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Achievement of a Circular Economy

Contributing to achievement of a circular economy

  • Image: SDGs icon: 12.Responsible Production and Consumption

Policy/Basic Concept

The depletion of resources due to population growth globally and the issues of marine plastic waste have focused people's attention on the “Circular Economy.” Companies are now expected to work with stakeholders to promote transformation to a business model that does not depend on resource consumption.

The Ricoh Group's concept of a sustainable society is expressed in the “Three Ps Balance,” which describes a society that maintains a balance among the three Ps: economy (Prosperity), society (People), and the global environment (Planet).

Three Ps Balance

Under the Ricoh Group Environmental Declaration, “We proactively reduce environmental impact and strive to improve the Earth’s self-recovery capabilities to achieve a zero-carbon society and a circular economy through business.” We have also positioned the realization of a circular economy as one of the materiality features in the global environment field and set medium- to long-term targets, which the entire group is working toward.

The Ricoh Group established the Comet Circle™ in 1994 as a concept to achieve a circular economy. Based on the concept of the Comet Circle, we have been promoting the reduction of environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle of our products. In consideration of the recent social circumstances, we have established the “Resource Conservation Policy” and “Plastics Policy” to promote more specific initiatives.

The Comet Circle

Activity Policy

  1. Promote the efficient use and circulation of natural resources.
  2. Offer reused products and promote proactive use of sustainable resources with low environmental impact.

Ricoh Group Plastic Policy for Products

Ricoh group has set targets and goals for plastic usage of our products and packaging under consideration of social issues such as “Shifting to a circular economy,” and “Tackling ocean micro-plastic pollution”

  1. Breakaway from dependence on virgin plastic derived from fossil resources
  2. Material recyclable design

For details of Ricoh's circular economy activities, please refer to the Ricoh Group Circular Economy Report.

Structures/Systems

To continuously discuss mid- to long-term issues of the Ricoh Group in the areas of environment, society, and governance at the management level, the ESG Committee, chaired by the CEO, was established in May 2018. The committee meets once every quarter with the participation of Senior Management to discuss the status of initiatives, issues, and investment decisions related to ESG themes, such as zero carbonization, as important themes for management. Its deliberations are regularly reported to the Board of Directors, which then supervises the execution of ESG activities at a high level.

In 2020, in addition to our existing collaboration with procurement, design, production, QA, and sales, we established and activated a cross-functional working group with the participation of members from the ESG department to create a mechanism to integrate indicators and measures into our business and product strategies in line with our environmental targets (in resource conservation).
To achieve a circular economy, we will continue to promote activities that integrate management level and on-site activities in order to accelerate actions such as the reduction of new resource use in products, substitution and reduction of virgin plastic derived from fossil resources, and effective use of used products.

Furthermore, we are promoting collection, reuse, and recycling initiatives globally at our own sites in Europe, Japan, the Americas, Asia, and China. Each Group company has established criteria for selecting industrial waste disposal companies (ISO 14001, 9001, R2, e-Stewards certification, etc.) in accordance with the circumstances of each country, and company manages waste to ensure that it is handled reliably and appropriately by a reliable partner.

Targets and Performance

Virgin material usage ratio of products

The Ricoh Group is promoting thorough resource conservation activities and active utilization of recycled materials with the aim of reducing Virgin material usage ratio of products to 12% or less by 2050.

Ricoh Group Environmental Goals (Resource Conservation)

Goals for 2030

  • Virgin material usage ratio for products: 60% or less

Goals for 2050

  • Virgin material usage ratio for products: 12% or less

*1 Virgin material usage rate is the usage rate of new resource inputs to total resource inputs of products.

*2 Quoted from the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) publication
The resource conservation target is set based on the idea that In order to use sustainable resources, it is necessary to reduce the
total amount of resources used to 1/8 compared to 2000 level".

Performance
  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Virgin material usage ratio of products 90.7% 87.9% 84.9% 78.9%
Amount of virgin materials used in products (kt) 77.7 70.9 79.5 61.6

Tap to see the table

*MFPs, Printers and Digital Duplicators

Ricoh Group Plastic Policy for Products

Ricoh group has set targets and goals for plastic usage of our products and packaging under consideration of social issues such as “Shifting to a circular economy” and “Tackling ocean micro-plastic pollution”

Specific Targets and Goals for Plastic

  • Use of post-consumer recycled plastics for imaging products Goals for 2030: Post-consumer recycled plastic content ratio of 50% or more
  • Reduction in packaging materials for virgin plastic derived from fossil resources Goals for 2030: 50% or more reduction compared to 2020 level.
  • Display resin identification code and single material use Goals for 2025: Clearly indicated on all parts and all packaging materials

performance

FY2021

FY2022

FY2023

Supplementary explanation for actual performance

Use of post-consumer recycled plastics for imaging products

 8.6% 16.2% 32.1%

The benefits of using recycled plastics in our main multifunction devices and printers are beginning to become apparent. The use of recycled plastics in supply products is also steadily increasing.
*Includes reused plastic parts

Reduction in packaging materials for virgin plastic derived from fossil resources

 +5.1%*1 +5.3%*1 -26.6%

We are working on activities to reduce plastic packaging materials for imaging products, and the reduction is being demonstrated through increased sales of A3 colour MFPs with significantly reduced plastic packaging materials, which were launched in February 2023.

*1 The figures for the reduction in packaging materials for “virgin plastics derived from fossil resources" in FY2021 and 2022 have been revised​ due to the expansion of the calculation scope starting in FY2023 (June 2024).

• Display resin identification code and single material use Goals for 2025:

In 2021, we successfully incorporated Design Policy for End of Life into practice and completed its formalization into a set of rules.

As planned, we anticipate achieving material indication and single materials by 2025.

Tap to see the table

Resource circulation of end-of-life products

We have set target values for our efforts in 2023 to maximize material recycling of products that cannot be reused from the collected used products, thereby reducing incineration and landfill disposal.

Resource circulation targets for the End-of-Life Products

  • Reuse/Recycle ratio Target for 2030: more than 87.5% Target for 2050: more than 93.5%
  • Incineration/Landfill ratio Target for 2030: less than 0.5% Target for 2050:0%
Performance FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Total Breakdown
Main unit/accessories Supplies Parts
Collection amount of End-of-life products (t) 47,843 47,705 51,158 39,407 26,791 10,947 1,669
Reuse/Recycle/Energy Recovery (t) 46,627 46,221 49,888 38,976 26,619 10,699 1,658
Reuse/Recycle ratio 84.4％ 84.1％ 83.9％ 77.5％ 93.5％ 37.1％ 86.0％
Energy Recovery ratio 13.1％ 12.8％ 13.6％ 21.4％ 5.9％ 60.6％ 13.4％
Incineration/Landfill ratio 2.5％ 3.1％ 2.5％ 1.1％ 0.6％ 2.3％ 0.6％

* In order to improve accuracy, we have made some changes to the way we compile overseas data from FY2023

Tap to see the table

Waste

Target：Reduce waste below the previous year's level*

*Target for FY 2024: ＜56,366t

Data scope：RCL(production/non-production sites), production subsidiaries

Performance
  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Total amount of waste (t) 58,813 61,752 65,784 56,366

Tap to see the table

*2022 data was revised due to data accuracy improvement

For other achievements related to realizing a Circular Economy, please see below ESG data
ESG data

Initiatives

Reduce the use of new resources and
recycling initiatives

Design for Environment, 3Rs and Long-Term Usage
  1. Design for Environment
  2. Use of compatible labels
  3. Labeling the position of hidden screws and claws

Reduce Product Sizes and Weights
  1. Reduce Product Sizes and Weights (MFPs and Printers)
  2. Staple reduction with “Internal Staple-less Finisher”

Reduction of packaging materials
  1. New Returnable Eco Packaging for MFPs (Japan)
  2. Factory kitting service using resource-recirculating eco packaging
  3. Reduction of plastic packaging
  4. Using recycled materials for packaging tape

Expanding the scope of material recycling
  1. Using Recycled Plastic
  2. Using Electric Furnace Steel Plates

New business products that reduce environmental impact
  1. Foamed PLA sheets 『PLAiR』 - A New Material Made from Plants and Air
  2. Reducing Paper Consumption with Eco-Friendly Silicone-Top Linerless Label
  3. Resource reduction using label-less thermal technology
  4. Developing Label-Less Bottle Printing Using Transparent Resin Laser Marking Technology
  5. Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (as Environment Sensor)
  6. HANDY DETECTOR for PLASTIC

Initiatives for End of Life products

Reuse and Recycling Program and Network
  1. Program(e-waste program)
  2. Global network for reuse and recycling
  3. Network utilization

Reuse and Recycling Businesses
  1. Key Commercialization Initiatives
  2. Reuse of full-color toner bottles without disassembly

Audit of Industrial waste disposal company in Japan
  1. Using the system to check the vendor

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