hopes that its environmental efforts are replicated by its customers and the print industry as a whole, and it isn’t prepared to listen to the argument that being green is expensive.
“It’s the biggest misconception,” says Tom Wagland, Ricoh UK environmental manager. “You can easily save money by saving energy. You get a return on investment.”

“You have to go about changing the culture of companies,” adds Moloney. “If we set the bar and our competitors intend to reach that, that’s a good thing.”

Setting up a dedicated green centre is one of many steps Ricoh is taking to reduce its environmental impact. This isn’t just greenwash; the company is practising what it preaches.

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ENVIRONMENTAL STATS
• UK businesses lose up to £3bn a year from their bottom line by failing to be more resource-efficient
• 75% of UK small to medium-sized enterprises are unaware of their environmental obligations
• Waste typically costs a company 4.5% of turnover
• 50% of all industrial and commercial waste goes into landfill, and 39% is recycled
• If resource use continues to keep pace with economic growth, by 2050 we would need between 1.8 and 2.2 earth-sized planets in order to sustain the growth
• A 20% saving in energy consumption can have the same effect as a 5% increase in sales
• Waste collection charges are increasing 5% per year. Landfill duties have also increased by 10% each year for the past five years
• Energy Star-rated equipment can reduce energy consumption by up to 40%
Sources: UK Environment Agency, Envirowise, Carbon Neutral Company, WWF, Ricoh

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FACTFILE: RICOH
• Across all of its sites, Ricoh has attained ISO 14001 accreditation. Alongside that, the manufacturer maintains a zero-waste policy for its manufacturing sites and has Energy Star accreditation for all its products. The green centre means that Ricoh is now compliant with the EU’s WEEE directive and the company is also compliant with the restriction of the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment
• The company also has carbon neutral status, and for every 100,000 prints made in an office through a Ricoh machine, it will plant a fruit tree as part of the Seeds for Africa scheme. UK marketing director Chas Moloney adds that the scheme could be redesigned to include its mid-range corporate print and wide-format customers
• Trees are planted in various communities in five African countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Kenya. The aim is to not only offset carbon emissions, but also to provide nutrition and extra income for each community
• On top of its accreditations and schemes, Ricoh has also picked up awards for its green efforts. In March 2000, it picked up the award for the best Energy Star product and, in 2005, it was identified by the World Economic Forum as being one of the top 100 companies on environmental initiatives
• The major gong came in 2003: Ricoh won a gold medal for international corporate achievement in sustainable development from the World Environment Centre, a United Nations body