What would you do if the navigation system in the car you'd had for a while started showing signs of its age? Scrapping the old car and buying a new one with all the latest gadgetry on board may be common enough behavior in contemporary consumer society, but Shiro Kondo, president and CEO of office equipment maker Ricoh, will have none of such wastefulness. In 2003, Ricoh announced its goal of lowering the environmental impact of the multifunction printers and copiers it produces to one-eighth the present level by mid-century, and Kondo foresees a future in which the life span of office equipment will be radically extended through the use of upgradeable software and parts—rather as renovation enables Europeans to live happily in centuries-oid buildings.
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