Ricoh New Zealand’s parent company, Ricoh Group, has been selected as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.
“Worldwide, the Ricoh Group has long held sustainability as integral to its business approach, and this has helped us maintain market leadership,” says Ricoh New Zealand Managing Director Mike Pollok.
Mr Pollok says it is a great honour to be the only brand, of the top three New Zealand copier/print distributors, to be named in the Global 100.
“Between 2007 and 2008 the extremely rigorous selection process resulted in more than a third of the Global 100 corporations being dropped off the list. Ricoh Global has made the list four years in a row,” says Mr Pollok.
“The three principles - People, Planet and Profits – working in balance, forms Ricoh’s core philosophy. We endeavour to look after the societies in which we operate and the planet on which we live, growing the business as we deliver solutions for our customers.”
Announced at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the title is awarded to companies that display, better than most of their industry peers, the ability to identify and effectively manage environmental, social and governance factors that impact opportunity and risk in their business.
Ricoh New Zealand is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Group, that markets and services Ricoh products in New Zealand.
Started in 2005 by Corporate Knights Inc. of Canada, the top 100 corporations in the world are selected from thousands of large corporations in all business sectors based on research and analysis of data provided by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc. in USA.
Ricoh New Zealand’s sustainability initiatives:
Ricoh New Zealand actively promotes sustainability with its staff, suppliers and customers. Ricoh New Zealand implements environmental and sustainability initiatives through its branches nationwide, and is currently producing its 2008 Sustainability Report, to the Global Reporting Initiative standard (GRI G3).
As part of its customer service, Ricoh New Zealand provides free collection for used toner cartridges and used machines. Ricoh machines are either remanufactured for reuse or recycled. Recycling is carried out locally in New Zealand. Ricoh products are specifically designed to enable recycling – 87% of Ricoh products are fully recyclable.
Ricoh products are Energy Star compliant, and Ricoh New Zealand was the first in the local industry to be certified under ISO 14001, as well the first in the industry to have its products accredited with the Environmental Choice tick. Ricoh New Zealand is also privileged to be part of a group that is currently working with the Ministry for the Environment to develop a product stewardship scheme for the IT industry in New Zealand.
And Ricoh is not the only company leading the way when it comes to sustainability.
An estimated 30 million people participated in Earth Hour from 8.00pm – 9.00pm on Saturday 29 March – and Auckland’s Langham Hotel showed business could get in behind the cause without losing face or money. Earth Hour is a global annual event initiated by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) to raise awareness of climate change and The Langham Auckland celebrated in the presence of several hundred people and with over two thousand candles.
As the clock struck 8pm (the official time Earth Hour commenced) over three thousand lights went out throughout the hotel darkening the exterior, lobby, restaurants, bar and bathrooms.
The Langham also encouraged all guests to turn off their private in-room lights and other non-essential electrical appliances. An estimated 90% chose to do this.
During the hour, The Langham served complimentary carbon-zero New Zealand wine and canapés made from locally produced sustainable ingredients as an estimated 350 guests enjoyed the ambience of candlelight.
The Langham’s hotel manager Vincent Macquet said: “It was fantastic to see the thousands of candles glowing throughout the hotel and great to see so many enthusiastic people come out to enjoy the event.
“We have a long way to go but it’s important to us that we play our part in raising awareness of the need to protect our environment. We operate in New Zealand’s ‘pure’ tourism industry and are New Zealand’s only Green Globe certified hotel so anything we can do to get people thinking about tomorrow is important.” he said.
The candles used by The Langham were 100% natural, non-carcinogenic, paraffin (petroleum) and chemical free, non-toxic, bio-degradable, and New Zealand made.
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