Office Depot has taken a “green” catalog and turned it into an internal eco-movement
The shelves of Office Depot were turning green.
The changes had nothing to do with new packaging or fixture color, but rather with new ways of thinking.
Year ago, managers were noticing that their customers, particularly in eco-sensitive California, were actively searching for products with a greater level of environmental sensitivity. They wanted goods that used recycled content and that could be recycled themselves.
Office Depot obliged. By 2003, approximately 1,200 products in the company’s 16,000-product assortment contained some kind of “green” element, most having to do with using recycled materials. Customers were at once happy with the increased variety – but frustrated by the need to wade through thousands of products to get to the green alternatives.
In response to this – and to growing ecological concerns by corporate and government customers seeking suppliers – Office Depot began publishing and mailing The Green Book, its catalog of environmentally friendly products.
“We are finding that our environmental leadership can give us the edge when customers are choosing between Office Depot and another supplier,” says Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategies at the company. He also says that Office Depot customers are increasingly asking about the company’s suppliers and their green initiatives in proposal requests and during sales meetings.
Meanwhile, the success of the mailed catalog has helped spawn a larger green initiative at Office Depot that affects numerous ways the company does business these days. For all of its resonance with customers, The Green Book has also had significant impact on the company that created it.
Green Beginnings
Publishing its sixth annual edition this November, The Green Book was one of Office Depot’s first major green initiatives. From the start, the company established standards for products to be included in the catalog. But Siddiqui concedes that the bar was initially low: Any product that had 10 percent post-consumer recycled content would make the cut since many products used small amounts of recycled materials. Customers at the time weren’t as exacting about eco-standards, and many manufacturers were just beginning to dip their toes into the green pool.
However, from the beginning, Office Depot set a much higher standard for itself, printing on 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper. Because customers hungered for information about being more green, the catalog also ran pages of editorial content about precisely that topic, says Siddiqui.
Today, advances in the paper marketplace ensure that the quality of paper used in The Green Book rivals that of standard paper (it once had a grainy feel). Its editorial content focuses even more on how customers can become better stewards of the Earth through the products they choose. One recent feature profiled a major airline customer and its commitment to purchasing recycled ink; another centered on a graduate student who used The Green Book as a way to develop greener everyday habits. And the product assortment has nearly tripled, including a more robust view of “green” than just recycling. Listed products reflect responsible forestry, energy efficiency and reduced chemical use. Custom icons explain which products boast which green attributes.
“It’s evolved into an educational tool that helps bring our customers along a journey toward greater sustainability,” says Siddiqui. “It’s almost a ‘mag-alog’ (part magazine, part catalog), and we’re proud of the fact that we’re trying to bring these two historically disconnected worlds — product catalogs and providing the solutions on how to go green — together in one tool.”
The company has also enhanced its green shopping opportunities online, where e-commerce sales accounted for $4.8 billion in revenue over the past year. The green section of the Web site includes all 5,000 green items that the company carries. The Green Book, in print and online, features just over 4,000 of those products.
Beyond the Book
Office Depot’s green efforts don’t stop with its green catalog, however. “Our vision is to be increasingly green, buy green and sell green,” says Siddiqui. For the office supply giant, that means more than just offering greener office products for resale. It means establishing greener practices for the company itself.
Since hiring its first all-purpose sustainability manager in 2002, Office Depot has grown its own comprehensive sustainability program for internal and external business processes. In 2003, it launched its Environmental Paper Purchasing Policy and has validated that 66 percent of the paper in its marketing, catalogs and other print materials has come from certified well-managed forests.
Last year, the company joined the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to green building. Through a USGBC pilot program, the company became the first U.S. retailer to participate in the organization’s Volume Certification Program, pledging that all future stores would increasingly be built to green standards. The first “Green Store” opened in June 2008. Upon completion, the store applied to become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified as a high-performance building, which, among other benefits, may use significantly less energy.
Seeking other ways to prompt environmental change, Office Depot in 2004 unveiled the Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. The five-year, $2.25 million initiative was forged in conjunction with Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy. The program promotes responsible paper-management practices and develops standards and tools for forest and biodiversity conservation initiatives.
Further, the retailer this year became the first in the office supply industry to introduce its own green brand, Office Depot Green. The line includes products such as recycled paper, nontoxic pens, CFLs and other items.
Office Depot has also initiated several successful customer-focused recycling programs. Since 2003, it has offered recycling of empty ink and toner cartridges to customers. Customers return empty cartridges to the store and receive a $3.00 coupon good for their next purchase. This resulted in several million cartridges per year being recycled.
Office Depot launched a tech-recycling service, a program that Siddiqui calls “revenue neutral,” in 2007. The program allows customers to purchase a tech-recycling box for a nominal fee at their local store. Customers can fill the box with old technology like computers and monitors and return them to the company. Working with a recycling partner, Office Depot extracts reusable materials, such as copper, plastic and aluminum, from the electronic waste.
This year, Office Depot is working on tools for customers to recycle large quantities of contact fluorescent lights and alkaline batteries. The company is also discussing a battery-recycling program with the United States Postal Service® (USPS®), which would allow retail customers to buy a box they could fill with alkaline batteries and mail to a participating recycling center from the local post office. Siddiqui hopes that it will be finalized before the end of the year.
There’s no question that Office Depot has taken aggressive action to become more environmentally sensitive. But it’s not always easy, says Siddiqui. It’s tricky to execute classic direct marketing with a green message because of concerns surrounding paper use. The key lies in creating the cleanest and most targeted mailing lists possible. He predicts that list brokers who have expertise in green lists and green mailing procedures will have a robust future.
Siddiqui believes that these programs will lead to greater growth overall for Office Depot. However, he says that green initiatives are not sustainable if they are not profitable. In addition to landing more environmentally aware customers, these programs deliver increased sales and reduced operating costs. Green awareness and cross-promoting through vehicles like the Office Depot Green brand and The Green Book become important marketing opportunities.
By satisfying customer demand, these comprehensive green efforts are good for shareholder value and good for the environment. As a result, Office Depot now finds itself occupying a rare, but enviable, space in American business — at the intersection of profitable business practices and good corporate citizenship.
Quick Stats
$4.8 billion
Office Depot revenue from online sales in the past year
66 percent
Amount of paper Office Depot uses in its catalogs and other print materials that comes from certified well-managed forests
$2.25 million
Cost of the company’s Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance outreach program
