Environmental volunteers

TOKYO, January 14, 2015 -- Ricoh today announced that it will open the Ricoh Eco Business Development Center (temporary name) in Gotemba, Shizuoka with the aim of expanding and creating business based on the environment.

As expectations have increased in recent years for corporate responsibility to help bring about a sustainable society, Ricoh has specified what it will strive to achieve in 2020 and beyond: An environmentally friendly company to provide customers with "confident, comfortable, convenient" beyond expectations and to support lifestyle transformation. Ricoh has adopted sustainable environmental management since the late 1990s, including initiatives that simultaneously achieve environmental conservation and generate profit. In order to realize these objectives by 2020, Ricoh continues to work on sustainable environmental management and to contribute to a sustainable society by developing business that is directly related to customers' activities in the energy conservation field. Ricoh is aiming for 100 billion yen in sales in FY2020 in this area.

As a new challenge of Ricoh's sustainable management, the Center will aim to create new business without being restricted by convention through experimental research in environmental technology, as well as the implementation and optimization of reuse and recycling technology. The Center will commence partial operations from summer 2015, targeting full-scale operations by FY2016, which will mark the 80th anniversary of Ricoh's establishment.

Concerning environmental technology, research will initially be conducted in heat storage transit technology by applying chemical heat pumps, waste plastic liquefaction technology, and automated guided vehicle (AGV) technology. Initiatives for renewable energy such as solar power generation and biomass power generation are planned as well. Ricoh will create new business in environment-related fields by building systems to generate, convert and use energy in the Center, by implementing self-sufficient and recycling-oriented models, and utilizing the newly acquired environmental technologies and systems in the future.

For the implementation and optimization of reuse and recycling technology, Ricoh will sequentially integrate the reuse and recycling functions of OA equipment, which are currently spread across twelve locations nationwide, into four locations to achieve optimization. The new Center will serve as a hub, and will take the lead in technological development. Moreover, it will further develop the reuse and recycling technology that has been cultivated and expand applicable products and fields to reinforce the Group's earning power.

In terms of new business areas, Ricoh will focus on the active exchange of human resources under the concept of open innovation - collaborations between industry, academia and government. To this end, Ricoh will support activities that contribute to the local community, such as the active dissemination of its sustainable environmental management, environmental education, and tours to demonstrate our activities.

Ricoh will strive to become an environmentally friendly company by undertaking business activities leveraging its technological strength and customer contact capability.