|  | | | The Ricoh Group promotes sustainable management based on the Comet Circle™ concept. |
Comet Circle™The Comet Circle™ is a graphic representation of a society that recirculates resources. The upper route represents the "arterial system" while the lower one the "venous system." The spheres in the diagram represent the partners that comprise the recycling-based society. Resources taken from the natural environment by materials suppliers shown in the upper right are processed into products, moving from right to left along the upper route, and are finally delivered to users. The economic values of the resources increase in the process and are the highest when the final products are delivered to users. The end-of-life products move from left to right along the lower route. To achieve a sustainable society that recirculates resources, it is necessary to recycle products on the inner loops of the Comet Circle™ and promote recirculation that is highly economic and causes less environmental impact. Also, the partners represented by spheres need to reduce their own environmental impact below the level that the self-recovery capability of the natural environment can deal with.Improving Sustainable ManagementTo promote its defined environmental management, the Ricoh Group is promoting the development of products with less environmental impact, contributions to reducing environmental impact by customers, and the profitability of the recycling business. In the past, the development of a recycling business did not succeed because the social infrastructure was mainly based on the arterial system. The Ricoh Group is making efforts to turn the social infrastructure into one that is based on the arterial as well as venous systems and improve the standards of recyclable designs to make its recycling business profitable on a global scale.Facilitating Environmental Conservation through PartnershipsThe Comet Circle™ represents partnerships as well as the environmental conservation concept of the Ricoh Group. At present, customers decide what to buy and which companies are more valuable to them based on the product's performance, which countries or regions these products were manufactured in, and how they were manufactured. The Ricoh Group supports its suppliers and recycling companies in terms of business improvement, quality improvement, and environmental conservation. We also actively develop and propose new products to contribute to reducing the environmental impact by customers.Expanding PartnershipsTo develop a sustainable society, we need to expand our partnerships. For example, we recycle waste plastic from our products to be reused by ourselves and other industries. In fiscal 2002, we succeeded in manufacturing plastic parts using waste plastic from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which are disposed of by an outside industry. Also, we are starting a new Zero-Waste-to-Landfill campaign based on the idea of returning the natural resources used in business activities to the natural environment after use. This means that a new concept -"from ecosystem to ecosystem"- is added to the Comet Circle™. 
To obtain more country specific environmental information, please go to the environmental website section of your country:
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