1. Hi and thanks for having me
I’m here to tell you how Ricoh New Zealand engaged with our staff to improve sustainability.
For around a decade, we’ve been deliberate in our approach to protecting:
Profit
The planet
And people
Just over a year ago, we reviewed the way we manage our responsibilities and we found we had plateaued and we weren’t improving
We had lots of badges of honour and accreditations, but the substance to the efforts we put in around them was evaporating.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

2. Looks good right?
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

3. Staff didn’t understand what Sustainability was.
So, what was wrong?
Staff didn’t understand what Sustainability was.
They thought it was all about “the environment”
They didn’t know it included profit or people
They were bored by and hostile to term “sustainability” and they didn’t see the value of it in our business and out there in the world.
Staff viewed sustainability as being a “big brother” looking over their shoulders, making them recycle the right things in the right bins. That was it.
We viewed our accreditations as an ‘achievement’ rather than a framework or something to reach beyond, exceeding expectations.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

4. The personal touch really makes a difference
What did we do about it?
We decentralised how we managed sustainability and chose an incredible person from each branch to represent their issues relating to the three P’s
They work collaboratively with our national Sustainability Champion, who merely provides guidance and direction on brand alignment.
These champions have local knowledge and a vested interest in their region
7 branches and 7 champions now means that we cascade information down to individuals in branches in a more personal way
The personal touch really makes a difference
380 staff now know more about what we can do (and what we actually do) to make a difference.
Our Management Standards are beginning to become a way of doing business, or at least a foundation that we can build on
We completely changed the way communicate sustainability to our staff:
Messages are now proactively designed
A gap analysis of communications channels was conducted and areas we lacked in were filled
Sustainability messaging became woven into the fabric of our internal communications, rather than existing as a separate thing
BUT, we try not to use the word “sustainability” very often – we found it made our staff reluctant to get involved because it disguised what we wanted them to look at (the three P’s)
If we do reference it, we talk about being heavily engaged in being sustainable, rather than being leaders.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

5. We connected sustainability with Ricoh Global’s mission, vision and values
Our mission is simple: we are committed to providing excellence to improve the quality of living and to drive sustainability.
Our vision is to be the most trusted brand with irresistible appeal in the global market.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

6. We gave sustainability at Ricoh a brand “360 degrees”
We started to build and tell our story.
We made it relevant and meaningful to our people before we tried to make it relevant and meaningful to our other stakeholders.
3600 is circular - a cycle that comes back to the same principle
Continuous improvement
As our context changes, our business must evolve
<Mike: relate the story of how Ricoh adapted our business five/six years’ ago>
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

7. We looked at the three pillars of sustainability: People Profit Planet
And how our business interacted with each of these.
Our sustainability team networked business-wide looking for potential ways to improve how we work.
We utilised our staff ideas box
Our staff build our story
Our staff lead our story
Our staff become our story
Our staff tell the story
Our staff also spot the holes in our story and tell us how we can improve our interactions with people, profit and planet.
So it stands to reason that we want as many of their ideas as possible. They know best what imrpovements could be made in the area they work in.
So what’s our 3600 brand and what does it cover?
EVERYTHING
Innovation
Continuous improvement
Engagement
Collaboration
Honest appraisal
Top management support
It’s about making the most of the incredible minds that make up Ricoh and everything we do.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

8. 55% Since 2009 Ricoh new Zealand staff have given us 4,256 ideas
We’ve implemented 2,410 ideas,
That’s a staggering 55%!
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

9. What’s made our new approach successful?
Firstly: Embedding sustainability and giving staff the tools they need to be successful in what we are asking them to do.
Training and inductions are key
Making the three P’s ‘friendly’ and approachable is important too.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

10. We defined our purpose for staff, which is:
To continue to make a healthy profit so we can help our communities, without harming the environment
We told them what our vision is BECAUSE: if you don’t tell your staff where we are going, they can’t aim to get there
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

11. Ricoh is their livelihood It’s the biggest part of their waking world
We tell our story often internally, but now we provide context and purpose for our staff so they can relate to the story too
We also support staff working towards more sustainable lifestyles in their personal lives. We didn’t just hire them for eight and a half hours per day, we got the whole person
Ricoh is their livelihood
It’s the biggest part of their waking world
What they learn and deliver here can drive change into the world Ricoh connects with.
We’ve:
Included them
Consulted them
Listened to them
Made them and their contribution matter
Engaged their minds
Educated them and been educated by them
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ

12. It’s shorter and more succinct It’s more relevant.
Now we can communicate externally more authentically and honestly. Our staff understand our story because we’ve made them a part of it and now we can finally tell our story in a way that we think other people will relate to.
So, introducing Our Story, A 360° Look At Ricoh…… It’s not just a sustainability report….it’s our story.
It’s shorter and more succinct
It’s more relevant.
It educates our customers and stakeholders.
Our staff understand it.
Even our Sales Team is excited about it – they asked for a business card slot to be included and in the past, they used to run screaming from our reports!
Our sustainability report is now sustainable because people will read it (or at least parts of it).
It can be viewed on our website (ricoh.co.nz) from 3pm today.
@sustbusiness / #ProjectNZ