Ricoh 2012 Annual Report Download - page 66

Ricoh Group Sustainability Report 201265
Sustainable Environmental Management
● Construction of an environmentally-friendly plant
Annual reduction of CO2 emissions by more than 250 tons
The production plant of Ricoh Manufacturing (Thailand) Ltd., which started operations
in September 2009, boasts a number of environmentally friendly designs and facilities in
various parts of the building. Examples of the green equipment installed include natural
lighting and ventilation systems, a highly efficient air-conditioning system utilizing water-
cooling freezers, an insulated roof, heat-reflective glass panels, highly efficient ballast
for HF lamps, and occupancy sensors. Through these efforts, we can achieve an annual
reduction in CO2 emissions of more than 250 tons.
Exterior of the cogeneration system: Liquefied natural gas tank (left) and gas
engine power generator building (right)
Rooftop solar power generation system
Manufacturing area in which natural daylight is used
● Cogeneration system
Reduction of CO2 emissions by 20% across the plant
Ricoh Fukui Plant carried out a fuel switch from kerosene to natural gas and introduced
a gas-engine-type cogeneration system, which has been in operation since July 2005.
Subsidies from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
System were used to introduce the system. The system was launched in November 2004
and led to about a 5,000-ton reduction in CO2 annually, including the amount reduced by
the fuel switch, which translates into a 20% reduction in the Fukui Plant’s total emissions.
Introduction of high-efficient equipment
● Solar power generation system
Using Californian sunshine to reduce costs and
CO2 emissions
Ricoh Electronics Inc. (REI), a manufacturing subsidiary in the U.S., has completed the
installation of a rooftop solar power generation system that will annually supply up to 10%
(about 350,000 kWh) of electricity used by the headquarters facility. Using this system, the
company will be able to reduce its CO2 emissions by 98.1 tons and its electricity cost by at
least 56,000 dollars per year.
REI is located in sunny Southern California, a highly suitable place for the installation of
a solar power generation system. On the rooftop of the headquarters, about 1,000 panels
have so far been installed.
Introduction of natural energy
Energy Conservation and Prevention of Global Warming
Reducing environmental impact from production processes
To minimize the environmental impact of our production processes, we continuously engage in environmental impact reduction efforts,
adopting three major approaches—innovation in manufacturing processes, introduction of natural energy and introduction of high-efficiency equipment.
Innovation in manufacturing processes brings about compact production lines that will not only contribute to energy savings on the production lines
themselves but also to energy savings from ancillary equipment, thus enabling us to significantly reduce energy consumption and production costs.