Environmental Conservation Activities Environmental Impact Analysis The Ricoh Group, using the Comet Circle concept1, identifies the overall environmental impact of its products and business activities to bring about more effective impact reductions. For this purpose, the Ricoh Group constructed an Eco Balance-based environmental impact information system2 that makes use of both LCA and Eco Balance methods. The Ricoh Group adopted both methods following a long-term research on LCA, which indicated that LCA was necessary in conjunction with Eco Balance if the Group was to respond to a variety of requests for clarification on the environmental impact of its products and business activities. (1) Eco Balance of Overall Business Activities Procurement of Materials and Parts Manufacturing Resources and energy Resources and energy Logistics and Marketing Resources and energy Production of raw materials Raw materials Manufacturing of materials Manufacturing of products Manufacturing of parts Marketing Products Materials Parts 1. See pages 9–10. 2. See pages 19–20. Landfill Exhaust gas waste • CO2 • NOX • SOX... Eco Balance* Evaluation (2) Integrated Analysis of Environmental Influence of Business Activities (%) 100 Upstream Chemical substances contained in products 28.17 8.96 Exhaust gas • CO2 • NOX • SOX... Wastewater • BOD • COD... NonproDomestic duction Overseas Exhaust gas • CO2 • NOX • SOX... TransporSales tation 10 1 0.01 0.001 (%) Environmental Impact Item Electric Power (kWh) Water usage Resource input Emission into air Water discharge 7,730 (MJ) 0.13 1.06 0.18 0.37 Manufacturing 37.9 Transportation 0 167 381 — 3.65 0 Industrial water ( ) — 0 0 Underground water ( ) — 0 0 Principal resource (kg) — PRTR substances (g) — 58.4 0 Volatile organic substances (g) — 0 0 Transportation Metal Plastic and rubber Glass Others 116 38.8 2.2 45.1 0 Preliminary Process Manufacturing CO2 (kg-C) Power consumption/others 250 6.03/3.20 0/7.0 SOX (g) Power consumption/others 3,460 10.2/13.3 0/31.5 NOX (g) Power consumption/others Environmental Impact Item Waste Preliminary Process 1.05 Tap water ( ) Fossil fuel (MJ) * See page 19. 21 Wastewater • BOD • COD... 0.1 Input The Ricoh Group used an integrated analysis method [See (2) in the figure on the right] to determine which of its business activities had the most environmental impact. It was discovered that upstream activities and chemical substances contained in products had the highest values. This means that the manufacturing of materials and parts and the chemical substances contained in products had the most effect on the environment. Therefore, the Ricoh Group, according to its fiscal 2001 medium-term action plan, will strive to (1) collect its products for the recycling of materials and parts and (2) reduce chemical substances, especially lead, that have the most effect on the environment. Output 1 711 12.9/8.35 0/79.2 PRTR substances (g) — 0 0 Volatile organic substances (g) — 0 0 Amount ( ) — 3.65 0 BOD (g) 6,560 0.255 or less 0 COD (g) 7,570 0.236 or less 0 PRTR substances — 0.00439 0 Recycled (kg) — 0.697 14.9 Incineration (kg) — 0.0294 0.845 Landfill (kg) — 0.0008 0 Procurement Production Logistics Marketing Use Recycling * Explanations begin on the next page. Environmental Conservation Activities Social Activities Economic Performance Environmental Accounting LCA1 Use and Maintenance Collection and Recycling Resources and energy Resources and energy Smelting Smelted metals Oil Disassembly and sorting Crushing Solid-fuel processing Products Recovered products Recovered parts Recovered materials Thermal energy collection Recovery of parts Recovery of materials Exhaust gas • CO2 • NOX • SOX... Emissions • Ozone • Dust • Noise... Manufacturing Power 2.00 Paper Maintenance of maintenance parts 57.86 0.16 0.04 Wastewater • BOD • COD... Disposal and recycling 0.007 LCA Information of the imagio MF 7070 (Type III Environmental Impact Disclosure)* Use and Maintenance Recycling and Disposal 3,494 13.7 2,569 — 0 0 0 0 2,219 0 12,200 86.7 Copy paper Toner Photosensitive materials Developer Maintenance materials Others 3.63 10.0 Ricoh established an LCA research team in 1994 to conduct practical research on LCA and has released a variety of case study reports. With more case studies being conducted, such issues as the importance of explaining the usage of LCA and the difficulties of collecting data and setting research conditions are being clarified. ● Digital duplicator LCA (Tohoku Ricoh)* Making use of the knowledge obtained by the LCA research team, manufacturing subsidiaries are also conducting LCA. * (Japanese only) http://www.ricoh.co.jp/tohoku/lca/ datasheet.html CO2 emissions (kg) 9,500 1,374 0 73.6 0 Use and Maintenance 291/45.4 Recycling and Disposal 1.11/0 412/3.63 1.23/0 568/20.6 1.78/0 1,374 0 73.6 0 2,219 0 0.31 0 — 0 0 0 11.2 177.4 37.9 LCA Research Priport JP5800 Life Cycle Environmental Impact 0 27.9 27.4 0.864 1. LCA is a means of quantitatively determining the level of environmental impact generated throughout a product’s life cycle, from resource procurement to manufacturing, transportation, usage, maintenance, recovery, recycling, and disposal. Even a partially determined level of impact can be used. 2. See page 62. 8.60 8,936.7 9,000 92% 8,500 600 400 571.4 Transportation of parts 2% 1% Manufacturing of parts 2% Manufacturing of raw materials 4% Ink Electric power 47% Master 200 0 Paper Other 0.3% 51% 23.5 31.3 1.7 Recycling and Disposal Recovery of products Solid fuel Reducers in shaft furnaces, etc. Use and Maintenance After-sales service Transportation Products Cracked oil Recycled chemical materials Manufacturing Collection and sorting Preliminary Process Use (Customers) LCA is used to quantitatively identify the environmental impact made by a product throughout its life cycle and the influences a change in design or manufacturing process would have. More effective environmental conservation activities will be the result of such assessment. LCA information on copiers was disclosed on Ricoh’s Web site2 in fiscal 2000. Ricoh participates in government committees and other gatherings to help improve the LCA method and conduct research with scholars and company representatives. * See page 62 and http://www.ricoh.co.jp/ecology/e-/type3/index_e.html 22