Office Depot Picks Bags Over Boxes In Green Effort

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 8/2/2011

Boca Raton, Fla. - Office Depot has launched the Office Depot GreenerOffice Delivery Service, through which customers can receive their supplies in a paper bag instead of a cardboard box.

Following successful pilot phase where more than 90 percent of eligible customers opted in to the GreenerOffice Delivery Service, the program is now being rolled out nationwide by Office Depot, the chain said.

"Customer feedback on our new delivery service has been exceptional," said Juan Guerrero, supply chain senior VP for Office Depot. "Many customers were excited by the convenience the program offers -- no boxes to open, no air pillows to deal with and no cardboard to handle and dispose of after receipt. From a supply-chain operations standpoint, it also represents real innovation -- allowing us to deliver significant results in material and waste minimization."

The new service is available to all Office Depot business customers, but customers can choose to opt out at any time. Customers in the program will receive supplies in a paper bag that contains 40 percent post-consumer recycled content that is protected during transportation in a reusable plastic tote (which also contains 60 percent post-consumer recycled plastic). The totes will be taken back by drivers after delivery and reused by Office Depot for ongoing deliveries.

Deliveries will not be made by bag for UPS shipments, large orders like cases of paper, or for customers who opt out of the program. However, based on customer adoption rates during the pilot, Office Depot plans to replace approximately 5 million boxes with bags in the initial 12 months of national rollout. By so doing the company hopes to replace approximately 4.5 million pounds of cardboard boxes (average 0.95 lbs per box) with about 0.9 million pounds of paper, helping avoid the need for more than 3.5 million pounds of wood-based resources (or over 20,000 trees), it said.  

"Office Depot's material footprint from cardboard use is significant," said Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental strategy director for Office Depot. "This program, championed very effectively by our supply-chain team, delivers a triple win -- our customers win because the paper bags are more convenient to open and recycle, Office Depot wins because we continue to enhance our environmental leadership, and the ecosystem benefits because fewer materials are needed and less waste ends up in our landfills."

For more on Office Depot's GreenerOffice Delivery Service, visit www.officedepot.com/godelivery.