Office Depot Releases 2011 Corporate Citizenship Report

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February 2, 2012

Florida-based Office Depot’s 2011 Corporate Citizenship Report outlines the retailer’s strategy thus far and sets new goals to help further its commitment to business, ethics, diversity, environmental sustainability and community.

Ranked by Newsweek magazine as the No.1 Greenest Large Retailer in the U.S., and the #18 Greenest Large Company Overall in 2010, Office Depot’s new report outlines and tracks the success of its environmental initiatives from 2008 to 2010.

The report highlights the chain’s multi-layered strategy of tackling corporate responsibility. “Tackling environmental challenges requires solutions that address our suppliers, our operations and our customers,” states the report. “As such, our global environmental strategy is embodied in three commitments: we work to Buy Greener,
Be Greener and Sell Greener. By implementing a range of initiatives under this strategy, we have measurably improved our own environmental performance, and have helped our suppliers and customers to do the same. Our environmental policy builds directly from our strategy and is strongly focused on implementation.”

The report outlines the following goals to buy greener, be greener and sell greener:
Strategy: Buy Greener

• Source third-party-certified green products in each major category we sell where there is a credible third-party ecolabel. In 2010 Office Depot began tracking certified products and grew ecolabeled assortment by 76 percent.
• Ensure 80 percent of marketing materials come from certified well-managed forests, with 40 percent from FSC-certified forests. In 2010 the chain achieved 99 percent certified marketing materials with 64 percent FSC certified.
• Ensure 80 percent of the office products used internally are from The Green Book by Office Depot. In 2010, 44 percent was spent on items with “mid/dark green” attributes.
• Recycle over 80 percent of materials from Office Depot operations. In 2010 it recycled 59 percent of materials, up 2 percent from 2009.
• Earn more money from product recycling than spent on sending waste to landfills. In 2010 Office Depot earned $2.43 million from recycling, up 37 percent from 2009 and reduced waste costs by 4 percent to $3.81 million.
• Reduce our carbon footprint from facilities to under 300,000 tons, a 25 percent reduction from the 2005 baseline.

"In 2010, Office Depot remained steadfast in all aspects of our corporate social responsibility commitments despite economic conditions that remained challenging for the office supply business," said Neil Austrian, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Office Depot. "I am confident that we will continue to make progress in this area as we are committed to the task at every level of our global operations."

Environmental data included in the 2011 Corporate Citizenship Report was reviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, ensuring accuracy and transparency. Additionally, for the fifth consecutive year, the report references guidelines established by the Global Reporting Initiative, an organization which develops and disseminates globally applicable "Sustainability Reporting Guidelines."

The full report can be viewed at http://www.officedepotcitizenship.com/about_thisReport.html

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