Environment - Asia Pacific

Australia

Earthkeepers – Ricoh Australia is involved in various environmental education programs, supporting primary schools and high schools. A key initiative is Earthkeepers™, an earth education program that helps students understand ecological concepts, develop environmental perceptions and take action to lessen their impact on and increase their contact with the natural world. Since 2003, Ricoh has assisted local schools and worked closely with community groups to expand Earthkeepers™ in Australia. Ricoh’s sponsorship has enabled over 400 students to undertake the program. Our involvement is not merely a financial one, Ricoh staff are actively involved in the running of the program enabling them to see the results first hand, providing them with a sense of purpose and also reconnecting them with the environment.

Hong Kong

CO2 Offset Program – Print with us and we will plant a tree for you.     That is what Ricoh Hong Kong has been telling their customers since Dec 2008, when they sent out their first batch of email invites to over 400 customers to join in their CO2 Offset program.   Under this program, Ricoh Hong Kong promises to plant a tree for every 100,000 prints the customer makes with our Ricoh products, be it copiers, printers or fax machines. Once the customer says yes to participation, Ricoh Hong Kong will start monitoring their TDV for a year from Jan to Dec 2009. The trees will then be planted in the name of the respective participating companies and a specific day will be dedicated to the actual tree planting itself in 2010. It will be entirely cost-free to the customers.   As of May 2009, 41 companies have responded and more are expected to jump on the green wagon as RHK moves forward with more publicity for the program.

India

Collaboration with NGO – Ricoh India’s first venture into green activities went much more beyond just planting trees. The 3 day event made up of 270 volunteers across 3 cities saw RID staff distributing food and clothes, taking part in a blood donation camp, singing and playing games with the many orphans and elderly at the Helpage shelters.   Helpage is an international NGO primarily helping old people, though they do run several orphanages as well.   In Mumbai, they planted saplings of fruit bearing trees such as papaya, banana and coconut. The orphans helped by carrying big cards of fruits to lead RID staff to the proper planting spots. New Delhi volunteers were waist deep in mud, digging and mixing manure before finally laying in the saplings and watering them.

Malaysia

Donation of Toner Cartridge Benches – Waiting for a train can be tiring for commuters. This is why Ricoh Malaysia has donated 2 green benches made from recycled toner cartridges at the Medan Tunku Monorail station in Kuala Lumpur on 5 Jun 2009, in conjunction with World Environment Day. Details about the benches and how they were constructed are placed next to the benches in hope that they will raise awareness about recycling among the commuters and encourage them to practice a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

New Zealand

Ricoh Power Cycle - This is the 2nd year of Ricoh Power Cycle organized by Ricoh New Zealand in conjunction with World Environment Day. Ricoh New Zealand’s Wellington branch hosted an event with two new improved Electro Cycles that had been built especially for the occasion with bigger electricity generating capabilities than last year which enabled an MPC 2550 copier to run off the power generated. The concept was the same as last year where the pedalling creates electricity.   Throughout the day interested people came in to pedal including the Mayor of Wellington, rugby players from the provincial team, MA clients, a former mayor and politian, a TV celebrity, local university students, suppliers and curious passersby.   The Power Cycle also extended to the Dunedin branch which had last year's exercycle and ran a TV screen from the power generated. They make the TV screen the focal point of the event and played a video to share Ricoh’s environmental initiatives for all visitors that day.

  

Philippines

Environmental Painting Competition - In this 3-day event from 15th to 17th July 2008, Ricoh Philippines tied up with Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, a non-profit organization for persons with disabilities and sponsored a painting competition and photo display at one of the most prominent malls in the country. Participants produced stunning works based on the theme of “A Healthy Environment Against Global Warming” and Ricoh was honoured to receive the first 2 winning exhibits as tokens of appreciation. The company hopes that the competition would not only generate more awareness about the environment but also support for persons with special needs.

Singapore

Tee for Trees - This golf-and-tree-planting event is the first of its kind in the region. Ricoh Singapore Pte Ltd, together with Ricoh Asia Pacific tied up its annual tree planting event with the Barclays Singapore Open, where Ricoh was the official Office Solutions Provider. Golfers' scores directly translated into the total number of trees planted at 1 tree for every birdie, 5 trees for an eagle and 20 trees for an albatross and hole-in-one during the final day.   Over 260 Ricoh staff and families turned up on the 22nd November 2008 at Mt Imbiah, Sentosa and planted 200 trees in all.    The species of saplings planted that day are known as dipterocarp and are actually part of a project by Sentosa to reintroduce the native species back to the island. Ricoh hopes that our efforts will contribute to the goal of bringing back the forest to what it once was.

Taiwan

Trees at School Project - The idea of trees for schools came about interestingly, when a typhoon destroyed most of the trees in an elementary school in 2007.       Ricoh Taiwan stepped in with tree donations and implemented a tree plantation project in the school. In Dec 2008, they extended the tree planting cause to a public high school instead. Around 20 students joined in with RTW representatives to get the first tree into the soil.

 

Thailand

Environmental Funding Program  – With the belief that it is important to start young when it comes to environmental conservation, Ricoh Thailand has kicked off an Environmental Funding project with 7 customer schools in Jun 2009, in conjunction with World Environment Day. Ricoh Thailand provided theme and scope for students to come up with green projects with some help from their teachers. They also in turn, shares Ricoh experience and environmental knowledge with them throughout the project process.   The students have not let them down and came up with innovative and practical project ideas, such as studying micro-organisms to clean and treat water in a channel near their school, as well as creating handicrafts from recycled paper to be exhibited to the public.   At the end of 2009, Ricoh Thailand will reward the students by presenting prizes to the best environmental project by the winning school.

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