Ricoh USA announced today that it has won the 2021 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award for continued leadership and superior contributions to ENERGY STAR. This year marks the sixth consecutive year Ricoh has been named an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, and the fourth year in a row with the Sustained Excellence distinction.
The Sustained Excellence award is the highest honor bestowed by the ENERGY STAR program. Winners are part of a distinguished group that has made a long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency. These accolades acknowledge Ricoh's notable work to foster environmental sustainability in its own operations and evangelize sustainability to customers, Ricoh colleagues and the larger business community.
"These past 13 months will be remembered for significant changes, not least of which is the way we actually live our lives," says Donna Venable, executive VP, Human Resources and deputy general manager, Shared Services, Ricoh North America. "Against this backdrop, we have found that during these trying times, it is incredibly important to honor our core values, and among those we consider inviolable are our sustainability commitments. Our work with the EPA serves to ensure our portfolio, our business practices – and those of our customers – drive sustainability for a better future; it is an honor to be recognized for that work."
Ricoh, an ENERGY STAR partner for imaging equipment since its inception, will be honored for numerous initiatives, but chief among them are:
Establishing, educating and training for ENERGY STAR Version 3.0 – Ricoh worked closely with the EPA to establish Version 3.0 of the ENERGY STAR imaging equipment specification, offering insights from manufacturers' and customers' points of view. Ricoh leveraged its deep knowledge of the standards to help customers, partners and dealers better understand how they can meet their requirements and contribute to energy conservation.
Revisions to Version 3.1 – Throughout 2020, Ricoh also continued its dialogue with the EPA to help ensure the V3.1 specification would further the resource conservation initiatives, as well as align with emerging customer expectations and requirements of existing products. Ricoh worked with the EPA ENERGY STAR team by sharing its expertise; one of the company's design principles is "comet circle" which maximizes the utilization of finite resources.
External outreach: customers and beyond – To further help share ENERGY STAR's message, Ricoh expanded its promotion of ENERGY STAR to its dealer network, launched a multi-constituency ENERGY STAR education program, and exceeded its previous public relations and social media reach in support of ENERGY STAR. The company also promoted ENERGY STAR-related efforts virtually, through Climate Week NYC, ENERGY STAR Day and Earth Day to generate sustainability awareness.
Ricoh Eco Excellence Platform – Ricoh's Eco Excellence program recognizes its dealers' commitment to practicing sustainability in their businesses. Ricoh launched its newest Eco Excellence platform this year, promoting the Eco Excellence program to its sales channel partners, third-party analysts, vendors, membership organizations and employees. This content rich platform provides easy access to marketing materials focused on sustainability, encouraging a messaging multiplier effect in awareness and sustainability education.
Commitment to continued progress – Globally, Ricoh has committed to eliminating its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of the RE100 pledge to rely on 30 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Further, Ricoh has joined the EPA SmartWay® Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the EPA and industry to provide a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chain. Ricoh's work will contribute to the Partnership's overall savings of 280 million barrels of oil, $37.5 billion in fuel costs, and 134 million tons of air pollutants. All Ricoh manufacturing and production sites worldwide are ISO 14001 certified for their environmental management system.
"ENERGY STAR award-winning partners are showing the world that delivering real climate solutions makes good business sense and promotes job growth," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "Many of them have been doing it for years, inspiring all of us who are committed to tackling the climate crisis and leading the way to a clean energy economy."
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2021 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR's awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
The Sustained Excellence award is the highest honor bestowed by the ENERGY STAR program. Winners are part of a distinguished group that has made a long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency. These accolades acknowledge Ricoh's notable work to foster environmental sustainability in its own operations and evangelize sustainability to customers, Ricoh colleagues and the larger business community.
"These past 13 months will be remembered for significant changes, not least of which is the way we actually live our lives," says Donna Venable, executive VP, Human Resources and deputy general manager, Shared Services, Ricoh North America. "Against this backdrop, we have found that during these trying times, it is incredibly important to honor our core values, and among those we consider inviolable are our sustainability commitments. Our work with the EPA serves to ensure our portfolio, our business practices – and those of our customers – drive sustainability for a better future; it is an honor to be recognized for that work."
Ricoh, an ENERGY STAR partner for imaging equipment since its inception, will be honored for numerous initiatives, but chief among them are:
Establishing, educating and training for ENERGY STAR Version 3.0 – Ricoh worked closely with the EPA to establish Version 3.0 of the ENERGY STAR imaging equipment specification, offering insights from manufacturers' and customers' points of view. Ricoh leveraged its deep knowledge of the standards to help customers, partners and dealers better understand how they can meet their requirements and contribute to energy conservation.
Revisions to Version 3.1 – Throughout 2020, Ricoh also continued its dialogue with the EPA to help ensure the V3.1 specification would further the resource conservation initiatives, as well as align with emerging customer expectations and requirements of existing products. Ricoh worked with the EPA ENERGY STAR team by sharing its expertise; one of the company's design principles is "comet circle" which maximizes the utilization of finite resources.
External outreach: customers and beyond – To further help share ENERGY STAR's message, Ricoh expanded its promotion of ENERGY STAR to its dealer network, launched a multi-constituency ENERGY STAR education program, and exceeded its previous public relations and social media reach in support of ENERGY STAR. The company also promoted ENERGY STAR-related efforts virtually, through Climate Week NYC, ENERGY STAR Day and Earth Day to generate sustainability awareness.
Ricoh Eco Excellence Platform – Ricoh's Eco Excellence program recognizes its dealers' commitment to practicing sustainability in their businesses. Ricoh launched its newest Eco Excellence platform this year, promoting the Eco Excellence program to its sales channel partners, third-party analysts, vendors, membership organizations and employees. This content rich platform provides easy access to marketing materials focused on sustainability, encouraging a messaging multiplier effect in awareness and sustainability education.
Commitment to continued progress – Globally, Ricoh has committed to eliminating its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of the RE100 pledge to rely on 30 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Further, Ricoh has joined the EPA SmartWay® Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the EPA and industry to provide a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chain. Ricoh's work will contribute to the Partnership's overall savings of 280 million barrels of oil, $37.5 billion in fuel costs, and 134 million tons of air pollutants. All Ricoh manufacturing and production sites worldwide are ISO 14001 certified for their environmental management system.
"ENERGY STAR award-winning partners are showing the world that delivering real climate solutions makes good business sense and promotes job growth," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "Many of them have been doing it for years, inspiring all of us who are committed to tackling the climate crisis and leading the way to a clean energy economy."
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2021 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR's awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.