Environmental Sustainability - Overview

93% of Chief Executives believe that sustainable business practices have become fundamental to the growth of their companies.¹ Drivers behind sustainability include:

Increasing costs of resources Regulatory compliance Risk mitigation

Better reputation/brand management Corporate social responsibility Carbon Footprint Initiatives

Most organizations now recognize that sustainability is good for their bottom line, empowers their people, and is better for the environment.

Environmental sustainability best practices from an operations perspective can include facilities, such as reducing office space and real estate, resource management, using materials with the least environmental impact and recycling, e.g. reducing size and use of alternative packaging, employees’ travel and leveraging telecommuting, and of course energy efficiency.

According to a survey conducted by KPMG, 60% of companies surveyed say they have a strategy for sustainability – to primarily  focus on resource and energy efficiency. In most organizations, Information Technology (IT) is one of the largest consumers of energy, and within IT, printing typically consumes the most energy and resources². Using less power to do the same job—or even doing the job better through process re-engineering— can mean positive economic,  social, and environmental gains.

Did you know that the best example of MDS payoff is the
direct reduction of energy consumed or purchased?

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Environmental Sustainability - Business Outcomes

Reduce Energy Used and Resources Wasted

You suspect your organization is wasting energy and resources in your global printing and document processes.

Ricoh looks at your current operating procedures and practices to establish a baseline and set agreed upon environmental sustainability performance targets. This involves establishing a comprehensive baseline of power usage, consumables, paper, and CO₂ footprint.  Besides number/type of output devices (copiers, printers, faxes), locations, etc. this includes qualitative metrics related to document processes and device usage: monochrome/color, one-sided/duplex, Auto-Off/Sleep Timer and Energy Saver Timer settings, and how they are part of business processes.  Ricoh MDS provides a baseline Environmental Impact Analysis that can include power consumption, paper consumption, CO₂ footprint, user and departmental document process behaviors.  The benefit of this analysis is it provides a greater understanding of the environmental impact of your current state, and the fiscal impact of your current operating procedures and document management processes.

Process Improvements for the Environment

You would like to set environmental performance targets, but are not quite sure how to implement, measure and evaluate your business critical document processes in the context of sustainability.

A sustainability design for document processes must not only address reduction of overall electricity consumption, hard copy output, and CO₂ footprint, but an environmental sustainability design must also include:

• Office optimization: proposed device rationalization, productivity and process efficiency summary.
• Future state print recommendation:  including networking environment, software/document solutions, environmental printing policies, and improved print workflow specifications.
• Real time data reporting and monitoring tools:  to provide enterprise-wide visibility for tracking sustainability performance. 

See Sample from Ricoh's @Remote Monitoring/Reporting System

A Ricoh MDS Environmental Sustainability Design will recommend an implementation plan: a roadmap that supports your environmental initiatives.  The Environmental Sustainability Design can include a Return on Investment (ROI) Projection based on visible cost savings and unaccounted costs such as productivity gains.

Such a comprehensive, measurable approach based on experience will help you achieve the desired environmental/cost impact reduction, provide a strategy that can grow organically over time, and produce results that can be shared with interested stakeholders.

Increasing Employee Awareness

You would like to increase employee awareness of the importance of environmental practices to gain broader adoption of new processes and to ensure sustainability benefits are realized.

Raising awareness is a critical step in any change management process.  Ricoh MDS recognizes that optimizing the fleet alone is not enough to achieve sustainability.  Users need to be made aware of how to operate devices in the most environmentally-efficient manner.

Ricoh MDS provides Environmental Sustainability Education and Training using various delivery strategies:

• Lunch and Learns at customer location(s)
• Self-paced computer-based training (CBT) and demos
•  Trainer-led or manager-led Site Employee Training Modules
•  On-the-job training (OJT) with a customized training format and agenda based on specific needs. 
• Customized training strategies - Different strategies should be used for support and IT staff (more Train the Trainer) than for end-users

In addition, when it comes to implementation, Ricoh's Prosci-Certified resources apply the Prosci® ADKAR® Model: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement™.  This is a model of a change process at an individual level which can be applied organizationally through the broader Prosci® 3-phase Change Management Process.

Satisfying the Stakeholders

You are feeling pressure from stakeholders, e.g. the Board, stock-holders, customers, regulators, to demonstrate good ‘green’ citizenship as part of your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan.

Carbon Footprint Balancing is one clearly demonstrable benefit of a sustainability program.  Ricoh MDS can offer balancing options for your CO₂ footprint, quantified in the Environmental Sustainability Design, such as:  clean energy projects (e.g., purchase green energy, install solar panels, etc.), reforestation, or buying carbon credits (where available).

Where applicable and available, the service will be assessed and verified by the British Standards Institution (BSI) according to the International Standards Organization (ISO) principles of ISO 14064, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 27001. Carbon Credits are certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as registered projects.

Carbon Footprint Balancing can do more than support your environmental goals: it can enhance your corporate environmental profile.  Partnering with Ricoh, one of the 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, signals to stakeholders your organization’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

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Prosci and ADKAR are registered trademarks of Prosci, Inc.

Environmental Sustainability - Best Practices

A key to successful sustainability practices is integration into the larger business strategy.  Embedding sustainability into your company’s mission statement or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan allows all stakeholders: management, employees, board of directors, stockholders, even suppliers and customers to be better aligned with broader, corporate goals - both environmental and economic.

Environmental sustainability best practices in document processes can contribute to a larger corporate sustainability strategy.   A comprehensive sustainability design can do more than conserve energy: it can help control capital costs, increase productivity, and reduce material waste.  Based on actual customer engagements worldwide and industry research, organizations can better control document-related costs, avoid more capital-intensive investments, and evolve their static infrastructure to more responsive solutions by using services like Ricoh MDS.

Implementing sustainable programs takes teamwork and experience.  Ricoh has a 35 year history of corporate sustainability, and is widely recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Here are some best practices derived from Ricoh MDS customer deployments that focus on achieving the benefits of environmental sustainability:

• Think e-documents vs. Paper
• Fleet Right-Sizing & Optimization
• Asset Management, Recycle, and Responsible Disposal
• Enlist and Encourage Sustainable Employee Habits
• Redirect Printing to Most Cost Efficient Device
• Minimize Power Consumption
• Reduce Paper Usage
• Print On-Demand
• Re-set Settings and Save
• Measure, Manage, Optimize

Click below for detailed explanations of these best practices:

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Environmental Sustainability - How We Solve This

The Ricoh MDS Services Delivery Portfolio offers all the services required to design, construct, maintain and optimize a highly efficient information infrastructure that is aligned with your sustainability objectives. Examples of Ricoh MDS service offerings are:

• Environmental Impact Analysis
• Environmental Sustainability Design
• Environmental Sustainability Education and Training
• Environmental Sustainability Governance
• Carbon Footprint Balancing

Ricoh Managed Document Services support your green initiatives as part of your larger corporate goals, such as achieving financial targets, increasing productivity and innovation, and providing better customer service.

While every Ricoh Managed Document Services Engagement is unique and tailored to your environment, you can see examples of Ricoh MDS services that address improving Environmental Sustainability.

Ricoh is widely recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Partnering with Ricoh can be a win/win: for sustainability and for your bottom line.

Environmental Sustainability - Related Info