Buying Green
When we refer to "Buying Green" at Office Depot, we mean three things.
- Sourcing greener office products for resale to our customers.
- Buying papers from certified "responsibly managed forests."
- Buying greener office products for our own internal use.
We have made some bold moves in these three areas. In 2004 Office Depot released an industry-leading Environmental Paper Procurement Policy. We also made one of the largest corporate commitments to support sustainable forestry by launching the Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. In 2009 we improved the ability for our vendors to validate compliance with our environmental policy by creating a 12-step Vendor Code of Conduct for Paper.
But while we know bold moves are sometimes necessary, we believe the long-term path to sustainability is through more companies, including our own, making small every day purchasing decisions with the environment as a consideration. As discussed in our Green Buyer's Guide, we think an incremental approach to green purchasing will grow markets for sustainable products more successfully than a purist one, where only greenest products are seen as "good enough."