Vision -Three Stages in Environmental Conservation Activities-

The Ricoh Group's environmental conservation efforts have evolved through three stages that we define as the "passive stage," "proactive stage" and "responsible stage." In the passive stage, our efforts generally aimed at addressing external requirements by dealing with laws and regulations and competing with other companies. In the next proactive stage, we began to take voluntary actions with a sense of mission as a global citizen. In the current responsible stage, we have enhanced out efforts to an advanced level, namely, from the stage of simply operating its business in an environmentally friendly manner to pursuing both environmental conservation and profit generation simultaneously. Based on this concept of sustainable environmental management, we are continuing environmental conservation efforts in an integrated part of out business activities. Specific initiatives implemented range a broad areas from developing energy-saving products, curtailing costs by promoting resource/energy conservation, to developing materials that can replace natural resources at a high risk of depletion, and offering efficient and environmental work style-related solutions by providing products and services designed to achieve increased operational efficiency and reduced environmental impact.
In order to effectively protect the global environment and build sustainable societies, it is imperative to reduce impact of human activities on the environment to a level that the Earth's self-recovery capabilities can manage. With this recognition, the Group organizes and participates in a variety of forest ecosystem conservation projects, in addition to efforts to reduce environmental impact stemming from its operations, aiming to improve the self-recovery capabilities of the global environment.