10 TIPS FROM OFFICE DEPOT FOR EARTH DAY

[Anonymous]

Office Depot Celebrates Earth Day with Ten Tips for A Greener Worklife and New Green Website
Customers Can Choose From a Wide Variety of Environmentally-Preferable Products and Solutions for Home and Office
DELRAY BEACH, Fla.–In celebration of Earth Day, Office Depot , a leading global provider of office products and services, today released the Company’s Top Ten Tips for A Greener Worklife. With the “widest green product” assortment in the office products industry, a new green e-commerce site (www.officedepot.com/buygreen), an independently verified environmental stewardship report, a paper purchasing policy, investments towards greenhouse gas and solid waste reduction, and integrated recycling programs, Office Depot is committed to sustaining its own environmental performance and to encourage customers to be more environmentally conscious as well.”Office Depot’s environmental program is structured around a vision to increasingly ‘buy green, be green and sell green,’” said Yalmaz Siddiqui, Environmental Strategy Advisor for Office Depot. “It’s important for us that our customers are just as environmentally conscious. That’s why we’ve made being green simpler by highlighting tips and key products that can help them achieve both their business aspirations and environmental goals.”

Office Depot recommends these Top 10 Tips to help small businesses improve their environmental performance:
1. Go for “greener options” in the products you buy. Customers today can choose from a wide range of products that are cost-effective, high quality, and often result in lower waste, fewer chemicals, lower energy use, and less materials. Today’s greener options go way beyond recycled paper! Customers can choose from biodegradable packing peanuts, Foray low-odor and non-toxic dry-erase markers, recycled scissors, and more at http://www.officedepot.com/buygreen and through the Office Depot Green Book catalog of environmentally-preferable products.

2. Recycle your empty ink and toner cartridges. Almost eight cartridges are thrown out in the U.S. every second of every day. That’s almost 700,000 cartridges per day. Instead, recycle your ink and toner cartridges at Office Depot. Customers bringing in a used cartridge for recycling will receive a free ream of recycled paper, a $3 coupon, or the opportunity to donate $3 to a charity for each cartridge.

3. Buy remanufactured ink and toner cartridges. Office Depot brand remanufactured cartridges cost on average 15% less than the national brand equivalent and come with a 100% no risk quality guarantee. Each remanufactured cartridge keeps approximately 2.5lbs of metal and plastic out of landfills and saves about a half gallon of oil.

4. Use digital storage solutions to cut down on paper. New technology is allowing businesspeople to store more information using less space, less paper and creating less waste. Data storage devices such as CDs, flash drives, and zip drives are great alternatives to paper. The Ativa 8G Flash Drive is equivalent to approximately 320,000 pages or 640 reams of paper.

5. Recycle, recycle, recycle. When using paper in the office, print on both sides of the sheet and recycle the paper when you are finished. Today, only half of the paper used in North America is recycled. By recycling one ton of paper, you save 17 trees, almost 7,000 gallons of water, and more than 3 cubic yards of landfill space.

6. Purchase Energy Star qualified products. Energy Star computers, printers, monitors and other business machines can help conserve up to 75% of your electricity compared to standard equipment. By switching to “sleep mode” while not in use, these products can save both energy and money!

7. Use compact fluorescent bulbs. Switching from incandescent bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescents can deliver up to 75% more energy savings and last more than 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs. Even better – these bulbs fit standard fixtures and deliver great natural light.

8. Unplug technology off when it’s not in use. Up to 75% of the electricity used to power office equipment is consumed while the product is turned off but still plugged in. Avoid wasting power and save money by plugging your office machines into an Ativa Power Strip that can be conveniently switched off at the end of the day.

9. Buy Renewable Energy Credits to “offset” your energy use. By purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), businesses can now effectively offset some or all of the carbon dioxide their company emits. For example, in 2006, Office Depot bought 76,000 megawatts of renewable energy (solar and wind power), which is equivalent to 12% of the company’s annual electricity use that same year.

10. Give reusable mugs instead of disposable promotional items to customers. If just one customer buys three cups of coffee a day, five days a week, for one year, that’s equal to over 600 coffee cups that end up in the landfills. Help to avoid that waste by giving away mugs that are reusable and take advantage of the opportunity to display your company name or logo. 

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April 20, 2007 at 12:20 PM