Ricoh 2006 Annual Report Download - page 14

13 ANNUAL REPORT 2006
Long-term environmental vision and environmental management
Environmental
Our aim: to reduce absolute environmental impact across our entire
business to one-eighth by 2050
Setting targets according to
“back casting method” to
achieve a sustainable society
We must aim to keep environmental impact
within regenerative the capacity of the earth.
Beginning with the Kyoto Protocol that came
into force in 2005, the world has begun to form
a sustainable society. Merely setting global
agreements or meeting laws and regulations
should not be our goal. For our share of the
effort to achieve harmony between the global
environmental and society, the Ricoh Group has
set an ultra long-term environmental goal to
reduce the absolute environmental impact of the
entire business to one-eighth by 2050.
We have adopted the “back casting method.”
For setting targets. Using this method, we first
set our ultimate goal, then set targets that we
need to achieve en route to that goal. We
therefore began by setting an ultra long-term
environmental goal for 2050. Next, we set a
long-term environmental target of reducing
environmental impact by 20% by 2010. Based
on this target, we prepared the 2005 to 2007
environmental action plan, whereby we aim to
reduce environmental impact by 15% by 2007,
on the assumption that business growth will be
at least 8% per year.
Reducing absolute
environmental impact across
the entire business
When a company commits to CO 2 reduction or
resource conservation as an independent activity,
it may achieve the individual target, but end up
with greater environmental impact in other areas
of the business. In order to securely reduce
environmental impact, it is necessary to first
determine the environmental impact of the
entire business, and then determine what activity
is needed for each area of the business to reduce
environmental impact of the business as a whole.
If targets are set by using relative indicators based
on basic units or factor efficiency, the activities
may not necessarily result in global
environmental protection. Therefore, it is
necessary to set an absolute amount of
environmental impact reduction. This is why
the Ricoh Group has used a single unit for
determining various types of environmental
impact to set targets for reducing the absolute
volume of “integrated environmental effect*” of
the business as a whole.
Environmental managemental to
sustain the earth as it was meant to
be while maintaining business
growth
In order to continuously reduce environmental
impact in the long run, it is necessary to
promote environmental management, which
creates environmental value through
environmental preservation, while sustaining
business growth.
The Ricoh Group's environmental efforts are
programmed in multiple steps. Having
completed the environmental awareness and
environmental preservation stages, we are now
at the environmental management stage. In the
environmental awareness stage, we engaged in
such passive activities as addressing external
changes in legislation and competitors' trends,
while in the environmental preservation stage,
we voluntarily engaged in measures to reduce
the environmental impact of businesses and
products with a sense of mission as a global
citizen. In the current environmental
management stage, we are working to achieve
sustainable environmental preservation by
reducing the environmental impact of business
activities and creating economic value at the
same time.
* “Integrated environmental effect” refers to the
sum of environmental impacts from CO2
emission, resource use, chemical substance use,
etc. The Ricoh Group currently uses EPS, an
integration technique developed in Sweden, to
calculate integrated environmental effect.
2000
(FY)
2010 2040 2050 203020202007
Integrated environmental impact
Long-term Environmental Vision and Long-term Environmental Targets
2010 goal 20% reduction
2007 goal 15% reduction
2050 goal 1 / 8
Encouraging al employess
to participate in
environmental activities
Technical
innovation effect
Setting goals using the back-casting method
All asects of
the Earth are
well balanced.
Ideal society
we should
pursue
“Three P's
Balance”
Major direc-
tion and goals
Long-Term
Environmental
Vision
Goals Set For FY2050
Exra-Long-Term
Environmental
Vision
2010 Long-
Term Environ-
mental Goals
Environmental
Action Plan for
Fiscal 2005 and
Thereafter
How to Set Environmental Goals
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90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
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