Taking Care of [Green] Business

For many companies, going green at the office starts and stops with buying recycled paper. Office Depot aims to expand that viewpoint with its three-pronged effort to “buy, be and sell” in an environmentally-friendly way.

Office Depot is just out with the fifth edition of its Green Book, a catalog that features only environmentally-friendly products. With more than 2,200 items, it goes well beyond paper, including biodegradable tableware; technology that meets Electronic Product Environment Assessment Tool (EPEAT) standards; and furniture with reduced toxicity.

As products have improved and environmentally-friendly options have become more widely available, the bar for acceptance into the Green Book has risen. A few years ago, a pen needed to be refillable to be considered environmentally-friendly; now, manufacturers are creating pens from recycled material. Products with 10 percent post-consumer recycled goods once made the cut; now, the bar is at 30 percent.

“We believe there are shades of green,” says Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategy for Office Depot. “On our green website, there are 5,200 items featuring environmentally-preferable attributes, and we’d say that our [primary] website has all of our assortment, from light to dark green. The Green Book has a percentage of our product assortment – mainly from the green to dark green categories.”

Those offerings have brought in their share of green, as well. Office Depot tracks the SKUs represented in the Green Book and saw a sales increase of nearly 10 percent (to $720 million) in 2007.

Green shopping sites
The Green Book makes shopping easier for large customers, many of whom have mandates for making environmental changes. But the catalog is only the beginning of Office Depot’s green initiatives. Two web pages — www.officedepot.com/yourgreeneroffice and www.officedepot.com/buygreen — help consumers navigate the often-confusing world of green labels. The pages offer information on what makes products in each category environmentally-friendly, then allow customers to shop for items in those categories.

In stores, customers will find signage pointing to green products, including the company’s own private brand. Office Depot Green includes 100 percent recycled paper, file folders and biodegradable packaging; paper clips include 50 percent post-consumer recycled steel.

Office Depot Green packaging “is a merchandising effort that really helps,” Siddiqui says. It was created “to simplify the green purchasing experience across channels, but primarily in retail. Intuitively, you know this is a greener option and you can seek it out. That rebranding is really helping our in-store merchandising.”

Buying environmentally-friendly products is the first step, but disposing of items in a responsible way is also important. The company’s ink and toner recycling program (through which customers receive a $3 coupon for each cartridge) has kept 35.9 million cartridges out of landfills. Cell phones and batteries also can be recycled in-store, though without the financial incentive, and a new technology trade-in program offers cash for used electronics.

In-house operations
The company isn’t interested in just selling green: It has put many of the same principles into effect throughout its operations. Catalogs and newspaper inserts are printed on paper that meets Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards, guidelines that mark environmentally-responsible and socially-beneficial forestry.

Between 2004 and 2006, the company reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent, mostly through changing out in-store lighting, reducing 66 million kilowatt hours of electricity and saving $2.2 million.

Store fixtures removed during a remodel are reconfigured and stored until they can be used again. Deliveries are made in sprinter vans rather than box trucks, boosting fleet fuel efficiency by 40 percent, and drivers use RoadNet software to map the most efficient routes.