Realizing a Circular Economy | Global | Ricoh

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

Resource Conservation Policy

• Promote the efficient use and circulation of natural resources.
• 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”

• Breakaway from dependence on virgin plastic derived from fossil resources
• Material recyclable design

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

Ricoh Group Environmental Report.

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.

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.

*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”

^*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.

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.

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

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

^*FY2022 data was revised due to data accuracy improvement

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

ESG data