Ecotec deals with Ricoh multifunction machines. The company has embarked on a path of environmental sustainability, a path defined by the SDG Compass Guide.
Ecotec is a company made up of just over a dozen people, active for over 25 years in the market for the rental and sale of printers and multifunctional machines. It is a historical partner of Ricoh (is Ricoh Corporate Partner) and only offers machines from the Japanese manufacturer. It operates throughout Italy with a particular focus in the province of Milan and in Lombardy and has freelancers, micro-enterprises, small and medium-sized companies and schools as clients.
The strengths are customer assistance and an informal and friendly approach, in addition of course to technical expertise, both in advising the customer in the best possible way and in supporting him in managing the installed park. Over the years, Ecotec has expanded its expertise and now also offers solutions for digital document archiving and multimedia meeting rooms.
We got to meet Walter Paccagnella, CEO of Ecotec, together with Massimo Fossatiwho described the company and the path they have taken to achieve environmental sustainability.
The push towards sustainability
Walter Paccagnella, CEO of Ecotec
Sustainability (environmental, social and economic) is an important element in Ecotec’s activities. Born from my personal aspiration, sustainability has become a key feature of the entire company. This is an ongoing process, carried out with the help of two external consultants, experts in the sector. Our company is also committed from an ethical point of view, to favor the job opportunities of people with a problematic past.
Always with a view to environmental sustainability, the company plans to involve both Ricoh and its customers, offering them interesting contracts from an economic point of view and beyond. According to the provisions of the circular economy, Ecotec collects the devices that have reached the end of their life, reconditions them and proposes them again to customers with a lower rental fee, naturally always guaranteeing all the maintenance and support needed. Furthermore, the company is aware that printing on paper is polluting (consumption of energy and paper, use of toner, disposal of used sheets and cartridges), which is why it is increasingly developing its offer of digital management systems of documents, based on the Ricoh DocuWare solution.
Taking a path towards sustainability can create business opportunities for Ecotec. Energy efficiency, recycling, reuse and waste reduction initiatives are opportunities to reduce costs, for a better and more efficient allocation of resources and consequently are functional to increasing the company’s profitability.
Becoming more sustainable and helping others to do the same will give Ecotec a differentiator in the market and benefit the company’s reputation. In fact, society is certain that consumers are increasingly aware of environmental issues and want environmentally compatible products and services.
The aspiration to protect the environment is also widespread among employees. Ecotec is convinced that it is easier to find new resources thanks to the commitment to sustainability, because potential new employees are more willing to apply to work within organizations that demonstrate their same values and are willing to take a position publicly about important issues.
The path to follow
Many companies have embarked on a path to achieve environmental sustainability, but, as evidenced by a research by the SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab, many realities, especially SMEs, face this transformation in a less structured way than larger companies.
According to research, the five main barriers to the sustainable transition of SMEs are the lack of internal skills, the scarcity of financial resources, the limits related to bureaucratic factors, the lack of consumer demand and the absence of tools dedicated to SMEs. For 52% of Italian SMEs, bureaucracy and high costs are the main obstacles to the adoption of sustainability initiatives, while 38% complain that the market is not yet mature enough to respond adequately to environmental sustainability issues. Of note, according to EU projections, sustainable business transformation is expected to generate $12 trillion in economic opportunity worldwide and create 380 million jobs by 2030.
Despite its modest size, Ecotec has decided to embark on a path of sustainability, not with spot or poorly structured interventions, but following the rigorous method described in the SDG Compass Guide (SDG stands for Sustainable Development GoalSustainable Development Goals), a process developed by the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and the Wbcsd (World Business Council for Sustainable Development).
Normally, a process of this type – made up of five main phases – is carried out by large companies, in particular by listed ones, which are required to report on sustainability activities.
At the moment, Ecotec is in an early stage. After analyzing and mapping its value chain involving all personnel, the company determined the sustainable development objectives to be achieved. The current phase relates to the identification of concrete actions to be carried out in order to obtain the desired results.
L’SDG Compass Guide
As stated in the SDG Compass Guide, the five steps to follow are based on the acknowledgment of the company’s responsibilities to comply with current laws, adapt to minimum international standards, prioritize negative impacts on human rights.
The first step is about the understanding of the SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals, an operation which is at the basis of the entire process. At this stage, the company needs to gain confidence and become familiar with the SDGs. The second step (which Ecotec concluded) consists in prioritization, based on an assessment of their positive and negative impact, present and future, in the value chain. The third stage prescribed by the SDG Compass Guide requires that the company sets the objectives to be achieved.
In other words, it must align corporate goals with the SDG goals, to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable development through concrete actions. The fourth step involves integrate sustainability into the company’s core business, in governance, in all corporate functions. In practice, all the activities identified in the previous step must be done. In the fifth and final stage the company can communicate their results on sustainable development performancewith official reporting documents and with communication tools useful for reaching all interested parties.
Sustainable development goals for Ecotec
In the path that Ecotec has started towards sustainability, an important step recently taken has been the comprehension of the sustainable development objectives and the relative identification of the targets SDG. This work involved the formalization of the company’s value chain and the mapping of the corresponding business processes. Furthermore, an assessment of the risks both for people and for the environment was carried out, risks associated with the operations identified. Ecotec is currently defining the activities it plans to implement to contribute to the achievement of the selected objectives.
As for the value chain, the company has defined it by identifying seven phases of the life cycle of the products it offers: production, logistics, sales and rental operations, support, product distribution, product use, end of life of the products sold or rented. In details:
- Production: procurement of raw materials and components, manufacturing of products within the company’s portfolio
- Logistics: Transportation to a warehouse or distribution center
- Sales, rental and service system: direct sale, tele-commerce, direct and indirect rental
- Support: management and purchasing, administration and human resources, marketing and communication, customer service
- Product distribution: direct delivery to the customer by own means, indirect delivery (by supplier)
- Use of products: use of the product by customers, service, repair and maintenance
- End of life: collection and transport to the end of life treatment plant
In the near future, Ecotec plans to publish reports regarding the subsequent activities related to the path defined by the SDG Compass Guide. The reports will be accessible in the Sustainability section of the company website.