OREANDA-NEWS. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Ricoh with the highly coveted 2016 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for its outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by manufacturing energy-efficient products, offering sustainable services and solutions, and educating consumers about energy efficiency.

Ricoh, an ENERGY STAR partner for imaging equipment since its inception, will be honored for:

  • Technology Innovation in support of ENERGY STAR - Ricoh has introduced and continues to integrate technologies within its product portfolio in support of the ENERGY STAR specifications. As an ENERGY STAR partner, it is Ricoh's role to create energy efficiency without sacrificing business productivity, which is one of the biggest challenges in meeting the ENERGY STAR criteria in today's new world of work. Customers often have the opportunity to override such features but Ricoh's technological direction has always been to tackle this dilemma by coming up with innovative technologies that make their products quicker to recover from energy-saving mode, speaking to the ENERGY STAR values. Specifically:
    • Ricoh continues to place a priority on the practical aspect of energy efficiency, e.g. Quick Recovery from Sleep Mode, and Low Energy Consumption.
    • 100 percent of Ricoh's multifunctional printers (MFPs) qualify under ENERGY STAR version 2.0.
    • Approximately 95 percent of the devices Ricoh implements via its Global Services team are ENERGY STAR certified.
  • Challenged all employees to take the ENERGY STAR pledge - Through internal communications that included emails, posters, "plantable" bookmarks, presentations, and Selfie Sticks with the pledge on them, Ricoh reached 100 percent of the employee population through the campaign. This included employees' children who, as part of Bring your Daughters/Sons to Work Day, were educated about the pledge and asked to take it and commit to it.
  • Educating customers - Ricoh's Global Accounts team, which serves the Fortune 100 customer set, provides education to the customer regarding energy efficiency – including ENERGY STAR – and asks them to take the ENERGY STAR pledge. This program also extends across Ricoh's vertical teams such as Higher Education and Healthcare, where field representatives work with customers on how to educate their employees, and how sustainability is integrated into Ricoh's products, solutions and services.
  • The Channel/Dealers - At Convergence 2015, Ricoh's dealer event where more than 1,300 attendees gathered to hear the Ricoh strategic vision, Ricoh provided product sustainability education to this influential group, offering them  ENERGY STAR product information and instructions as to how to integrate it into their sales and marketing efforts in order to reach their customers.
  • Social media – Through a dedicated ENERGY STAR campaign, Ricoh provided ENERGY STAR information to customers and employees via webpages, online videos, blog posts and tweets. In total, these efforts reached over five million customers and consumers.

"The new world of work demands that we consider each element of the ecosystem – from an increasingly mobile workforce, to the mindset of the millennials, to the health of our planet – in order to create the smartest, most effective solutions for our customers that speak to these changing dynamics," said Martin Brodigan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh Americas Corporation. "At Ricoh, our commitment to the environment is well-established, and is paramount in the development of our hardware, software and services offerings. We are extremely pleased that the EPA has recognized these efforts with this important award, as we consider sustainability to be a fundamental part of our DNA."

"Ricoh's ENERGY STAR certified products, along with its services and solutions, are helping Americans save money, save energy, and do their part to reduce our nation's greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. "Ricoh's efforts demonstrate a strong commitment to energy efficiency and to preserving a healthy planet for future generations."

Ricoh's historical and ongoing commitment to sustainability has been recognized by many environmental organizations. In this past year alone, Ricoh has received a number of awards, including the ENERGY STAR Building Certification for its West Caldwell, NJ facility for 2015 and the Green Excellence in Partnership award from the Coalition for Government Procurement for leading the imaging industry with energy-efficient equipment. Ricoh's leadership role in advancing the ENERGY STAR efficiency standards was cited as a major reason for the Green Excellence in Partnership win.

Ricoh has also been named a member of the EPA's SmartWay® Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the EPA and industry that provides a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of the movement of goods through the supply chain. Ricoh also received an ENERGY STAR award for Excellence in Energy Efficient Product Design in 2014. These accolades serve to illustrate Ricoh's ongoing and fervent commitment to ENERGY STAR and the welfare of the environment.

Since its inception in 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped prevent a total of more than 2.4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2014 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners provided more than $11 billion in societal benefits due to reducing damages from climate change. ENERGY STAR has 16,000 partners working to protect the environment through greater energy efficiency, including manufacturers, retailers, public schools, hospitals, real estate companies, and home builders.

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the simple choice for energy efficiency. For more than 20 years, people across America have looked to EPA's ENERGY STAR program for guidance on how to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Behind each blue label is a product, building, or home that is independently certified to use less energy and cause fewer of the emissions that contribute to climate change. Today, ENERGY STAR is the most widely recognized symbol for energy efficiency in the world, helping families and businesses save $362 billion on utility bills, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2.4 billion metric tons since 1992. 

About Ricoh

Ricoh is a global technology company that has been transforming the way people work for more than 80 years. Under its corporate tagline – imagine. change. – Ricoh continues to empower companies and individuals with services and technologies that inspire innovation, enhance sustainability and boost business growth. These include document management systems, IT services, production print solutions, digital cameras, and industrial systems.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in over 190 countries. In the financial year ending March 2015, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,231 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD).