Ricoh Helps Businesses Track Carbon Footprint of Printing Practices With New @Remote Green Reports

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment and advanced document management solutions and services, today introduced @Remote Green Reports, the latest enhancement to Ricoh's @Remote Product Suite. @Remote Green Reports allow businesses to monitor, assess and report imaging fleet performance and employee printing trends in support of internal sustainability and/or cost reduction goals.

With @Remote Green Reports, users can track month-to-month trends in energy and paper consumption of their Managed Ricoh @Remote Compatible document output devices, allowing them to monitor fleet performance and the possible environmental impact device usage operations have on such areas as CO2 emissions* or conservation of forests**. This tool collects data from Ricoh networked multifunctional products (MFPs) and securely transmits the information to a Ricoh data center. The data is then processed into green reports that are made available to users via a secure, password-protected Web site.

The critical environmental metrics include month-to-month energy consumption comparisons*** of the Ricoh devices and the amount of time each device spends in each power mode — operation, stand-by, energy-saving/low-power and sleep — which varies greatly depending upon usage patterns and office workflow. These metrics allow businesses and IT centers to better manage their fleet in an effort to increase energy savings — for instance, adjusting the timers of devices, identified by @Remote as under-utilized, to go into a low power mode quicker than the factory default. @Remote Green Reports can also monitor, per device, the print output by page, reporting the percentage of jobs that are printed in duplex or combine mode (multiple-images on one page) and report resulting paper savings. The tool calculates and trends approximate CO2 emissions, paper and power consumption, as well as tracks approximate device paper and utility costs, for month-to-month comparison.

@Remote Green Reports can be customized with local data to estimate more accurately what the business saves on paper and device utility costs. Additional graphs and charts aid in tracking environmental performance of the fleet over time.

"@Remote Green Reports are a key enhancement to Ricoh's Total Green Office Solution – our approach to helping customers personalize their document management solutions for the goal of reducing their environmental impact," said Shun Sato, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing Ricoh Americas Corporation. "The ability to manage resources efficiently – balancing environmental responsibility with productivity – is essential to organizations today. With @Remote Green Reports, decisions and policies on energy and paper reduction can be made based on actual usage trends, and not mere speculation."

@Remote Green Reports are an important tool in Ricoh's robust Managed Document Services (MDS) program, which focuses on total cost of ownership, business process improvement, security and compliance, and environmental sustainability. Beyond conducting assessments, implementing solutions and providing on-site and off-site management of fleets, Ricoh MDS uses a change-management approach to help customers change their document output practices across their organization, streamlining processes and cutting costs.

For more information about @Remote and other Ricoh products and solutions, visit www.ricoh-usa.com.  

About Ricoh Americas Corporation

Ricoh Americas Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, N.J., is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., the 74-year-old leading provider of advanced office technology and innovative document imaging products, services and software, with fiscal year 2009 sales in excess of $21 billion.

Ricoh's fully integrated hardware and customizable services and software help businesses share information efficiently and effectively by enabling customers to control the input, management and output of documents.

Ricoh Americas Corporation, directly or through its network of authorized dealers, markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America.

Information about Ricoh's complete range of offerings can be found at www.ricoh-usa.com.

All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

*CO2 emissions: Source: USEPA – Department of Energy

**Forest Consumption: Source: http://www.conservatree.com/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml

***Power Usage/energy consumption comparisons: tracks and trends power usage on a month to month basis ie) Green Reports show how much time a device spends in standby mode vs. energy saver mode vs. in "off" condition.

Ricoh Web Site: www.ricoh-usa.com

SOURCE Ricoh Americas Corporation