Green IT: Leadership in Energy Management

Most of America, and perhaps the world, view Ricoh as a provider of office equipment and thus, are startled when they learn of Ricoh's deep commitment to climate change. To many Americans, any manufacturer of copiers must be the antithesis of eco-friendly, because to most American's printing is not eco-friendly. This couldn't be farther than the truth when in comes to Ricoh. Our corporate commitment to the environment began no less that thirty years ago, and has only strengthened over time. Ricoh has won many awards for its deep commitment to the environment, see below:I have two reasons for speaking out. First, Ricoh is an extremely green company, and one that should share its wisdom on CO2 reduction with its customers. The economic, environmental and climate costs of our current energy systems and use patterns are condemning our children to a world with serious constraints unless significant changes are started now. The scale of the global threat creates a fertile ground for innovation and meaningful action. There is great potential to improve our situation, but first we must engage the American populace with meaningful, transformational information that measures energy use and provides individualized use information that empowers personal change Such a change must include both a robust, public investment in cost-effective innovative energy technologies as well as national policy reforms to deploy technologies on a large scale. A recent report by Ernst and Young indicates that large companies are moving forward despite uncertainty.

Most plan on investing.5-5% of top line revenue into energy initiatives. The report, surveys 300 global executives, in companies larger than US$1b annually, and spanning 16 countries and 18 industry sectors.

Second, there is a vast yet untapped potential to spread innovation from the IT and data management sectors into the energy sector. Most of the technologies that underlie the current energy system were invented over sixty years ago and are understandably brittle, costly and incompatible with modern information management best practice.

I believe that new technologiescan be game changers that are worthy of research and investment. Ricoh Innovations is actively supporting Ricoh's worldwide efforts to green the planet and lower CO² levels.