TRUMBULL, Conn., April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management, today announced that ARC-Southern California is the winner of its fourth annual, "Green Reprographer of the Year" award. Oce presented the award during the IRgA 2011 Convention and Trade Show, held April 27-28 in Las Vegas, NV.

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"We are proud to congratulate ARC-Southern California as this year's 'Green Reprographer of the Year'," said Patrick Chapuis, President, Wide Format Printing Systems division of Oce North America. "The company has made outstanding strides to implement environmentally sound business practices internally, while assisting its customers to meet their own sustainability goals."

An independent panel of judges, including Denise Gustavson, editor, Wide Format Imaging; Robert Cassidy, editorial director, Building Design + Construction and Ed Avis, principal of Ed Avis Associates, selected ARC-Southern California as the winner based on its innovative and comprehensive approach to promoting sustainability company-wide.

Each year, the judges select the winner from a pool of qualified entrants who submit online applications via Oce's website. Applicants outline their achievements in the area of green business practices and highlight how these efforts have assisted their customers to meet their own sustainability goals.

According to Robert Cassidy, "I was impressed with this year's entries; they were all worthy of recognition. ARC-Southern California stood out for many reasons, most of all its ability to spread recycling efforts to clients and the company's clever re-routing of its delivery system, which resulted in dramatic fuel consumption savings."

Putting Green Within Reach for Clients

ARC-Southern California offers a number of products and services designed to help reduce its own overall carbon footprint, as well as its clients. The reprographer prints 100% of its construction documents – including specs – on recycled media; saving over 750 trees per month. Clients are also encouraged to utilize the company's other eco-friendly products, such as 100% recycled small format media, binders, mounting substrates and banner material.

ARC-Southern California also established an innovative free recycling program for clients. Currently over 400 clients participate in the program, which reclaimed more than 60 tons of paper over the last year. The program provides recycling bins and pick-up services to clients at no cost. All of the proceeds from the collection of the recycled paper are donated to the Arbor Foundation and earmarked for reforestation.

The company also established several programs geared to helping clients reduce their impact on the environment. The On-Site Services and Easy Print programs encourage clients to place printing equipment in their offices and the iShipdocs program allows ARC-Southern California to send jobs electronically to the print shop that is closest to the final destination point, saving on fuel costs.  Finally, Electronic Work Orders, Planwell and Bidcaster enable clients to place, print, plan and bid for jobs online.

Raising the "Green" Flag Internally

To support environmental conservation internally, ARC-Southern California's green committee made a number of improvements at its 15 locations, including updating and/or upgrading to eco-conscious lighting and thermostat controllers; implementing a recycling program – the proceeds of which fund additional facility improvements; eliminating the use of plastic bags in favor of biodegradable product wrapping; and reconfiguring the company's delivery route system, resulting in the reduction of annual fuel consumption by 30%.

The company has also found unique ways to motivate its employees to make sustainable choices. Its Green Guard team consists of volunteer employee and family members that participate in monthly community hosted environmental projects including habitat restoration, native plant reforestation and waste recovery; the team participated in over 15 events last year. Green Guard members are encouraged to continue participating in events thanks to vendor sponsored awards.

"ARC-Southern California has an impressive green program that includes the basics, such as the use of 100% recycled paper and the development of a recycling program for clients," said Ed Avis. "And some truly innovative green ideas, such as the elimination of plastic product bags and the establishment of a Green Guard team that sponsors environmental events for employees."

Over 18% of the reprographer's employees take part in a ride-sharing program, which gives out incentives for carpooling, taking public transportation, and walking or biking to work. Additionally, each month an employee is given the Green Guardian of the Month award – this includes recognition at each company location and a note of thanks from the divisional vice president for the employee's outstanding efforts in contributing to the company's overall green efforts.

Oce is proud to support reprographers that are continually striving to reduce their impact on the environment by providing eco-friendly, sustainable equipment capable of producing the highest quality prints. For more information about how Oce is helping reprographers meet their sustainability goals visit, www.oce.com/sustainability.

About ARC

ARC-Southern California (formerly OCB Reprographics) is wholly owned by ARC. ARC (American Reprographics Company) is the leading reprographics company in the United States providing business-to-business document management technology and services to the architectural, engineering and construction, or AEC industries. The Company also provides document management services to companies in non-AEC industries, such as technology, financial services, retail, entertainment, and food and hospitality. ARC provides its services through its suite of reprographics technology products, a network of hundreds of reprographics service centers around the world, and on-site at more than 5,500 customer locations. The Company's service centers are digitally connected as a cohesive network, allowing the provision of services both locally and nationally to more than 120,000 active customers.

About Oce

Oce is one of the leading providers of document management and printing for professionals. The Oce offering includes office printing and copying systems, high speed digital production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and color display graphics. Oce is also a foremost supplier of document management outsourcing. Many of the Fortune Global 500 companies and leading commercial printers are Oce customers. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands, Oce is active in over 100 countries and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide. Total revenues in financial 2010 amounted to approximately euro 2.7 billion. Oce is listed on Euronext in Amsterdam. For more information visit www.oce.com.

Oce North America is headquartered in Trumbull, CT, with additional business units in Chicago, IL and Boca Raton, FL.  North America represents 34% of Oce's worldwide revenues, and employment is over 8,000.  For more information about Oce North America, visit www.oceusa.com.  Outside the U.S., consult http://global.oce.com.

Oce and Canon: Stronger together

In 2010 Oce joined the Canon Group of companies with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to create the global leader in the printing industry. Canon develops, manufactures and markets a growing line-up of copying machines, printers, cameras, optical and other products that meet a diverse range of customer needs. The Canon Group comprises over 197,000 people worldwide. Global net sales in 2010 were more than US $45 billion. For more information visit www.canon.com.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked fourth overall in the U.S. in 2010+, with global revenues of more than US $45 billion and is listed as number five in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2011 list.  Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.

+Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Oce