Ricoh takes home the 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award

EXTON, PA, March 26, 2024 – Ricoh USA, Inc. today announced it has been named a 2024 ENERGY STAR^® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), another achievement in relation to the company’s long-term commitment made more than 45 years ago to the preservation of the environment and sustainability of the planet.

With 2024 marking nine consecutive years as Partner of the Year and seven successively with the Sustained Excellence designation given to partners who demonstrate outstanding leadership year after year, Ricoh was awarded for exemplary commitment and dedication to leadership in energy efficiency and the ENERGY STAR program. Ricoh stood out in particular for featuring ENERGY STAR throughout its business in 2023 in a variety of ways, including:

• The expansion of Ricoh’s GreenLine Series, the first product line in the industry of ENERGY STAR-certified remanufactured imaging equipment, from nine models in 2022 to 33 models in 2023.

• Promoting customer-focused messaging via the company’s website and social media accounts about Ricoh’s partnership with ENERGY STAR, and the benefits of modernizing print infrastructure with ENERGY STAR-certified products to help consumers reach their overarching goals to become net zero.

• Ricoh’s Eco Excellence Program, an exclusive sustainability recognition program for Ricoh dealers who are focused on promoting sustainable initiatives within their dealerships and to customers, which prominently featured ENERGY STAR in its collateral and membership site.

• Raising ENERGY STAR awareness through efforts such as distributing ENERGY STAR-branded tote bags at the Ricoh Partner Summit in October that welcomed 400 attendees.

“We are honored and thrilled to be once again recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence by the U.S. EPA,” said Donna Venable, Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Deputy General Manager, Shared Services, Ricoh North America. “This prestigious recognition resonates with our nearly 50-year history of ensuring all our business decisions and activities are carried out with care for the planet. Marked by our dedication to innovation in energy efficiency and responsible business practices, it ultimately helps to support our efforts as examples of encouragement in conservation of our precious environment for others to follow as we move towards a brighter, more sustainable future together.”

Ricoh’s commitment to environmental sustainability runs deep, rooted in the company’s Founding Principles – The Spirt of Three Loves – established in 1946 by its founder, Kiyoshi Ichimura, and made an official focus of its business with the creation of an Environmental Promotion Section in 1976. The ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence recognition is a reflection of this commitment, along with numerous milestones and achievements throughout the company’s history, including: Establishment of Environmental Principles in 1992 as guidelines for environmental conservation; development of the Comet Circle™ in 1994 as a concept for realizing a circular economy; receiving the World Environment Center (WEC) Gold Medal in 2003; and becoming the first Japanese company to join the RE100 in 2017.

Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a select group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to energy efficiency and the transition to a clean energy economy. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts have saved more than 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity over the past 30 years.

“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda creates unprecedented opportunity to build a clean energy economy, and private sector partners through programs like ENERGY STAR are leading the way,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I congratulate this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for their innovation and leadership, in delivering cost-effective energy efficient solutions that create jobs, address climate change, and contribute to a healthier environment for all.”

Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2024 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, please visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

For more information about Ricoh's commitment to the environment and achieving a sustainable future, please visit: https://www.ricoh-usa.com/en/about-us/corporate-responsibility-and-environmental-sustainability.

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR^® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at https://www.energystar.gov/about/impacts.