Led by Jake Yamashita, its global President and CEO, Ricoh Company, Ltd. recently donated mono and color multi-function printers to some of the less fortunate schools in the Philippines in partnership with Phoenix Publishing House for a total of 60 printers and 10 projectors since January 2019 through the Alagang Phoenix, Alagang Mahalaga program. The printers will help these schools, some of which are located in remote areas, to print, scan, and copy exam papers, certificates, diplomas, and other documents.
“Kiyoshi Ichimura, our founder, put up Ricoh in 1936 based on the San-Ai Spirit or the Spirit of Three Loves – love your neighbor, love your work, and love your country, which we continue to build on today as a multinational billion-dollar company,” Mr. Yamashita said. “This spirit inspired our decision to improve quality of life through education by donating printers to remote Philippine schools. Moving forward, Ricoh will continue to launch products and conduct business in a way that pursues excellence, improves quality of life, and drives sustainability.”
“In dealing with Ricoh Philippines, we found out we had a shared mission in helping schools in need so it was a natural fit for us to be partners in corporate social responsibility. Having been in the textbook publishing industry for over 60 years now, Phoenix has an in-depth knowledge of the educational sector and an extensive network of schools, which allows us to help Ricoh identify deserving recipients and ensure the donations get to the right representatives,” Carlos Sibal, Phoenix Publishing House Senior Vice President, said.
“It is by grace Ricoh’s donation came just in time for the printing of our exam papers,” Fr. Kennedy Neral, Caloocan Diocese Schools’ Association Superintendent, said.
A global commitment to CSR
Guided by its founder’s vision, Ricoh has a robust CSR culture globally as it has aligned its businesses to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). It focuses on UN SDGs categorized into three clusters. The first on promoting quality of life focuses on education, good health and well-being, and sustainable cities and communities. The second cluster aims to achieve a zero carbon and circular economy and focuses on affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production, climate action while the third is committed to intelligence creation and productivity enhancement, focusing on innovation and economic growth.
Creating the future of printing
Going beyond the workplace, Ricoh is building on its heritage as a printing innovator by finding modern and relevant applications for its technologies. It is using its technical strengths in the development of printers, such as its inkjet head technologies, in healthcare to produce artificial tissues that reproduce biological functions, which can be applied to genetic and reagent testing, as well as identifying genetically modified food and infectious diseases. In addition, Ricoh is also using its organic photoconductor technology, developed for its multifunction printers, in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), a next-generation solar technology which is capable of generating power efficiently even under scattered light or indoor lighting. It will enable standalone power systems that can support the advancement of internet-of-things (IOT) technologies.
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