OFFICE DEPOT:’OUTSTANDING RETAILER’AWARD

[Anonymous]

Office Depot Receives “Outstanding Retailer” Award from
International Council of Shopping Centers and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency

Honored For Corporate
Conservation and Recycling Efforts

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.–April, 2005–Office Depot , a leading global
provider of office products and services, today announced that it has been named
the winner of the Outstanding Retailer Award, part of the inaugural “America’s
Marketplace Recycles!” awards program jointly sponsored by the International
Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA).

The awards program, in recognition of today’s Earth Day celebrations,
highlights outstanding efforts and achievements by ICSC members to conserve
resources, recycle, and purchase recycled-content products. It was also designed
to increase public awareness of the benefits of recycling.

“We are pleased to recognize Office Depot among those retailers that are
leading the way in both recycling and environmental sensitivity,” said ICSC
President and CEO Michael P. Kercheval. “Through its own corporate initiatives
as a national supplier of office products, Office Depot is setting a highly
visible example of environmental stewardship in action.”

Kercheval cited several recent examples:

• On December 21, 2004, Office Depot, in conjunction with the Rechargeable
  Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), announced a free cell phone and
  rechargeable battery recycling program, collecting more than a ton of obsolete
  products in the first three months.
  
• On Nov. 21, 2004, Office Depot announced an enhancement of its Ink &
  Toner Recycling program, which is responsible for the recycling of more than
  10.6 million cartridges since 2002.
  
• On July 13, 2004, Office Depot and Hewlett-Packard announced the first free,
  nationwide electronics recycling initiative – a pilot program that collected
  over 10.5 million pounds of unwanted electronics from more than 800 stores in
  less than two months, becoming the largest single electronics recycling
  initiative in history.
  
• On June 2, 2004, Office Depot announced performance and environmental
  enhancements to its name brand paper, including improved brightness, smoothness
  and recycled content. In doing so, Office Depot more than doubled the annual
  environmental benefits, conserving an estimated 1.3 million fully grown trees
  and preventing more than 110 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and 57
  million pounds of solid waste each year.

“Office Depot is committed to integrating nature into the everyday world of
business,” said Tyler Elm, Director of Environmental Affairs for Office Depot.
“By improving our own environmental performance and that of Office Depot-branded
products, we provide customers with the ability to do the same. It’s rewarding
to receive international recognition from the ICSC and EPA, which serves as a
strong validation of our efforts to date.”

“The EPA is pleased to have assisted ICSC in the establishment of this
important initiative,” said Tom Dunne, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator, who
noted that the EPA provided technical assistance and guidance to ICSC through
its Resource Conservation Challenge program. “We believe improvements in
recycling at America’s shopping centers will have a significant impact. More
importantly, shopping centers are a crucial venue to help educate our nation’s
consumers of the value of recycling.”

The Outstanding Retailer Award is the latest recognition of Office Depot’s
environmental initiatives. Most recently, the company was again named to the
FTSE4Good Index, which assesses companies’ corporate social responsibility
practices based on socially responsible investment principles, and was honored
with the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Corporate Stewardship Award for
Large Companies.

Office Depot, which is also listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index,
focuses its environmental initiatives on sustainable forest management,
recycling and pollution reduction, as well as the promotion of environmental
issues and the creation of markets for environmentally-preferable products.

Beyond its industry-leading 35% post consumer waste content paper, Office
Depot offers thousands of products containing recycled materials. In January
2005, the company issued its Green Book catalog of environmentally-preferable
products to U.S. contract customers. The 84% increase in
environmentally-preferable products highlighted in the 2005 edition, includes
paper; pens; energy-efficient computer displays, printers and light bulbs; toner
cartridges; and biodegradable packing materials. Businesses can obtain a free
copy of the Green Book through Office Depot’s environmental Web site at
http://www.officedepot.com/environment.

The Green Book itself is the only environmentally-preferable office products
catalog printed on elemental chlorine-free 100% PCW recycled paper and is
distributed to more than 40,000 organizations to help easily “green” their
office supply purchasing process.

The “America’s Marketplace Recycles!” Awards program featured seven
categories, including Best New Recycling Program; Best Expansion of an Existing
Recycling Program; Outstanding Retailer; Outstanding Mall Owner/Developer; Best
Public Awareness Campaign/Promotional Event; Best Community
Partnership/Beneficial Use of Funds; and Most Innovative Recycling Program. In
addition, a single program was selected as Recycler of the Year from among the
overall nominations.

For more information on Office Depot’s environmental
initiatives, visit http://www.officedepot.com/environment.

About Office Depot

With annual sales approaching $14 billion, Office Depot provides more office
products and services to more customers in more countries than any other
company. Incorporated in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, Office
Depot conducts business in 23 countries and employs 47,000 people worldwide. The
Company operates under the Office Depot®, Viking Office Products®, Viking
Direct®, Guilbert®, and Tech Depot® brand names.

Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel – from retail stores
and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. With $3.1 billion in online
sales in FY’04, the Company is the world’s number three Internet retailer. As of
March 26, 2005, Office Depot has 995 retail stores in North America in addition
to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery
centers and more than 60 local sales offices. Internationally, the Company
conducts wholly-owned operations in 14 countries through 77 retail stores and 26
distribution centers, and operates 153 retail stores under joint venture and
license arrangements in another seven countries.

[Author]

April 26, 2005 at 10:04 AM