News release
A new green home for Ricoh
— Ricoh NZ officially opens new green-rated Auckland headquarters and releases its 2014 Sustainability Report —
Auckland, November 28, 2014
Last night the Prime Minister officially opened Ricoh New Zealand's new Auckland headquarters at 200 Victoria Street West. The building has a 5 Star Green rating, creating a healthy work environment for the 200 staff that were formerly spread across three locations.
The visitor car park was turned into a native New Zealand forest and guests were guided through a DoC hut on a tour that showcased the company's leading sustainability practices as well as the document management innovation and IT smarts Ricoh is increasingly becoming known for.
Mike Pollok, Managing Director said "Ricoh was proud of its investment in a more sustainable work environment for its staff."
Pollok hosted the Prime Minister and a number of senior Auckland business leaders, along with Mr Yoshinori Yamashita, the Corporate Executive Vice President of Ricoh Global.
"It was an honour to have the Prime Minister officially open our new building. I was pleased to hear Mr Key liken the Ricoh way to how Kiwi businesses use technology to drive efficiencies so they can compete on the world stage. That's Ricoh's purpose: to help businesses get match fit and ready to compete.
"We're no longer just the photocopier guys; we're part of the eighth-largest IT company in the world. We've future proofed our business and we're already doing the same for our clients.
"This move has been on the cards for a while and we wanted to ensure we did it properly. The new building has more space, more sunlight and is less expensive to run."
However, Pollok reiterated that environmental aspects are only one area of Ricoh's sustainability and that being a financially successful business is a key part of the company's triple bottom line performance.
"We've just released our sixth, annual sustainability report under the new GRI G4 reporting guidelines and I'm pleased to announce that Ricoh has another great report card to share. In the previous financial year, sales have increased from $111m to $130m as we continue towards our growth target of $150m gross revenue. Being profitable is important so we can sustainably invest in new ideas and technology, continue to provide jobs for our 369 staff and engage with the communities we operate in."
In addition to the facilities you'd expect in a 5 Star Green rated building (low energy use, sensor controlled lighting, solar panels, roof water to flush toilets, a living green wall and a sophisticated storm water system that slows down the rate of flow into the public system), the building facade is unique in New Zealand, resulting in a third less energy consumption per square metre.
About 200 Victoria Street West
- The building has an operating system that provides the building manager and Ricoh staff with all sorts of information.
• The building is intuitive. For example, the boardroom is set up to take a certain amount of CO2 so when there are too many people in the room it sends in jets of fresh air. - At reception the current building statistics are displayed on a live update screen available for staff and visitors to see. This means staff can see how their environment is working for them and understand what they can do to play their part.
- In addition to bike racks, lockers and showers to encourage staff to bike to work (and clients to bike to meetings!), walking is encouraged. The building’s central staircase encourages staff to walk between floors. Not only is it good for heart health, but it saves energy and gives staff time to admire the living ‘green’ wall.
- The facade is constructed using high performance glass and was the first commercial building in the country to have a thermally broken double glazed curtain wall system installed. Put simply, this means the window frames won’t turn into a BBQ hotplate on a scorching summer’s day and the building uses a third less energy per m2 than a conventional counterpart.
| About Ricoh |
Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2014, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,195 billion yen based on the IFRS accounting standard (approx. 21.3 billion USD).
The majority of the company's revenue comes from products, solutions and services that improve the interaction between people and information. Ricoh also produces award-winning digital cameras and specialized industrial products. It is known for the quality of its technology, the exceptional standard of its customer service and sustainability initiatives.
Under its corporate tagline, imagine. change. Ricoh helps companies transform the way they work and harness the collective imagination of their employees.
For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com/about/