Ricoh Launches Tree Planting Offset Program

January 31, 2007

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Ricoh UK has joined the growing list of companies implementing tree growing initiatives by offering its customers the opportunity to plant fruit trees in a bid to offset carbon emissions.

The printer manufacturer is working with Seeds for Africa, which, according to Ricoh, educates young people in Africa about how to farm their own fruit and vegetables.

The program monitors the printer and copier usage levels of businesses. For every 100,000 photocopies or prints generated by a customer a tree is planted. Customers will then be given a certificate at each stage of the program to assist in their own corporate social responsibility activities.

“The program will not only work towards negating carbon emissions caused by printing and photocopying, it will also help combat the massive deforestation affecting parts of Africa,” according to a Ricoh statement (via Green Business News).

“100,000 prints may sound like a lot but we overestimated the emissions in the calculations to ensure that we can say with confidence that the scheme covers the emissions generated,” Chas Moloney, associate director of marketing at Ricoh told Green Business News. “We have already dedicated thousands of trees through other programs; this scheme takes it one step further by supporting local communities.”

The news came as a new report from the Centre for Economic Business Research claimed that UK organizations waste £1bn a year on printing through a combination of poor print management processes and ill-conceived print outsourcing contracts.

Earlier this month, Dell began offering customers the opportunity to offset the emissions associated with the electricity used to power their computers through its Plant a Tree for Me program.

The reaction to the announcement has been positive, but at least one article wondered why Dell wasn’t paying to plant the trees themselves.

Studies have questioned whether planting trees is an effective way to fight global warming.

Just yesterday, Grist had an article about the human toll to carbon-offsetting tree plantations.

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