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  • Environmental Dashboard and Environmental KPIs
  • How We Strive to Increasingly Buy Green
  • How We Strive to Increasingly Be Green
  • How We Strive to Increasingly Sell Green
  • How We Strive to Increasingly Tell Green
• • Message from the Chairman and CEO
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How We Strive to Increasingly Be Green

In 2008, we built the world's first LEED Volume–Certified retail store prototype. We're proud to say we achieved LEED Gold certification and won the Chain Store Age Store of the Year 2008 in the Environmental Category. This and other efforts to build green, improve efficiency and reduce waste helped us save money and reduce operational impacts, and inspired Office Depot associates to feel even better about working at our company. Comparing 2005 and 2008, we have reduced the absolute carbon footprint of our North American facilities by 10%, and transportation emissions by 32%. Combined that's a total reduction of nearly 16% in four years. We think this reflects real leadership in carbon reduction. While establishing this leadership we've avoided millions of dollars in energy costs. We have much more to do – but we know being green is smart and cost efficient.

We also know that reducing waste makes good business sense. For the first time since we started tracking, we recycled over 50% of our waste stream and reduced our costs to landfill by 9%.

To learn more about our carbon and waste reduction efforts please visit www. officedepot.com/environment and click Being Green.

Office Depot's green store in Austin, Texas, reduces our consumption of resources, energy, water and harsh chemicals through a wide range of earth–friendly strategies. Specifically, we installed:

• T5 Energy–Efficient Lighting throughout the store
• Over 50 Ciralight SunTracker active skylights that adjust with the path of the sun, providing natural light for approximately 90% of the store
• Solar panels providing 10% of the electricity within the store
• A highly–reflective membrane on the roof so that heat from the sun is not absorbed by the roof. This keeps the inside of the store cool – requiring less energy for air conditioning.

In addition, the store:

• Uses all low–emitting materials – including the carpet, paint and adhesives within the store
• Recycled approximately 80% of the construction's demolition waste, thus diverting it from the landfill
• Provides an "Alternative Transportation Education Board" outside the store, informing customers and associates of alternative transportation options available within Austin
• Offers an in–store recycling center – a designated recycling services area for cellular phone and rechargeable batteries, ink and toner cartridges, paper and technology

To learn more, click here.