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
.
