Human Rights

Human rights due diligence

Human rights impact assessment

The Ricoh Group identifies salient human rights issues of all stakeholders involved in the Ricoh Group's business activities through the assessment of their adverse impacts on human rights. In 2013, a workshop was held with the participation of experts to identify human rights risk factors at Ricoh. After that, we identified specific issues of concern that take into account the regional characteristics of the selected risk factors. In 2015, we organized the relevance of identified risks and stakeholders. In 2022, in response to the increasingly complex human rights issues in recent years, we identified major human rights risks in the Ricoh Group and sorted out their impact on stakeholders, referring to major international human rights rules and frameworks, as well as the "Major Human Rights Risks Related to Enterprises' Consideration and Corporate Activities" defined by the Ministry of Justice in Japan. [Table 1]

Table1:Representative human rights risks and stakeholder relationships

In addition, we identified salient human rights issues among the typical human rights risks. First, we identified issues for employees working in the Ricoh Group from the perspective of protecting workers, and conducted a human rights impact assessment for Ricoh and Ricoh Group manufacturing affiliates, with advice from outside experts. The results of the impact assessment were reported and discussed with management, including the CEO. As a result, seven prominent human rights issues have been identified. [Table 2]
We plan to conduct periodic reviews of salient human rights issues for our stakeholders. The human rights impact assessment of the Group manufacturing affiliates will be conducted annually in consideration of the importance of risk management.
We will gradually review and expand the scope of human rights impact assessments for other stakeholders.

The Ricoh Group implements measures to prevent and mitigate identified salient human rights issues which have high adverse impacts on human rights of others.
In 2020, for example, a third-party audit (RBA Validated Assessment Program (VAP)) was conducted voluntarily by a production sites in China. As a result of the audit, it was revealed that some of the labor agencies contracted by the site had required workers to pay a part of the recruiting fees. As a corrective measure to this issue, the site completed the refund of the fees incurred by the workers. Regarding preventive measure, in the same year, Ricoh ordered the prohibition of charging workers recruitment fees.
In responses to human rights issues in the supply chain, the Ricoh Group revised the Ricoh Group Supplier Code of Conduct in August 2020 based on the RBA Code of Conduct. Ricoh now requires major suppliers, who account for more than 80% of the total purchase amount, to sign and comply with our supplier code of conduct.
We will continue to give priority to addressing salient human rights issues and take measures to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights.

Implementation of Periodic Assessment for Ricoh Group Production Sites
The Ricoh Group recognizes that the human rights risk at production sites is of high importance, and continuously monitors it.
In 2019, we joined the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), a corporate alliance that promotes corporate social responsibility in global supply chains. In 2020, we conducted a risk assessment using the RBA SAQ for major production sites of the Ricoh Group.
In 2022, we started annual risk assessments and conducted them at 21 production sites.

Continuous RBA VAP audits
Among the production sites that have implemented the RBA SAQ, major production sites evaluate the effectiveness of preventive and mitigating measures and corrective measures through the continuation of the third-party audit (RBA VAP) every two years. Through the audits conducted between 2020 and 2021, we confirmed that there were no serious human rights-related non-conformances, and All audited sites have been certified by the RBA. [Table 3] At the three sites that have conducted the VAP, they have formulated an improvement plan regarding non-conformances with RBA's compliance requirements, and are working toward improvement.
We plan to expand third-party audits to other major production sites. We will continue to conduct on-site audits at necessary sites and monitor the effectiveness of countermeasures against human rights risks.

[Table 3] RBA certification status

RBA Validated Assessment Program (VAP)

Implementation of Assessment for Suppliers
In order to ascertain human rights risks in the supply chain, we conduct CSR assessments including the assessment of human rights risks every year with a focus on major suppliers in target areas. We will conduct onsite audits to the supplier whose result of the assessments have showed high-risk and request to improve findings.
In 2020, we reviewed the content of CSR assessments and conducted assessments in accordance with RBA standards and investigated human rights risks at our major suppliers, who account for more than 80% of our purchases, and investigated human rights risks.
In the 2021 survey, no supplier was identified as high risk in the human rights category in the CSR assessment, but there were some concerns about a human rights risk in some supplier, so we requested to improve the risk issues.
The CSR assessment will be reviewed and monitoring of human rights risks at suppliers will be strengthened.
Refer to Supply Chain Management for details.

供应链等内容ement

Human Rights Assessments in mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
At Ricoh, when conducting new transactions such as M&A, we carefully assess the risk of the counterparty in accordance with the standard due diligence process established by the Investment Committee.
“Human rights due diligence" is included as part of these risk assessment items, and we conduct a detailed assessment on the human rights risks of the counterparty company to ensure that there are no issues before making our final decision on the M&A.

Information disclosure
In accordance with the Ricoh Group’s Human Rights Policy, the Ricoh Group discloses in a transparent manner the progress of its efforts to deal with adverse impacts on human rights on the website and in the Integrated Report.

Integrated Report

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Education and Training

Education and Training on Human Rights

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Remedies

Whistleblowing system and Grievance mechanism

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Initiatives

主要能nal standards and regulations implemented by the Ricoh Group

The main activities we have implemented so far as measures to mitigate risk to human rights are as follows.