Copier Firm's Forestation Plan For Emissions

Ricoh UK has today announced the next phase of its environmental strategy, with the achievement of carbon neutral status at its UK headquarters in Feltham.

Ricoh UK has today announced the next phase of its environmental strategy, with the achievement of Carbon Neutral status at its UK headquarters in Feltham.

The initiative, implemented by Future Forests, the climate change company, extends Ricoh's environmental policy to include the reduction and 'neutralising' of its greenhouse gas emissions.

To offset the carbon dioxide produced by its daily running over the course of a 12-month period, Ricoh has helped to establish a new native woodland in a sustainable reforestation programme located in Carrifran (Scotland) that will absorb emissions as it grows to maturity.

The new carbon neutral policy is also being extended to customers, with saplings dedicated to registered users, whose output exceeds 100,000 pages on their Ricoh devices.

Commenting on the initiative and sapling dedication programme, Richard de Lay, head of marketing at Ricoh said: "Ricoh is committed to exceeding the basic guidelines for environmental management, a policy that is proving to offer us a key competitive edge.

We firmly believe that every organisation should be actively monitoring and managing the impact that it has on the environment.

We recognise that the control of carbon dioxide emissions is a key issue across all industries and we have extended our existing environmental initiatives to ensure that emissions are minimised in the future." To achieve its carbon neutral status, Ricoh's Feltham headquarters had its office environment, daily activities and business travel activity assessed by Future Forests and its science partners, The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), to calculate its carbon dioxide emissions.

New environmental programmes, including a new low-emission lighting system and the centralisation of the company's car fleet policy should further reduce emission levels at the next annual audit said the company.

Elsewhere, the company said its environmental focus is going from strength to strength, with the new green centre proving a success with dealers and customers alike.

The centre was established to create a central site for the safe disposal of used office peripherals such as printers, copiers and multifunctional devices and supplies.

Since June last year the Wellingborough plant has processed and re-used more than 5,000kg of packaging, 500kg of power cables and sent 50kg of glass to schools to be used as art media.

To date the site has taken delivery of over 350 used machines and has extended the initial mono machine refurbishment programme to include colour equipment as well.

"Our peripheral disposal programme has been well received by both partners and customers.

The success that the new centre has had in just six months proves that our decision to proactively help businesses to bring office equipment disposal in line with their other environmental policies was the right one," concluded de Lay.

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