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Canon, Ricoh, and Xerox Awarded EPA’s Energy Star Partner of the Year

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ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award 2022 Sustained Excellence

Three document-imaging companies, Canon Inc., Ricoh, and Xerox announced today that they’re been awarded Energy Star Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy

Each year, the Energy Star program honors businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. Energy Star award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis and protecting public health.

Ricoh

Ricoh USA received the 2022 Energy Star Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award, marking the seventh consecutive year Ricoh has been named an Energy Star Partner of the Year, and the fifth year with the Sustained Excellence distinction.  

Donna Venable, executive vice President of Ricoh North America Human Resources, and deputy general manager for Shared Services, commented:  “In the past year, we spearheaded new initiatives to reinforce our dedication to reducing our environmental footprint and made significant strides in aligning our sustainability activities with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is in sync with our keen focus on our work with the EPA supporting the Energy Star program, an initiative we are fully behind. We are truly honored by this recognition.”  

Ricoh, a long-standing Energy Star partner for imaging equipment, pursued several efforts this year to further the energy efficiency of its products and expand its overall sustainability initiatives, some of which include:

  • Continuing to work towards a circular economy: A central component to a circular economy is realizing a recycling-oriented society. With this in mind, in 2021 Ricoh proposed a “non-new” category to the EPA for the Energy Star Imaging Equipment Program. As part of this first-of-its-kind achievement, Ricoh announced that nine Ricoh MFPs in its third-generation GreenLine Series were the first remanufactured imaging equipment to achieve ENERGY STAR certification by the EPA.
  • Contributing to the achievement of a zero-carbon society: Ricoh continues to work on a variety of technological innovations that combine high energy-saving performance with ease-of-use, for industrial media with low CO2 life cycle emissions compared to conventional paper, and for solutions for equipment operation involving renewable energies. These energy-saving technologies are said to be crucial when it comes to working towards the achievement of a zero-carbon society. One example is Ricoh’s Energy Star certified Smart Operation Panel devices, which have built-in energy management features, including green reports that help customers visualize their CO2 impact. In 2021, Ricoh updated, designed, and marketed its Energy Star certified imaging equipment to encourage practical energy performance, while maintaining ease of use.
  • Outreach to customers and beyond: Ricoh has promoted the Energy Star message and mission for several years. The company continued to elevate Energy Star messaging across its customers and partners – nearly tripling its previous public relations and social media reach over the past two years. Ricoh also participated in Energy Star-related activities, such as the celebration of Energy Star Day when Ricoh announced its three-year lease agreement with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to provide its GreenLine Series, as well as its community engagement efforts with a disabled veterans organization in Arizona, where Ricoh provided Energy Star certified print equipment, including maintenance service and supplies.
  • Improved innovation: Ricoh continues to promote a more sustainable society with environmental technology innovations for practical energy savings that it says don’t sacrifice business productivity. In June 2021, Ricoh launched the RICOH IM 2500-6000 Series, which is more energy efficient than its predecessor models (RICOH MP 2555-6055), anywhere from 4.0 percent to 10.0 percent when comparing typical electricity consumption (TEC) values. The increased percentage of Ricoh’s Eco-Mode enablement rate (82.5 percent) has also been a strong indicator of its commitment to communicating the benefits of the energy-saving technologies embedded in Ricoh’s imaging equipment. The firm says its sustainability efforts also extend across product manufacturing, supplies, service and education.

Canon

Canon was awarded the 2022 Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence recognition.

For more than 25 years, Canon has offered more than 200 Energy Star-certified products, demonstrating Canon’s commitment to its Kyosei philosophy. The award also marks the seventh consecutive time (2016-present) that Canon has won the Partner of the Year Award.

“It is an honor for Canon to again receive ENERGY STAR’s Partner of the Year Award and Sustained Excellence Award,” commented Shinya Fukuda, vice president and general manager of Canon U.S.A. “We are committed to social and environmental responsibility, so to see our efforts recognized in these endeavors is rewarding. Going forward, we will continue to apply our Kyosei philosophy while working to fulfill our mission while simultaneously respecting the environment.”

Xerox

Xerox received the Energy Star 2022 Partner of the Year award for the second consecutive year.

Xerox also noted that it collaborated with the EPA to develop the latest revision of the Energy Star Imaging Equipment standard, which defined criteria for remanufactured equipment. Since 1993, more than 500 Xerox products have achieved Energy Star registration. Xerox aims for 100 percent of its eligible new products to earn Energy Star certification and has met this goal every year since 2010.

The company also noted that recently, it fast-tracked its net zero goal by 10 years to 2040 and offset nearly 200 million pounds of carbon dioxide through PrintReleaf. As part of Xerox’s long-running Design for Sustainability initiative, the company redesigned the power supply on certain models of new printers to optimize energy savings, reducing energy consumption by 14 Energy Star.

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan commented: “We know it’s going to take all of us working together to tackle the climate crisis, and the 2022 Energy Star award-winning partners are demonstrating what it takes to build a more sustainable future. These companies are showing once again that taking action in support of a clean energy economy can be good not only for the environment, but also for business and customers.”

For a complete list of 2022 winners and more information about Energy Star’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

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