Ricoh 2012 Annual Report Download - page 84

Ricoh Group Sustainability Report 201283
To Grow with Society
● Support activities by employees
Help and learn through volunteering
Ricoh dispatched employees to a severely afflicted area in Rikuzentakata-shi,
Iwate Prefecture, to carry out support activities for five weeks from August
2011. Utilizing their summer vacation leave time, around 90 employees
volunteered to join the program, in which they engaged in removing rubble
and debris and other work. The program provided the participants with a
precious opportunity to witness first hand the actual areas of devastation
and renew their understanding of the necessity for long-term support,
thereby driving expansion of employee volunteer support activities.
Recognizing anew that continued support for reconstruction efforts
in affected areas is still needed and that volunteer work can also benefit
participants in enhancing their social awareness and gaining new
perspectives, Ricoh defined the reconstruction support activity as an
employee program, incorporating it into its social contribution training for
new employees in 2012.
The following is a report on the first program organized under this
framework. In May 2012, a total of 183 new employees were sent to the
tsunami-stricken town, Minamisanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture, where
they helped with fishing operations, specifically, preparing sandbags
to be used as weights for oyster and scallop farming rafts, and also
helped with shipping kelp in cooperation with JEN, an NPO that also was
conducting assistance activities there. Working with local fishermen, the
participants witnessed the actual, ongoing situation involving the difficult
reconstruction process in affected areas and learned about damage that
All Ricoh Group employees express sincere sympathies to all those affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and their loved ones.
Two days after the disaster hit the nation, the Ricoh Group announced that it would provide financial assistance of 300 million yen in total and
immediately stated to support municipalities in the affected region and Japan Platform, an NPO that was conducting relief activities there, while
swiftly donating relief goods to the regions. Following these donations, we have continued various support activities to fulfill the needs and address
the troubles resulting from the disaster, drawing on the Group’s well-established customer network, products and services and know-how of
social contribution activities, in the hopes that the people in the disaster-hit regions can restore their lives to normalcy at the earliest possible time.
Consequently, the Group’s support was highly recognized and awarded the His Imperial Highness Prince Tomohito of Mikasa Award of International
Association for Universal Design 2012.
Support Activities for People and Areas Affected by the Great
East Japan Earthquake
Customer network
Image system
products
Values that Ricoh is
able to provide
Challenges and needs in
the disaster-hit regions Major support activities
Affected people
Local governments/municipalities
■ A wide range of support activities from the “sphere of business-operation-oriented support” to the “sphere of social contribution”
Ricoh Group
CSR Charter,
“Harmony with Society”
Wishing to create more
employment
opportunities for those
who lost their jobs
Infrastructure is poor for
business operations
Important information
does not reach
some people in the
affected regions
Opinions of the young
generation shall be
reflected in community
rebuilding plans
Important application
procedures are
not smooth
Notices from
municipalities have not
been delivered
Wishing to increase
learning
opportunities
for children So much work to
clean up debris
Mental care
for children
Wishing to recover
important photos that
have been lost
Essential data including
family registers have
been lost
Business-operation-
oriented support
Sphere of social
contribution
Tohoku Re-use Center Kitakata
Save the Memory Project
Community Mobile Data
Printing Service
Support activities by employees
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for new employee recruits
Student Reconstruction Conference
Ricoh Science Caravan
Participation in IPPO IPPO NIPPON
Project hosted by the Japan
Association of Corporate Executives
was sustained immediately after the disaster occurred as well as about
current and future challenges facing local residents and organizations
working to rebuild community life.
In the following week, the trainees participated in a Value-Creating
CSR Workshop, where they engaged in group discussions to propose
problem-solving business plans and ideas, focusing on products and
services, for facilitating reconstruction in affected areas. Based on the
insights obtained through their volunteer work, the participants explored
the nature and causes of the challenges confronting many afflicted areas
and possible solutions the corporation could provide, before each group
made a presentation on the results of the discussions.
This training program was beneficial for the new employees in
developing their social awareness. While extending help to victims in
affected areas, they learned a host of lessons, including the significance
of corporations conducting social activities, the importance of rebuilding
people’s lives, not only physical
structures in achieving real community
reconstruction, the effect of visiting the
actual scenes of devastation and the
potential of business to solve various social
issues. We will continue to support these
employee volunteer activities, focusing on
new employee training.