Dublin, 10 December, 2009 – New research from Ricoh shows that UK and Irish businesses ranked last in a survey of European business leaders regarding the adoption of sustainable document governance practice. These businesses are unnecessarily missing opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and drive efficiencies through document governance.
The research finds that only a minority of UK and Irish businesses are setting targets and auditing the environmental aspects of their document governance, which includes energy efficiency and recycling. While 66 per cent of senior managers set cost targets for document governance just 34 per cent set environmental targets. This suggests that UK and Irish bosses are underestimating the positive contribution of cost reduction strategies on their organisation’s sustainability goals. Likewise, it means that ongoing sustainability improvements will be challenging for many businesses due to the absence of consistent measurement and auditing processes.
The research also finds that most organisations are adopting a decentralised approach to document governance (Just 34% of the UK and Irish companies have implemented a strategy in their business). This means they are overlooking the simple tactical actions that can make an immediate and positive impact on sustainability. Key results include:
• 26 per cent of business leaders say that their employees do what they like when it comes to duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper) and just 18 per cent have implemented a policy company-wide
• Approximately one third (34 per cent) of UK and Irish business leaders are unfamiliar with their company’s recycling policy and 30 per cent with their toner recycling policy
• When asked whether employees consider environmental benefits when printing respondents scored their employees at just 5.2 using a scale of 10 (care a lot) to one (do not care at all) –
Key to addressing these issues is a centralised document governance strategy that delivers insight across the whole organisation and provides factual data upon which success and savings are monitored and new areas for improvement set. With such an approach, business leaders can then start making a real difference today by taking advantage of the tactical ‘quick wins’ available to them.
When comparing activity across Europe, there are significant differences between countries in terms of their adoption of sustainable document governance. France is the leading country in Europe while the UK & Ireland comes last. By assigning a value to environmental aspects of document governance such as, recycling, setting targets, auditing, recycling and employee behaviours - it is possible to generate a European league table to show which countries have the most sustainable document governance practices. In the Ricoh Document Governance Index, the seven countries tracked can be ordered as follows:
1. France
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. Netherlands
5. Belgium
6. Spain
7. United Kingdom and Ireland
However none of the countries score above 50 per cent of the possible ‘maximum score’ , suggesting that there is significant room for improvement to reduce overall environmental impacts.
Tim Taylor, Environment and Compliance Manager, Ricoh UK and Ireland, said: “Despite sustainability being an important fixture on the business agenda, and documents making up an essential part of day-to-day business operations, there remains a lack of awareness of the role that document governance can play in driving both environmental AND business efficiencies. Businesses need to act now by taking some simple steps to improve the way they are managing and controlling their document workflows.”
Sustainable Document Governance in practice
As a result of Ricoh's Pay Per Page Green assessments and optimisation service, organisations across the UK are adding value to their bottom line and reducing their environmental impacts
• Through print and energy saving initiatives and fleet rationalisation, Ricoh has helped a public sector health care organisation in the UK save over 650 tonnes of CO2 over five years
To download the whitepaper and learn more about the findings of the study visit http://research.ricoh-europe.com/uk.
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Note to Editors
About the Ricoh Document Governance Index
The Ricoh Document Strategy Index was conducted on behalf of Ricoh Europe by independent research firm Coleman Parkes Research and is based on 311 detailed interviews with senior decision makers (C-Suite or equivalents) of medium and large companies in the Financial Services; Professional Services; Public and Telecommunications / Utilities and Media sectors across Europe. Interviews took place in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom. All respondents are responsible for document management within their respective organisations and were contacted in July and August 2009. The survey was controlled to provide representative information across Europe and within each targeted vertical sector.
About Ricoh Ireland
Ricoh designs, develops and manufactures a complete range of print and document management, hardware, software and services which are tailored to meet individual customer needs. Its devices print, copy, scan and fax documents as an integrated part of the IT network and enterprise content management system. Software is used to audit usage, manage document flows, simplify business processes, control print expenditure and secure access. The company takes an innovative approach to research and development, having invented the first digital black & white copier and introducing the colour-capable device.
Ricoh environmental credentials are second to none. It operates a zero-waste policy at all of its manufacturing plants and maintains carbon-neutral status at its headquarters in Feltham, Middlesex. It operates a dedicated ‘Green Centre’, where old machines are re-commissioned and recycled in line with WEEE Directive guidelines.
Further information can be found at www.ricoh.ie.
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