EFQM Case Studies

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EFQM is a global non-for-profit membership foundation based in Brussels, Belgium. With more than

500 members covering more than 55 countries and 50 industries, we provide a unique platform for

organisations to learn from each other and improve performance. EFQM is the custodian of the

EFQM Excellence Model, a business model which is helping over 30 000 organisations around the

globe to strive for Sustainable Excellence.

EFQM Members share a common goal: the pursuit of excellence. The EFQM Excellence Model

provides a common framework and language that facilitates the effective sharing of information

between organisations; transcending sectorial, cultural and maturity barriers.

As part of this network you are able to engage with like-minded individuals and share experience on

the development of innovative solutions that can help your organisation address some of its most

important challenges.

In line with our promise, to “Share What Works”, EFQM is uniquely place to identify good practices

that have been adopted by our members. The EFQM Recognition Schemes, which involve

independent assessors visiting applicants, help us to identify, verify and share these practices within

the EFQM Members. In 2010, we launched the Good Practice Competition to enable any

organisation, regardless of whether they are a member of EFQM or one of our Partner

Organisations, to share an approach that works for them.

The applicants are asked to upload a short video explaining their approach. A jury of experts in the

field then agree a short-list of finalists. The final judging process is a combination of a public vote,

via the web portal, a vote by attendees at the EFQM Learning Edge, after the finalists have

presented their practice in more detail and the Jury.

The theme of the competition changes each year in line with the focus of the EFQM Forum; an

annual event for business leaders and the excellence community to share ideas, experiences and

knowledge.

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Sustainability is a hot topic. There’s no debate on that point. However, it’s one of the few things

when it comes to sustainability that is not up for debate, from what we mean by sustainability to

what we need to do to be sustainable.

The objective of the EFQM Sustainability Good Practice Competition was to identify a number of

practical examples of approaches that could be shared and would encourage and inspire others. We

received a total of 24 applications from 12 countries; from Europe, the Middle East and India. The

standard of the applications was very high but our jury of experts in the field of CSR narrowed them

down to 5 finalists.

Ricoh’s Sustainability Optimisation Programme won the competition. As well as being popular with

the voting public, the Jury felt that the approach excelled in a number of key areas:

The extent to which the approach was integrated within the core business strategy of Ricoh

The exclusive use of internal expertise and knowledge in developing and supporting the

programme

The financial and environmental benefits achieved, both for Ricoh and their customers

Finally, the Jury felt that the concept was adaptable and could inspire numerous organisations in

other industries and sectors.

In this Case Study, we will explore the approach taken by Ricoh in more detail; how it was developed

and implemented as part of Ricoh’s Sustainability Strategy.

EFQM Case Studies

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The Ricoh company was founded in 1936 in Japan making photographic paper and cameras. Later

the company expanded to manufacturing several types of office devices, and exporting overseas.

These days it’s a global technology leader employing 108,500 worldwide. Production of copiers and

MFPs, Ricoh main products, is built upon the technologies the company has developed over many

years in various fields such as electrophotography, imaging, chemistry, optics, networking and

software. Integrating new technologies into

existing resources, Ricoh will continue to

innovate.

Ricoh's sales and support network reaches into

every corner of the world. The Ricoh Group has

sales and support, production, and R&D

operations worldwide under five regional

headquarters in Japan, the Americas, Europe,

Asia-Pacific, and China. Ricoh serves customers

directly in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Customers in other locations are supported by our authorized distributors and dealers.

Whilst Ricoh’s product lifecycle is complex, and described in further detail later in this document, we

have structured this case study around the simplified process shown below. Ricoh has developed

strategies to understand, manage and minimise the environmental impact in each of these phases.

Ricoh Europe is primarily responsible for developing and implementing strategies in the “In-Use” and

“Collect, Recycle & Reuse” phases.

The Sustainability Optimisation Programme, the focus of this case study, was developed to minimise

the environmental impact during the “In-Use” phase.

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Ricoh has a long establish record for sustainability. They have been listed in Global 100 Most

Sustainable Corporations in the world for 7 years in a row and the FTSE4Good Sustainability Index

for 8 consecutive years.

Ricoh is determined to keep up its efforts to realize its target of reducing its environment impact to

one-eighth of the fiscal year 2000 levels by 2050 in absolute terms. The company’s philosophy is

that it is important to generate profits and remain a going concern so that it could continue to

contribute to reducing environmental impact and to help realize a sustainable society.

The Ricoh Group has analysed a variety of data, collected from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) reports and a number of other sources, and has modelled a number of scenarios. By

2050, it is predicted the world will have 9 billion people and, if current trends continue, the

environmental impact would exceed the Earth’s capability for recovery, posing a grave threat to

society.

Ricoh has envisioned two alternative future scenarios, both of which involved environmental

impacts at a “tolerable level” for the Earth. In the first scenario, the world continued to place an

emphasis on economic growth,

eventually leading to a drop in

population and thus economic activity

starting in 2030, thereby reducing the

environmental impact to a tolerable

level. This was called the “distructive

scenario”. The second scenario, the

“soft-landing scenario,” involved

aggressive actions taken by the entire

society to reduce environmental

impact. Ricoh called this the “Year

2050 Long-Term Environmental

Vision”. The company committed to

reducing its own environmental impact according to this vision to one-eighth of 2000 levels by 2050

in terms of absolute values.

To realise this vision Ricoh has set clearly articulated targets in three key areas; energy conservation

and global warming prevention, resource conservation and recycling, and pollution prevention, using

2020 and 2050 as the standard years. As the major targets, we have chosen "CO2 emissions

reduction throughout the product lifecycle", "reduction of new input of resources with prospects of

resource depletion" and "management and reduction of chemical substances to minimize

environmental risks." Every three years we fine-tune our environmental action plans to achieve the

goals. Ricoh plans to reduce the total lifecycle CO2 emissions by the Ricoh Group (including emissions

of the “five gasses” converted into CO2) by 30%* by 2020 and by 87.5% by 2050 from the fiscal 2000

level.

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In fact, Ricoh has committed itself to long-term targets at the time when there was still discussion on

whether growing CO2 in the atmosphere led to global warming. So there was an opinion that Ricoh

would regret making investments in environmental initiatives if it turned out that there was no

connection between the two. However, Ricoh analysis made it clear that environment initiatives

were economically viable and led to improvement of profitability and sustainability of the company.

Therefore Ricoh would not regret investing in environmental initiatives.

Ricoh Targets 2020 2050

Energy Conservation 30% Reduction 87.5% Reduction

Resource Conservation 25% Reduction 87.5% Reduction

Pollution Prevention 30% Reduction 87.5% Reduction

Ricoh’s environmental management philosophy is that the company should pursue not only

environmental conservation but also economic efficiency. In order sustain environmental activity at

a high level, it should not be merely voluntary activity, but should also generate profit. AT the time

of development, this approach was unique as many companies tended to consider environmental

issues as more of a voluntary activity or an obligation that corporations had to address, regardless of

profitability. The premise of Ricoh’s philosophy was that firstly, the environmental burden caused

by all social and economic activities should be kept at a level within the allowable capacity of the

Earth’s environment. Secondly, social systems, life style, and corporate activities should be

structured so that environment and economy were compatible.

The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry accounts for approximately

2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a figure equivalent to aviation, according to a recent

estimate by Gartner.

Gartner recommends IT

organisations develop a strategy to

address the current negative

effects of using ICT. The growth in

power requirements and levels of

waste that it produces renders the

current state unsustainable.

Although the contribution of

printers and copiers in this study

appears small, this is based on

energy consumption in use. When paper production, consumption and recycling are factored in, the

contribution is more significant.

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To reduce the environmental impact throughout the entire product lifecycle, Ricoh had to identify

the degree of impact at each stage, from business process to transportation, by all involved parties;

the Ricoh Group, suppliers, customers and recycling companies. Using their Sustainable

Environmental Management Information System, which covers all of these stages, they identified

the environmental impact of a product to further enhance environmental technology and maximise

reuse and recycling of their products.

Through this analysis, it became

apparent that there was significant

burden in the upstream where

product parts were produced by

Ricoh’s supplier vendors, and in the

downstream where Ricoh’s

customers were using products. This

accounts for 27% of the total

environmental impact. However, the

largest contribution, 62% of the total

impact, comes in the “In-Use” phase.

Ricoh’s resource recirculation philosophy is based on the Comet Circle principle where each circle in

the diagram indicates partners such as material suppliers, sales companies, manufacturers,

maintenance companies, and recycling companies. One route represented the arteries of the

system, where resources taken from the natural environment were processed into products that

were delivered to customers; the other route represented veins of the system, where the end-of-life

products were collected and reused or partly recycled and the remaining waste was disposed of in

landfills. When first presented to the Board, the executives were so impressed by the concept that

the Comet Circle was registered as a trademark : “The Comet CircleTM”.

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The Comet Circle principle puts priority on inner loop recycling (reuse/recycle activities at a stage

closer to the end-user), promotes a multi-tiered recycling system and establishes economically

rational recycling, through partnerships at every stage and information sharing.

In 1998, the company initiated efforts to collaborate with it suppliers to realise Green Procurement,

purchasing raw materials, parts and products that were manufactured in environmentally

responsible factories or certified with international environmental labels. Ricoh has also introduced

its own paper procurement standards and rules regarding the composition ratio of recycled pulp.

Recyclable design is an essential approach to promoting resource conservation and product

recycling. Ricoh’s first recyclable design policy, based on the Comet Circle, has built up knowledge in

various areas, such as grading of material, strength design considering future reuse as well as the

reduction of packaging materials, reuse of high value-added parts, recycling of high-quality

materials, and improvement in the ease of disassembling and sorting.

After designing copiers and printers, designers carry out recyclable design self-assessments to make

necessary improvements, and in this way, the consideration of designers to recycling has already

become a part of their core design process. As part of this “Design to Recycle” process, Ricoh

developed labels which do not compromise the quality and purity of recycled plastics, even when

parts are dissolved and reused with the labels still on.

The recycling information system has been established. Each unit collected is bar-coded to trace its

status throughout the recycling process. The condition of copiers used by customers are also

recorded in the monitoring database within the system. This system allows efficient production and

quality improvement of recycled products due to its ability to manage on an individual unit basis.

Currently, more than 200,000 units are collected each year, and fully recycled or reused. The

recycling rate of copiers is more than 99.5%.

As part of its efforts to develop alternative materials, Ricoh is working on the development of

components and toners for copiers using biomass resins. Biomass resins have been receiving

increasing attention recently as they are recyclable and contribute less to global warming than their

petroleum-based counterparts. They also reduce the demand for non-renewable petroleum

resources. Ricoh introduced the industry’s first multifunctional digital copier equipped with biomass

components in 2005.

About 80% of conventional toner is petroleum-based resin. Ricoh have developed a new toner with

25% biomass content. One of the additional benefits is that removing biomass toner requires less

energy during the paper recycling process, further reducing CO2 emissions.

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Since the release of its first recycled copier in 1997, Ricoh has expanded its range more actively than

any other company in the industry and now offers a wide variety of recycled machines. In

September 2009, Ricoh released the company’s first recycled digital full-color copier. The average

rate of used parts in the production of the series stands at 80% in weight, and CO2 emissions during

manufacturing have reduced by roughly 93% from the producing a new, original model. The CO2

emissions reduction over the total lifecycle is estimated to be roughly 27% respectively.

Ricoh Europe is responsible for the “In-Use” Phase of the product lifecycle. They have 21 sales

companies throughout the EMEA region, with over 15,000 employees.

Ricoh Europe use the EFQM Excellence Model as a holistic framework to help coordinate the

implementation of their key strategies, measure the impact and drive improvement. These are

deployed through the 3 year Mid-Term Plan (MTP), annual planning process and objectives cascade,

ensuring alignment throughout the group.

The key components of their CSR Strategy and their relationship to the EFQM Excellence Model are

shown below:

The CSR Strategy focuses on using the skills, expertise and knowledge of Ricoh’s people; the

development of the Sustainability Optimisation Programme is one example of this in action.

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In Ricoh’s environmental philosophy, they share the responsibility of reducing the environmental

impact during the “In-use” phase with their customers. Their market research indicates that

sustainability is firmly on the customers’ agenda. Businesses are stepping up in their efforts to make

their operations greener and to make their office locations more energy efficient.

Ricoh Europe developed the Sustainability Optimisation Programme to meet this demand.

Ricoh’s Sustainability Optimisation Programme supports customers in meeting both their

environmental and financial objectives. It is a continuous improvement cycle that enables medium

to large organizations to achieve more sustainable printing in a 5-step approach:

1. Analyse: through an audit Ricoh analyses a customer’s existing document workflows and fleet,

to understand the baseline carbon emissions and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This is the “as-

is” situation.

2. Design: an optimisation plan is designed to reduce carbon emissions and TCO, by technology

optimisation and user behaviour change. Clear targets are set on energy and paper reduction

and related carbon emissions (the “to be” situation).

3. Implement: the plan is implemented; in all devices the most energy efficient settings are

activated, and end-users are trained on sustainable usage of the devices, and conscious usage of

paper, including maximizing double-sided printing and avoiding waste.

4. Govern: after implementation, actual CO2 emissions are continuously being tracked versus set

targets, by remote monitoring tools. Any variances are analysed and acted upon to drive further

reductions in carbon emissions.

5. Neutralise: after all possible measures have been taken to reduce CO2 emissions, a customer can

offset the remaining and unavoidable carbon emissions of his document output through carbon

credits generated by certified clean energy projects in which Ricoh has invested.

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The programme evolved from one customer facing approach, office consulting, which focused on

reducing costs, and one internal approach; the environmental management system. A multi-

disciplinary team, from Marketing, Sales and the Environmental Management Office, developed the

concept. By adding the internal expertise Ricoh had developed in reducing the environmental

impact of their own activities to the existing office consulting service, they created the Sustainability

Optimisation Programme.

“The launch of the Sustainability Optimisation programme is timely, given the increasing pressure on

businesses to lower not only costs, but their environmental impact. The workplace is changing, driven

by powerful trends – new technologies, changing demographics, globalisation and other economic

developments – and Ricoh is committed to helping its customers manage these challenges.

Sustainability Optimisation is just one way we’re helping our customers be more efficient and

sustainable.”

Yuji Koyanagi, Vice President Group Marketing, Ricoh Europe

The Sales Teams were already familiar with the TCO approach; by adding sustainability components,

focusing on reducing energy & paper consumption, Ricoh were able to enhance this offering.

Training for the Sales Team was developed and delivered by the Ricoh Academy in 2009, using the

knowledge and expertise from the Environmental Management Office.

To support the enhanced Sales approach, Ricoh developed a remote monitoring tool that enables

tracking data relating to actual paper consumption and energy use per device, and resulting CO2

emissions. The customer has a real-time access to the information on device fleet performance and

users printing behaviour, enabling them to effectively manage the performance. End-user training

helps further reduce carbon emissions and ensure the targeted benefits are achieved.

In 2010, British Standards Institution (BSI) accredited the Sustainability Optimisation approach,

ensuring the robustness, repeatability and accuracy of the process.

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One of the common misconceptions is that being “environmentally friendly” costs more money.

With the Sustainability Optimisation Programme, Ricoh proves to their customers that by improving

their efficiency, they can reduce costs AND reduce their environmental impact.

Ricoh have developed a number of web-based

tools to help promote awareness of

sustainability issues within the office

environment. The “Green Office” is an

interactive site that shows the typical savings

that can be achieved by improving efficiency in

the office. It explains the issues in simple terms

and offers practical solutions to address them,

such as improving the technology used and by

training people on how to use them more

effectively.

A simple web-based assessment tool is available

for customers to do a quick assessment of their

current office and get an idea of the potential

savings they could make, both in terms of costs

and environmental impact.

How can you advertise in a sustainable way?

Ricoh has commissioned an number of “Zero-

emission” billboards, designed to run

completely on the renewable energy that they

generate. One example of this is featured on

the cover of this case study; the solar powered

billboard in New York’s Times Square. If the

billboard has not generated sufficient energy

through the solar panels and wind turbines, it

turns off.

The approach is seen as key to Ricoh’s overall strategy of moving from the market leader in office

printing devices to a trusted solutions provider. The programme which was developed and piloted in

Europe is now being implemented globally.

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The programme has proved to be very popular with their customers. In the first 2 years of the

programme, almost 3,000 green audits have been completed by Ricoh sales staff. The average cost

reduction achieved for customers was 25%. The average CO2 reduction achieved was 35%.

In addition to the savings generated for customers, the Sustainability Optimisation Programme has

generated around €100 million revenue for Ricoh in the same period. The programme has helped

embed a culture of sustainability throughout Ricoh, something that is reflected both in their

Employee Engagement results and the feedback from their customers. Progress against the overall

sustainability objectives is reported annually in the Sustainability Report, which is available to

download from the website and proactively communicated with key customers.

Ricoh’s Sustainability Optimisiation Programme demonstrates that, with a little creativity and

innovation, you can put sustainability at the heart of your business model.

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EFQM would like to thank the team at Ricoh Europe for their willingness to share their Good

Practice, knowledge and experience.

We would specifically like to thank:

Zhanna Serdyukova, Environmental Sustainability Consultant

Oscar Mellegers, Senior Environmental Sustainability Consultant

Linda Van Der Graaf, Senior Environmental Sustainability Consultant

Olivier Vriesendorp, Marketing Director

Website: www.ricoh-europe.com/reduce2grow

Email: olivier.vriesendorp@ricoh-europe.com

Website: www.efqm.org

Email: info@efqm.org

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EFQM is a membership organisation. We rely on input, ideas and suggestions from you to create a

vibrant community. Without the contributions of our members, the network would not work. These

are some of the ways you can contribute:

We created The EFQM Network for Sustainable Excellence to facilitate a dialogue between our

peers and the wider community. The group is open to anyone with an interest in this area. Over

1800 individuals have already joined our group and shared their experiences. If you’ve got a

question, it’s a great place to start.

Organisations can join the EFQM member community and enjoy some exclusive benefits such as

access to free assessment and improvement tools, participation to events, themed webinars and

good practice visits. To learn more about our member community, feel free to contact us or to join

one of the free introduction meetings at our offices in Brussels.

As a member of EFQM, you will enjoy the following exclusive benefits:

Expert advice and support for your organisation’s journey towards excellence.

Access to the EFQM Knowledge Base is a database containing a number of free to download

assessment, management and improvement tools; as well as Good Practices identified from

the last 3 years of the EFQM Excellence Awards.

Members receive a discount of 20% on EFQM Products & Services, including Training,

Publications and Recognition.

There are themed events and webinars throughout the year, with Good Practices and new

tools being shared and explained by EFQM and member organisations.

For more information, please e-mail info@efqm.org

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Avenue des Olympiades 2 5th Floor B-1140 Brussels – Belgium Tel : +32 2 775 3511 Fax : +32 2 775 3535 Email : info@efqm.org http://www.efqm.org