Office Depot Becomes First Retailer to Carry EcoSense Electronics Labels

August 2, 2012

Office Depot is greening its store base with a new, smaller, prototype while launching EcoSense product labels from EPEAT that provide an environmental ratings system for electronics.

The downtown Portland store was originally among the largest in the chain when it opened 13 years ago, but has been redesigned to a new, smaller format. This is the first Office Depot store in the Pacific Northwest with the smaller format. Office Depot has been rolling out smaller store formats to create easier to shop environments.

The Downtown Portland location features a number of green building elements, including:

T5 energy-saving lights and reflectors allowing use of two bulbs instead of three per fixture
Daylight and occupancy sensors to reduce energy use
Energy Management Systems to allow tracking and central control of energy usage
Reused store shelving and fixtures
Recycled content carpet
Interior finishes made up of low VOC emitting materials

“By creating smaller stores we’re reducing our retail footprint, our energy footprint and our carbon footprint,” said Yalmaz Siddiqui, senior director of environmental strategy at Office Depot. “In Portland, we are also helping customers reduce their environmental footprints by providing them with greener choices that are more readily accessible, including EcoSense. This store represents a new model for consumer engagement on sustainability.”

The Office Depot Portland store is also the first retailer in the U.S. to feature products with the new EcoSense label for the Electronics Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). EcoSense is the new consumer-facing brand extension of EPEAT, an environmental rating system for electronics used by large business and government purchasers developed in 2006. EPEAT provides information for consumers to compare electronic products based upon environmental considerations, in addition to cost and overall performance.

Products with the EcoSense label will be identified with Gold, Silver and Bronze ratings based upon criteria that reflect several categories of environmental attributes covering the full life cycle of electronic products.

Approximately 900 of Office Depot’s products have environmental attributes identifiable by their labels including the 12 EcoSense registered computer notebooks and monitors in the technology assortment.

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