Ricoh meets Greenbang for beer and burgers

Greenbang met the printer manufacturer Ricoh today for a pint and a burger – ooh and what a burger it was.

They’re certainly a nice bunch of people, but any printer manufacturer has a tough job trying to convince the world it is doing the right thing by the environment, while encouraging folk to buy more goods and print more documents.

Greenbang certainly isn’t saying it can back up Ricoh’s claims or has checked them out yet, but sometimes it is those who are constantly faced with problems who learn to find the answers. This Japanese firm certainly claims to be very active in the green space.

Ricoh says that for every 100,000 prints it sees, it plants a tree. Big wooh, Greenbang thought. But then Ricoh said they are fruit trees in African schools, colleges and universities – and some other public sector buildings. Those people apparently eat and sell the fruit, so there’s an economic benefit too.

Not bad, but what else have yer got up your sleeves, Ricoh?

Interestingly, Ricoh says 80% of the carbon footprint from its products occurs before the customer even touches them. The biggest fraction comes from things such as R&D and logistics.

The company also has a massive recycling base up in Wellingborough–not too far away from where one of our Greenbangers was born. So we’ve decided to go there and do a bit of filming to see if the company really is what it says it is. And if they let us in 😉

Watch this space…